Verisoph story dossier
An Eastern Nilotic people of Busia split by the colonial Kenya-Uganda boundary, farming and herding on both sides of a line drawn through them.
An Eastern Nilotic people of Busia split by the colonial Kenya-Uganda boundary, farming and herding on both sides of a line drawn through them.
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The Iteso speak an Eastern Nilotic language and belong to the Ateker cluster, which also includes the Turkana, Karamojong, Jie and others. Their traditions describe a long movement south from the area of present-day South Sudan, with a body of Iteso separating from the Karamojong. The timing cannot be fixed precisely and rests on oral history.
Iteso groups spread into the fertile plains south of Mount Elgon, the southeastern edge of a wider Iteso settlement that centred in eastern Uganda. In Kenya they became established in the Busia area, farming and keeping cattle. By the 19th century the Iteso controlled a broad stretch of territory.
Iteso society combined crop farming with cattle-keeping and was ordered partly through age-classes and clan ties. Elders held authority in local affairs and ritual. Unlike some neighbours, the Iteso did not build large centralised kingdoms, governing instead through kin and community.
Colonial boundary changes in the early 20th century placed most Iteso in Uganda and a smaller population in Kenya around Busia. The line cut through a single people, leaving relatives on either side. The Kenyan Iteso became a minority within the colony and later within independent Kenya.
Today the Iteso in Kenya number in the hundreds of thousands and live mainly in the Teso North and Teso South areas of Busia County. They speak Ateso and keep close ties with the larger Iteso community across the border in Uganda. Many are bilingual with neighbouring Luhya and other languages.