Ik People | Kidepo Valley National Park
The Ik people are one of the endangered tribal groups in Uganda found in the Karamoja region in northeastern Uganda. The Ik people are sometimes referred to as Tueso and mountain people of Uganda by foreigners. I know people are hunter-gatherers residing on Mount Morungole. Mount Morungole is situated on the border of Uganda and Kenya in the Kidepo Valley Park .
The name “Ik” loosely translates to meaning a head of migration or the first to migrate here. As their name states, the Ik people were the first to migrate and settle in the Karamojong region; the Ik people are a small community of people with approximately fewer than 10,000 individuals.
They migrated to the Karamoja region from Ethiopia and first settled in Kenya; they later migrated and settled in Karamoja.
Community setting of Ik people
I know people live in gathered villages referred to as “odok,” consisting of friendly individual households referred to as “asak”; the households “asak” have a large yard that is set on relatively flat plains of Mount Morungole. As a way of preventing their villages from intruders and attacks from wild animals, the villages are entirely fenced; the households’ yards contain a food granary, a rack to hold utensils, a kraal for animals like goats, sheep, poultry houses for chickens, and a pit latrine.
Traditionally, Ik people are polygamists and marry many wives; the number of wives one marries is more dependent on his ability to pay dowry to these women as wives. In the Ik community dowry is given and measured in the form of goats, sheep, chickens, beehives and monetary cash.
Though they considered this kind of dowry expensive and hard to get for Ik people, for other communities like Baganda and Batooro, it is considered to be very cheap. After paying the dowry, it is a husband’s duty to build an asak “house” for each of his wives and he is also obliged to make rotational visits to his wives in their asak.
In Ik traditions, wife inheritance is very common and embraced; a man is free to inherit his brother’s wife after divorce or his brother’s death. In the same community, sex promiscuity is punishable, and incest and adultery are severely punished by death. These tendencies are taken as offenses, the reason being every youth-aged boy has his own asak, which makes him eligible to get a partner and have a love life in secrecy.
Childbearing in the Ik community is good news and very much celebrated, as it is a sign of blessing to mankind. Raising a child in the Ik community is not individual as it is in most communities; it is a social responsibility.
I know parents share their asak with infants up to the average age of 4 years and they are taken up by their grandparents and live with them up to their youth. Grandparents are a living source of information and data, which they pass on to their grandchildren in the process of living with them. At the age of 13 grandchildren are in their youth; the boys leave their grandparents’ asak and build their own while the girls are ready for marriage
When compared to other tribes like the Toposa, Turkana and Jie, which live in the semi-arid areas of East Africa and their communities’ settings, the Ik people possessed no big amount of wealth to grant them ground to speak or be powerful in the region.
They lived their lives depending on a few head of cattle, goats, sheep and chickens, which they kept in small quantities, since they possessed excellent skills in hunting; they hunted wild animals. Ike people are also gatherers and cultivators; they gather edible fruits, flowers, leaves, and tubers and grow some food crops in the Karamoja plains.
Threats to the Ik people
Ike people live in communities of few people, which has worked to their disadvantage. Ike people are outnumbered by their neighboring communities, like the Karamojong, who constantly raid Ike people and other neighboring communities.
Karamojong warriors believe that it is their birthright to any cattle anywhere given to them by their god; that is why they take pride in raiding weak communities. Because of constant raids from the Karamojong, the Ike people were forced to abandon cattle rearing and focused on hunting wildlife, growing food crops and gathering edible fruits.
Another threat that hit the Ik people hard was in the 1960s during the gazetting of Kidepo National Park; the wildlife protection and conservation movement leading to gazetting their ancestral land as a national park greatly affected the Ike, as they were forced to vacate their land without being compensated. With a lot of agony and frustration, they relocated to the Morungole ranges.
Visiting/hiking the Ike people
Visiting the Ik group of people can be included on your safari to Kidepo National Park as a cultural encounter safari activity; visiting this community while on a tour will surely give you an exciting cultural experience. The safari involves hiking with the residents of the Ik people on the slopes of Mount Morungole, which stand at the altitude of 2,750 meters from the Karamoja plains; you encounter montane vegetation covering the slopes of the montane, accompanied by a cool breeze and fresh air.
From Mount Morungole you get magnificent scenic views of the rift valley and the surrounding wildlife-filled plains; the most exciting part of the safari is when you meet and interact with Ik people. Upon your arrival you are welcomed with traditional dances performed by Ik people and in the process of interacting you get to learn more about their lifestyle, experiences, culture and history.
Hiking to the Ik village is one of the authentic African cultures, but it is not easy, as you have to climb through the steep mountains by foot while you’re headed by an Ik-language-speaking guide who knows all the routes. The route has been made easy by a trail marked by the US Forest Service; there is also a shortcut for a vehicle ride. This safari activity does not only offer a fascinating cultural experience; it is also a form of physical exercise as it tests your physical ability as you hike through a trail of 8 kilometers up to the village, meaning the whole journey is a trek of tough climbing and sloping down.
I know people became famous and worldly known in 1972 from a popular book, “The Mountain People,” written by a British-American anthropologist, Colin Turnbull, published in this book. He portrays the Ik people as a people who did not love. Colin Turnbull’s perception about the Ik people will be proved wrong to you when you visit these people, as they are calm, very welcoming and living.
Though Ik people are the most primitive people living in the most remote areas in Uganda, they have had some memorable moments, which are to be laid down in the history of their community. They had their first Member of Parliament representative in the 10th parliament of Uganda in 2016 and have their first native in university at Kampala International University.
Include visiting Ik people in your Uganda safari and experience the authentic African culture on mountain Morungole in northern Uganda.
