The Iteso are a Nilotic ethnic group in eastern Uganda and western Kenya. Teso refers to the traditional homeland of the Iteso, and Ateso is their language. The Iteso are a Nilotic ethnic group inhabiting eastern Uganda and western Kenya, with their language being Ateso. They are known for their farming practices, particularly of millet, Sorghum, Groundnuts, Peas and their traditional culture, which includes rituals like the “ajon” drink and initiation ceremonies.
The Iteso belong to a group of people called the Ateker who arrived in Karamoja around 10th Century A.D.
It was from this settlement that they started moving until they reached the present day region in which they are found.
The migration of the Iteso from Karamoja to Teso land was spread over a long period of time from around AD 1500 until the second half of 19th Century. However, between AD 1652 and A.D 1733, the Iteso were already firmly established in Kumi and Soroti; in Usuk modern Teso land.
The Iteso are a classical example of stateless societies in other words they had no central authority of leadership and as such power was in the hands of the people in the society.
Politically, the Iteso were organized according to clan councils (Etem) whereby each clan had a council of elders the members sitting on this council were to be from ages 40 onwards whose duties included organizing the whole clan, settling disputes among members of the clan, maintaining law and order in the whole clan and defending the clan against external aggression
On top of the clan councils was the great clan council of elders, the members sitting on this great clan council mainly came from the clan councils of elders and their main work included: Settling disputes which couldn’t be managed by different clan councils of elders; organizing the whole Iteso societies; defending the whole Iteso society against external aggression; maintaining the identity of the Iteso society.
This great clan council didn’t sit regularly except on important issues especially during war periods or major clan disputes which would lead to the society’s disintegration.
The decisions of this great clan council of elders were final and unchallengeable in other words it was the highest court of appeal.
Below these two bodies were age – sets greatly a composition of boys between ages 14 – 25 whose main role was maintaining law and order and defending the society against external aggression.
Militarily, in times of war or raiding activities, different clans would contribute some youths who were militarily trained and these warriors would then be put under an elder who had experience in war affairs and would work as a military leader or Aruwon.
This military leader would lead the youth into the battle field or a raiding activity and after the war, the surviving fighters would then go back and continue with their normal life as before the raiding activity.
Socially, religion played a very important role among the Iteso for it worked as a unifying factor because every clan had a diviner or Emuron who was very important in their community for his powers were believed to have been a gift from God.
The functions of the Emurons included rain making, predicting misfortunes in war, and helping barren women and therefore people from different clans would come to the Emurons for consultations and in this way the societies relationships could be united.
Women were largely valued hence for a man to marry, he had to give in 20 cows in form of bride wealth/dowry and that’s why cattle rustling was a common phenomenon in Teso land for without these cows, no man could and be able to marry.
Marriage was also another social institution for no man was allowed to marry within the same clan because members of their clan regarded themselves as brothers and sisters thus a man or woman had to cross to another clan and marriage affairs were usually a responsibility of the whole family and the clan in general.
In conclusion, a critical analysis of the structures of the Iteso society portray a classical example of a stateless institution or decentralized.
During the 20th century, the Iteso people underwent drastic changes in their lifestyles, transitioning from a pastoral lifestyle to prolific farmers. Many Iteso men travelled abroad to work in overseas British territories, such as Burma. In 1902, part of eastern Uganda was transferred to western Kenya, splitting the Iteso; despite this division, there’s little cultural difference between the two.
However, the two’s economic and social paths have diverged greatly. At independence, Ugandan Iteso were wealthier, as they did not suffer from the economic marginalization Kenyan Africans did due to white settlers. However, the Kenyan Iteso did not suffer the same degree of political instability their Ugandan cousins have, and Kenya’s more developed economic infrastructure allowed for Kenyan Iteso to overtake Ugandan Iteso in wealth.
After Idi Amin was overthrown in 1979, the Karamojong acquired large amounts of arms, which they used to raid cattle from largely unarmed Iteso civilians; Iteso cattle herds were decimated, and many fell into poverty. These disgruntled soldiers, upon returning to their economically deprived homelands due to violent cattle raids, took up arms against the government. The Teso insurgency lasted into the late 1980s, keeping the region undeveloped.
In 1992, the conflict was brought to an end through the combined effort of the local initiatives, indigenous mediators, churches, and the Presidential Commission for Teso (PCT). This led to the creation of a war memorial in Soroti, and the installation of an Iteso king, Emorimor Papa Paphrus Imodot Edimu.
While successful in ending the violence and mollifying Teso opposition to government, the Teso sub-region remains one of the poorest regions in Uganda, and the Iteso feel politically and economically neglected, widely distrusting the government.
In Uganda, the Iteso live mainly in Teso region, i.e., the districts of Amuria, Bukedea, Butebo, Kaberamaido, Kapelebyong, Katakwi, Kumi, Ngora, Serere and Soroti, Pallisa but are also found in Bugiri and, as well as in the Tororo and Busia districts.
According to the 2014 Ugandan Bureau of Statistics report, the Iteso number about 2.36 million (7.0% of Uganda’s population). Until 1980, they were the second largest ethnic group in Uganda; this share of the population likely decreased due to Teso fleeing from political instability and violence. Some Iteso contend that they are still the second largest ethnic group in Uganda, and this figure has supposedly been deflated to restrict the political power of the Iteso, as the national budget is distributed based on population.
There are around 578,000 Iteso in Kenya, living mainly in Busia County, south of Mt. Elgon. They primarily inhabit two sub-counties, Teso North and Teso South, but can be found in Bungoma and Trans Nzoia County.
The Iteso are noted for their quick adoption of the ox plow in the early 1900s. Women farmed and foraged while men herded their cattle.
Cotton is the primary cash crop among the Iteso. It’s grown by both men and women in separate plots during the short rains. Another cash crop grown is tobacco. In the 1980s, Kenyan government-sponsored cooperative-ran cotton ginneries failed to pay for the cotton delivered by the Iteso and others. The Iteso then began experimenting with other cash crops like tobacco with the aid of loans from large agricultural companies. However, since the 1990s, the cotton industry has been partially revived.
Herding used to be the primary economic activity among the Iteso, particularly men. Cattle play a large social role among the Iteso, as they play a key role in negotiating bride-price and other important social events. When a father gives a son his own cattle, it signals the maturation of the son, able to manage his own estate and start his own family.
The staple food for the Iteso is finger millet and sorghum. During colonization, cassava was introduced by colonial authorities as a dietary supplement. They also consume pumpkins, sweet potatoes, wild berries, peas, groundnuts, and beans. Domestic and wild animal meat was consumed, alongside ghee, milk, and fish not forgetting sour milk.
Teso Millet, Vegetable an Groundnut Sauce
The cultural drink of the Iteso people is ‘ajon‘, a fermented brew made from dried finger millet that is commonly consumed in local ceremonies, social gatherings and important events. It can be consumed in a calabash, or a communal pot where participants sip the drink from long tubes.
It is custom to keep a mother whose recently given birth confined to the home for three days, and afterwards, ajon is placed in the mouth of the infant. Some Christian Iteso criticize the customs surrounding ajon. In the modern age, the production of ajon has become commercialized, and its production and sale are an important source of income for the families that specialize in making it.
Iteso Dancer
Traditionally, Teso people loved singing and dancing educative folksongs in different occasions. These songs include Ataikatiaka Kitiso, about the unity of the Teso people, Akidai Imojong, a song to respect and care for elders, and Iyalama Imojong to appreciate elders among others. Iteso people also have their cultural event mainly at kakapel mountain on 26th December every year this is where the cultural practises are done
According to oral tradition, the legendary Oduk was responsible for the Iteso practice of exhuming bodies from bushes after a number of years. The Iteso traditional religion holds that upon death, the body is separated from its spirit, which leaves to live in the bush. Ideally, the spirit will move further and further into the bush, but discontent spirits may return to bother the living, demanding offerings of food and drink.
Exhuming the bodies after a few years is meant to ‘cool’ them and make them more amenable to the living. Many Iteso are reluctant or even afraid to be buried in coffins, believing they cannot be ‘cooled’, and thereby suffocating the dead.
Due to missionary influence, spirits of the dead have come to be associated with ajokin, small creatures of the bush, and both have come to be associated with the devil.
Prior to European missionary efforts, the Iteso believed in an omnipotent god called Akuj, and a God of calamity called Edeke. The itesots followed the scripts and religious scribes that were gifted to Queen of Sheebah in Ethiopia by king Solomon.
The Iteso people are an ethnic group found in the eastern region of Uganda and western region of Kenya. Their language is called Ateso.
The traditional homeland of the Iteso is known as Teso.
The Iteso are known for their farming practices, with millet being a staple crop. They also engage in animal farming and value land.
The Iteso are traditionally divided into nine groups, each with specific responsibilities.
They have various rituals, including an initiation ceremony that involves cleaning and opening blocked roads. A fermented drink called “ajon” made from dried finger millet is commonly consumed in ceremonies and social gatherings.
Iteso Brides
Marriage among the Iteso is seen as an alliance between two exogamous clans, with the establishment of a household as a practical expression of the alliance. Polygamous marriages were common, but divorce was rare.
The Iteso believe in one God (Akuju) and also in life after death.
The Iteso are known for being generous and hospitable people. The Iteso are believed to have migrated from Abyssinia.Iteso clan names reveal a history of long-standing ethnic interactions. Names of Bantu and Northern Nilotic origin are found among them. The Iteso were probably well established in their northern Uganda heartland by the mid-eighteenth century, when they began to move farther south. The history of the Iteso and neighboring peoples has not been extensively documented. Iteso traditions relate that they originated somewhere in what is now Sudan and moved south over a period of centuries. It is not possible to calculate the time of this movement. A body of Iteso is said to have separated from the Karamojong and moved further south. This may have been a very early separation because the clan names and ritual customs associated with the second of two distinctive groups of Karamojong and Jie people are not found among the Iteso.Unlike the other Teso-speaking ethnic groups, the Iteso have never been transhumant or nomadic; agriculture has played as significant a role in their social, economic, and expressive lives as cattle have among the other groups.
European travelers record extensive fear of Iteso warriors; nonetheless, the Iteso soon suffered reverses that caused them to draw back to their current territory in Kenya. Since then, the Northern and Southern Iteso territories have been separated. Relations with other societies throughout the precolonial period were alternately peaceful and acrimonious.
As a result of spatial intermixture and intermarriage, Iteso elements and customs can be found among neighboring peoples and vice versa. Intermarriage has always been extensive. It is likely that ethnic identity hardened during the colonial period, as it has since, when resources such as land were newly defined as belonging to tribes.
The Iteso in Kenya and Uganda were conquered by African colonial agents of the British and indirectly ruled through them. Western Kenya was transferred from Uganda to Kenya in 1902. As a result, the economic and political histories of the Northern Iteso and the part of the Southern Iteso living in Kenya have taken vastly different courses.
At independence, the Ugandan Iteso were far more wealthy than their Kenyan counterparts. This difference resulted from the status of Uganda as a protectorate reserved for “African development” and Western Kenya’s status as a labor reserve for the European-owned farms in the “White Highlands.”
As a minority people in Kenya, the Iteso are not well known and have been viewed with some suspicion by surrounding peoples. On the other hand, the Kenyan Iteso have not suffered from the political destabilization in Uganda since 1970. Events in the colonial period and since have elaborated cultural differences among the Iteso that were regional in origin.
The language of the Northern Iteso, for example, was extensively influenced by the Baganda people, who ruled the Iteso on behalf of the British colonial regime, whereas that of the Southern Iteso is in some ways closer to Turkana. As a result of living among Bantu- and Nilotic-speaking peoples, the Southern Iteso have probably been subject to a greater variety of cultural influences.
The economic infrastructure is far more developed in Kenya than in Uganda, and cash income is also higher, reversing a pattern found in the 1960s. The Kenyan Iteso undertook considerable labor migration: most men between the ages of 60 and 80 have worked outside their home territory; many served in places such as Burma during World War II.
In the early 1980s government-sponsored cooperatives that ran cotton ginneries in western Kenya failed to pay for cotton delivered by the Iteso and others. Consequently, they began experimenting with new cash crops, such as tobacco, grown with the aid of loans from large agricultural companies. In the early 1990s there was a partial revival of cotton growing, and the ginneries have been resuscitated.
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