12/03/2022
Iteso clans
THE NINE CLANS OF ITESO UGANDA & ITESO KENYA
Under Teso and other cultures in Afrika, a clan is a network of families who trace their ancestry to a particular place or individual. The clan is the next unit of cultural identity after the family and the second largest unit under an ethnic nationality . Clans are central to social and cultural harmony as well as national development as they tend to settle land and family disputes before they ever get to the legal system as well champion programs geared towards reversing the processes of underdevelopment . Clans are an important element of our society Whereas today Iteso people are largely from seven main clans notably ikaruwok , ikatekok,Igoria ,Inomu ,Ikomolo,Irarak, Iworopom, from these main once have also emerged several subclans . its also noted that some strange clans have also emerged that Iteso cultural union is still verifying the authenticity of their historical account .
The clan is the tag identifying a set of families and descendants that trace their origin to a particular ancestral core group. So important are clan ties that within a particular tribe, that children cannot marry someone from the same clan because, "the fellow clan member is considered your brother or sister. So do not commit in**st and bring accurse to whole clan …Go hunting outside your clan however
Particular clans are associated with specific names ,for a name identifies , the clan , the land of origin of that person and continuously reminds that person of historical obligation he owns to his clan and his ancestors, an itesot without a clan name is a slave and property of the one whose names he bears ,such aperson has a cultural identity hanging in the air !
The power to sanction sale of land. If an Itesot wanted to sell land that he inherited from his parents, he would need the permission of a clan committee. That way the clan ensures that when new members are born, they will have land to inherit . so no person in teso owns land but are caretakers of the land for their children and the ICU has a constitutional mandate to overseer this , if there be any sale a lease for some time is ensured for some time first to member of the clan then outside if no inside member is found .
Another enduring function of clans is to support a grieving family in the event of death. When a person dies, it is an obligation of the clan to donate food and raise money for buying a coffin and other burial expenses as well ensure education and welfare of the children , there is no orphan among Iteso ,the children are owned by the clan .
Although Clans have no political power they can some times influence the outcome of an election if political leaders pursue policies that fulfill clan aspirations or do otherwise. They can initiate their own development initiatives eg starting school , university , bank , factory , hotel to improve the livelihoods of its members within the limits of the law of the land .
Over the years, clans have become larger and larger with many members not even knowing each other or feeling any kind of kinship, looking at our close ties with our creator a lot more people are drinking from the cup of curses.
A clan is a dispute-solving unit, a custodian of cultural values, The land cap 227 sec 88 and 101(b) empowers the Iteso whose land is owned by customary tenure to settle their land conflicts through ICU clans as per part of alternative justice ,indeed this is reinforced by the constitution of Uganda Act 237(3a)
Its necessary that we attempt to shade more light on these clans as a walk through corridors of history reveals from both oral account , contemporary and ancient scholars state, of course I can’t claim here to have had a complete treatment of the subject ,but am equally making a small contribution to the pool of human knowledge especially to add to what most of our ethnic nationality scholars and other Egyptologists and chronologist have said .
The migration of Iteso from Abyssinia and its daughter Egypt has been in waves from one generation to the next up-to where we are today based on largely attempts by external forces to steal , kill, and destroy Afrikans, Indeed being the fathers of all races Afrikans have survived numerous problems but the creator has always stood by us ,no wonder the young Alexander wrote back to his mother ,that “he had finally reached to the land where the greek gods originated from”!
This is 1st generation- they moved out of Abyssinia they were called Irarak the hunters they can be traced back to Ojurata (Olelem) who was there leader, man of short stature and big head who eluded capture by Alexander troops to move south ward with his people ,legend has it that he was gifted in training the young children on hunting skills and tracking the footsteps of wild game and enemies , besides being hunters and fruit gatherers ,Ojurata trained his people to raise up their children on the tradition of his people ,Egypt the daughter of Ethiopia now having been taken over by troops of Alexander ,Most men had been killed at war and the responsibility rested on raising children and taking care of the homes , the women were known to be exceptionally good in fishing and transfer of knowledge to the children based on the principles established by the leaders of Abyssinia before the arrival of Alexander to steal kill and destroy whole culture and lay waste to whole civilizations . todate where ever irarak exist hunting ,eating wild berries and telling stories of great hunters has not ceased !
These were mainly farmers, this clan is said to have been organized by one called Okori it was the 2nd generation of Iteso who opted to domesticate goats and cattle as well ,transfer fruits they found in the bushes home to be planted , they were settled subsistence farmers who supplemented their vegetarian diet with hunted wild game, the Iteso foods Emalakany, ecadoi, eboo,emaido,akokob, amukeke,emagira/edek,emuna,agaria ka aikiring na esudud etc can be traced to these great ancestors , They are known to have long life spans and well built bodies ,Okori organized them in a loose ajore that would be easily mobilized during war times and resort to farming during times of peace , There generosity was remarkable ,they were known to celebrate their harvests ,its these clan that is attributed to have perfecting food processing that they invented Ajon ,granaries, milk processing using guords , these generation felt secure from external aggression and were militarily equipped but consisted mainly women who had lost their husbands during wars with foreighn invaders . These clan established strong relations with ikatekok clan who were known to be political leaders and inter-clan conflict arbitrators and gave to the rise of another sublan called Itekok-Ikuruka.
These were famous for not being settled but largely looking for pasture and water ,they were organised around the person of Oyangais(e). It’s the 3rd generation who took to the jungles of nubia and sudan to look for grass for livestock grazing . they largely depended on cattle for everything ,legend had it that they would to talk with livestock . at an early age their children would be introduced to cattle rearing , techniques to defend livestock from wild animals.
These were 4th generation wave of Iteso who were good at crafts.Thier leader Otikiri was known to an expert architect and engineering having descended from a generation of ancestors whose achievements in Egyptus by knowledge of quarrying ,surveying ,and different techniques that facilitated the building of monumental buildings,pyramids ,temples obelisks ,system of mathematics and effective medicine in which Hippocrates confessed am a child of Imhotep the priest , father of medicine , column architecture and Afrikan education system based on spiritual principles with respect to one creator. Otikiri would later transform his entire clan into builders and crafts men and painters , Ngero Rock paintings is attributed to his descendants , the aditai,stools , slings ,and beads neck decoration for women is attributed to his genius . their women were particularly known for thatching houses with grass
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these were fifth generation of Iteso who left Abbysinia ,they were mainly spiritual people in whom knowledge of the future rested ,they could foretell outcomes of battles , the coming of and droughts ,their leader known as Ariong'a a simple man gifted with immense spiritual powers and ability to predict the future. these were considered the men who walked with the creator ,they would pronounced curses on enemies ,bless troops on their were to combat ,troups were barred from ra**ng ,killing women and children during combat, they had prohibition against adultery , telling lies and disrespect of the elders .they were the spiritual light of Iteso , Whenever a mother gave birth to twins she was styled toto idwe (mother of many). They would perform special ceremonies to welcome the twins and wade off bad spirits that are associated with twins , special type of drum was beaten and the people would gather and dance their best. They would over special prayers and others to pray for rain in the event of long drought and their creator would answer with power rainfall after the rituals
These constitute the military wing of Iteso ,they are hardened combatants in whose hands the security of both life and property depends ,they are mainly descendants of Iteso who fought , the Babylonians , the Assyrians , the Greeks , the Romans and the Arabs ,these is todate considered a standing army of Iteso ,they were known to have born attributes of all clans to suite themselves to the roles of gurantors of security of entire clans, legend has it they would celebrate their military gains ,their names signifies “those who have conquered others over the years”though in most cases they are erroneously pronounced as” ikarubwok “
These would primary carry the role of arbitrators between families and clans ,its in them that disputes regarding grazing land ,water ,food , war loot ,care of orphans ,widows and discipline of those who deviate from cultural norms would rest ,they would mediate between strangers and whole clans , they were the custodians of the history of the clan and constitute the knowledge transfer clan,they were largely team leaders who would provide direction on matters of unity and progress of the clan ,
In the last military campaign after numerous disturbances by Turkana who had lost direction into the desert that saw the karamojong remaining in present day Moroto , Asonya military genius after long years of training by his fathers who had devoted himself to study the methods used by Alexander in driving them from Egypt and looting their library and entire civilization , perfected surprise attacks and encycling as well as multiple layer combat operations by well trained clan leaders and saw them uprooting whole ethnic nationalities throughout northern eastern present day Uganda and western kenya , however his death and many skilled fighters like Malinga and others that were ambushed in Bugisu and those betrayed by previously conquered tribes saw a beginning of weakening of the Iteso ethnic nationality ,todate Iteso due to sudden lose of strong and couragers leaders like Asonya , Arionga, Malinga have lost sense of rallying point for organization and development ,their state of affairs continues to deteroriate and are largely held with suspicion by the descendents of the ethnic nationalities they once conquered.
This is the Medical clan ; Inomu were able to set broken bones,would treat wounded fighters , they are custodian of the art and science of human medicine ,the future of the elderly depended on this clan for they interacted with mother nature to find solutions to the health of the entire clan ,they would perform all types of medical procedures that were aimed at management of disease condition , pre operative and post operative management ,they new the medicinal values of almost all green vegetables ,its from the edges of this men largely descended from students of Imhoptep that modern medicine rested especially the one that relies on treatment of the cause of disease using nutritional supplements devoid of any poisons as opposed to current western medicine that relies on administration of lethal formulation for mainly relieving symptoms.
( LUO MIX )
These Were known to be products of inter-maryying between iteso and luo ethnic nationalities and were also notorious for curse food , that if they ate the first fruits of a certain tree that fruit would make all the fruits to be bitter .In my earlier work on the Book “ Iteso Journey of 5000 years from Abbysinia to Mombasa” I stated that names like Akol among the Dinka sudan ethnic groups is also found among the Iteso ,ochan both among the sudanic luo and Iteso , uchalla for luo in Western Bhar elghazal and and Ocholla for Iteso .Ukello for sudan luo and Okello for Iteso and Acholi.
Work by Herodotus , Diodorus , Eratosthenes , Chiek Anta Diop ,Theophile Obenga , Henrik Clarke ,Yosef Ben Jochanan , Runoko Rashidi oral account by men like papa Engimu , Vance Omome , among continue to shade more light on the path we are treading on that our great great grand ancestors have long treaded ,Amenhotep IV the first human being to believe in one creator , imhotep the father of medicine and architecture ,Moses Ramases II Who reached a stalemate with the Hitites at the battle kadesh ,Arionga , Asonya , Epaku , Obwangor ,Opetek ,Malinga among many
Am hoping that understanding our history and that of Afrika while embracing Iteso cultural union gives us an orbit of cultural ideology and development not just for Iteso alone but brings about overall national prosperity peace and national cohesion to handle more challenging tasks regarding the entire role of Afrika in the community of nations under the protection of our creator .
Do you know your clan? do you know your history?
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