The Ik Tribe in Uganda
The Ik tribe is found in the Karamoja region in the northeastern corner of Uganda in East Africa. The Ik people are also known as the mountain people of Uganda and form the smallest ethnic group of about 10, 000 people.
Visiting the Ik people is another unique expedition involving moving through the Morungole mountains’ challenging terrain near the captivating Kidepo Valley National Park.
Sometimes these people are called the Tueso and it’s their language. They are said to have migrated from Ethiopia, first settled in Kenya and later to Northeastern Uganda in the Karamoja sub-region as the heads of migration. The Karamoja sub-region comprises districts of Moroto, Nakapiripirit, Amudat, Kotido, Abim, Kabong, and Napak.
The Ik people share the same dressing code, dance, and food as the Karamojong.
Mount Morungole is the highest point of Kidepo Valley National Park at a height of 2750 meters. The hills are steep but favourable for climbing and have beautiful scenery for tourism. A hike to the residence of the hospitable IK people is a memorable experience that everyone should test.
With the need to create the Kidepo National Park, the government displaced these people, and their traditional hunting area was made a wildlife reserve.
The Ik Tribe in Uganda
The Ik people were formerly pastoralists but due to consequent raids from the neighbouring Turkana and Pokot from Kenya, Karimojong of Uganda, and Tuposa of Southern Sudan. They were forced to move to the Morungole mountains where they live today. This group of people has maintained its separate cultural identity and unique language.
The primary economic activity of the Ik people is farming. They mainly grow millet, maize, and tobacco. Despite the dominant role played by agriculture in the traditional economy, hunting and gathering are also important economic activities. They also trap white ants and collect honey.
The Ik live in several small villages in clustered huts known as “Manyattas”.
Marriage among the Ik people is polygamous whereby a man marries depending on the number of beehives he has. A man is supposed to have at least 50 bee hives and can pay dowry using 10 hives. Every woman has her own house, and the man moves out in rounds to meet his women.
Children stay with their parents for five years. From there, they start living with their grandparents. Young boys between 8 to 15 years old build huts in which they live together and cater for themselves until marriage.
In the Ik tribe, parents do not cater for their children, it’s not certain whether it’s out of the constant famine in the area that they can’t feed them or they want to groom them strongly knowing the basics for survival and how to cope with different situations.
From the time they were chased from the fertile Karamoja hills, they have faced struggles of insecurity, hunger, and water shortages. In addition to this, less political representation has rendered them as people on isolated lands who do not benefit much from government services.
At times they are killed by the Turkana and Dodoth which has also led to a reduction in their numbers.
At times the Ik women have to move longer distances to reach the few boreholes in the area, but they are forced to stay longer to wait for the Dodoth women to take first chances.
Politically, the Ik people live in great isolation whereby even the sub-county headquarters in Kalapata are headed by the Dodoth Karamojongs, and the Ik are not represented at all. The district offices in Kotido never recognise their presence.
In terms of education, these isolated Ugandans have only two primary schools and no secondary school despite the large number of children in the area because the Ik believe in having polygamous families.
It is estimated that four people out of one hundred among the Ik have reached a secondary level which makes them unable to secure jobs. These people must fight hard to survive in these harsh life conditions. There is therefore need to advocate for ways of helping them to leave these rigorous conditions. It could even be better for the government to disperse these people to other parts of the country to gain a better life and experience a better way of life. The Ik people area also criticized that they are too rural to catch up with the thinking and developed technologies of the time.
Turnbull as an anthropologist stated that the transition of the IK people from hunters to productive lifestyles is still at fault.
Though these people are living an isolated and starving way of life, these people have not lost hope. The government has tried to devise means how to help these people survive in these difficult conditions.
In terms of security, the Uganda People’s Defence Force has deployed military officials to guard against raids from the Turkana cattle raiders. This security has helped them to freely transport their products to better markets like Kampala which is a sign of progress.
The Ik people have also managed to bring up some political leaders in the parliament, who have helped to raise the voice of the ignored people which has reduced the isolation from the Dodoth.
They have also received aid from the World Food Programme has given support to the Ik people to reduce hunger in the area. The roads have been fully opened and there is less resistance from the Dodoth Karamojongs.
There are reports that the Dodoth Karamojongs have started sympathizing with the Ik and trying to help them out of the raids.
In addition to the assistance from the government., the neighboring Ugandans have also helped them to practice agriculture though the environment remains very hot and dry.
Though nothing much can be done to re-instate the conditions of the place, the Ik people remain hardworking and expect to be better in the future.