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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Uganda
Index
The Iteso (people of Teso) are an acculturated branch
of the
Eastern Nilotic language speakers. With roughly 8.1
percent of
the population of Uganda, they are believed to be the
nation's
second largest ethnic group. Teso territory stretches
south from
Karamoja into the well-watered region of Lake Kyoga. The
traditional economy emphasizes crop growing. Many Iteso
joined
Uganda's cash economy when coffee and cotton were
introduced in
1912, and the region has thrived through agriculture and
commerce.
Traditional Teso settlements consist of scattered
homesteads,
each organized around a stockade and several granaries.
Groups of
homesteads are united around a hearth, where men who form
the
core of the settlement gather for ritual and social
purposes.
These groups usually consist of patrilineally related
males,
whose wives, children, and other relatives form the
remainder of
the settlement. Several groups of lineages form a clan.
Clans are
only loosely organized, but clan elders maintain ritual
observances in honor of their ancestors. Men of the clan
consult
the elders about social customs, especially marriage. Much
of the
agricultural work is performed by women. Women may also
own land
and granaries, but after the introduction of cash-crop
agriculture, most land was claimed by men and passed on to
their
sons.
All Iteso men within a settlement, both related and
unrelated, are organized according to age. Each age-set
spans
fifteen to twenty years, providing a generational
framework for
sharing the work of the settlement. Age-sets exercise
social
control by recognizing status distinctions based on
seniority,
both between and within age groups. They also share
responsibility for resolving disputes within the
settlement or
among neighboring settlements.
The small population of Kumam people living on the
western
border of Teso are historically related to the Iteso, but
the
Kumam have adopted many cultural features of their
neighbors to
the west, the Langi. The Kumam economy is based on mixed
farming
and cotton, but little other information was available
regarding
their culture in the 1980s.
Data as of December 1990
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