Paper short abstract:

Attempting to take the perspective from the Ik mountains in Uganda, this paper describes the land’s and forests’ changing entanglements with various human companions over time; including the indigenous Ik, herding neighbours and their animals, British colonials, conservationists and developers.

Paper long abstract:

The mountains in Timu forest in Ik County, northern Uganda have had various human companions over time. The indigenous Ik community have long lived in the mountains from a combination of hunting, gathering, and subsistence agriculture. During drought and hunger periods, hunting in the forest was essential. People burned grass in the forest for hunting purposes and to prevent wild bush fires.

When nature reserves were established by the British in the 1940s, many Ik were displaced and denied the right to hunt. Living in semi-nomadic villages between two nature reserves, the Ik cultivate gardens, but leave large areas fallow or untouched in the mountains. The mountain territories are perceived by most Ik to be shared with animals, trees, and spirits and other human guests. Neighbouring herders graze their animals in the Ik mountains, creating periodic friction, but also contributions.

In recent decades Uganda has lost an estimated 50% of it’s biodiversity. A strategy of ‘fortress conservation’ attempts to counter the decline, and people have been displaced based on assumptions that they use resources destructively. Yet, in fact, Ik activities in the mountains seem to have balanced hunting, gathering, and shifting horticulture leaving minimal harmful imprints. Now development projects introduce cash crops such as coffee and keeping of domestic animals, and bio-diversity projects are ‘sensitizing’ the Ik about the so-called ’right’ way to manage nature.

The paper is based on ethnographic fieldwork in the Ik mountains between 2010 and 2020.