Know about IK people of Uganda with gorillasafariinuganda

Language and People

The people known as the Ik entered what is now Uganda from somewhere to the northeast, originating possibly in Ethiopia or even Egypt. The origin of their language, Icetot (lit., Ik-speak), which is a Kuliak language, is still debated by linguists. The original Kuliak-speaking people divided into at least three groups in their migrations south: the So (Tepeth), the Nyang'i (Niangea), and the Ik. The So and Nyang'i have assimilated with neighboring peoples, but Ik survive along with their language in the mountains, virtually alone.

The Ik (rhymes with 'stick') live in the northeast corner of Uganda, in a very remote area of what is now called Kaabong District. The Ik number at least 10,000 who live in the mountains and hills above the Karamoja region. A recent language survey team found the Ik to be very poor, oppressed, and marginalized, but receptive to the gospel.

In 1972, Colin Turnbull published a book about the Ik titled The Mountain People. At one point Turnbull said, "They were beyond saving as a society." But when the survey team visited the Ik they did not encounter a people like Turnbull described. They found a very friendly, yet desperate group of people who freely welcomed them.

There is growing interest within Uganda to reach the Ik people, though most Ugandans have never heard of them. Pray that God would make the needs of the Ik known to the world, and that they would desire to reach out to the Ik with the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Way of life

Today, approximately 10,000 Ik live together, spread out along the escarpment between Timu Forest in the south and Kidepo National Park in the north. The nearest town of any size is Kaabong, some 20 miles to the southwest. Many of them still inhabit walled villages such as Moruatap, perched on the rim of the escarpment overlooking the Great Rift Valley in Kenya. Here they live in a traditional manner, practicing subsistence farming in tiny plots of maize, pumpkins, beans, sorghum, millet, watermelon, cowpeas, and tobacco, milling their grain on grindstones and gathering wood for the cooking fire in their circular thatched houses.

ik people