Three Karamojan women

The documentary film Land of Thorns: struggling for survival in Karamoja, follows three Karamojan women of different generations and from different backgrounds, who for different reasons, all experienced the intercultural contact between Karamoja and Kampala, the capital city of Uganda.

These three women were our three guides to the contemporary realities of Karamoja

Sabina

Sabina's husband fell victim to a cattle raid and she had to flee to Kampala in order to survive. A victim of rape in the slums of Kampala, she was then (more or less forcefully) resettled into Karamoja, where she now struggles for survival and aims to ensure a better future for her daughters.

We followed Sabina as she guided us through the slums of Kampala and we met her up again in her ressettlement camp.

Pasca

A young student of business administration at Makerere University in Kampala, Pasca is one of the first of her tribe, the Tepeth of Moroto, to have entered the university and turned to an altogether different lifestyle.

Together with us, she returned to her community, opening up the doors to a rich pastoralist culture constituting the roots of her Karamojan identity.

Abura

Like most Karamojans, young Abura never left Karamoja... until she had to undergo a medical operation in Kampala where relatives hosted her for a few weeks.

We followed her as she experienced the cultural shock of the big city and then later as she returned to her home village, where we discovered several malnurished children among her relatives...