The Kakwa People | Uganda, Congo & South Sudan

The Kakwa people are found in the extreme north west of Uganda in Koboko county of Arua district. The Kakwa’s ethnicity is plain Nilotes, which means that they are of Kushitic descent. Their language is also called Akakwa, a Bari dialect. They are known especially through the history of the late president of Uganda Idi Amin Dada

Origin

The Kakwa are believed to have two origins where the first on is  that their ancestor Yeki who is said to have migrated from Karobe hill in southern Sudan settled on Mt Liru in koboko where he gave birth to seven sons and one of them was found biting his brothers and Yeki nicknamed him Kakwan ji meaning biting. The immigrants of Yeki adapted the plural and called themselves the Kakwa.

The second origin is that the Kakwa were originally known as the Kui who were fierce fighters and imposed a lot of heavy losses on their enemies and therefore for that reason they nicknamed themselves the Kakwa because they had biting attacks where the majority of the Kakwa people in Koboko adhere strongly to this tradition.

The Koboko parts of Aringa and Maracha where there is practically all the Kakwa clans’ trace their origin to Loloyi but none of them can tell where exactly Loloyi is. The Kakwa can trace to the Bari of Southern Sudan by linguistic connection. The Kakwa still believe that they have connections with the Karimajong, Nyangwar and the Pojuru.

They also have a tradition in Koboko which claims that they might have come from the direction of Ethiopia but it does not state the point which the Kakwa separated from the Bari. The belief that they separated from the Bari County east of the Nile where they are supposing that they are plain Nilotics like the Iteso and the Karimajong

Political setup

The Kakwa had a decentralized system of government and their political institutions were segmentary where each clan was politically independent of others and loved adequate tradition loyalty. The clan was the basic political and social unit. Each clan had a head chief known as matter. The highest Political officer and the one immediately below him was were the clan elders known as Tamejik who were more often than not, heads of sub-clans and were related to the chief, being brothers or uncles. Other clans referred to the chief as Buratyo and others Ba Ambogo.

The chief was both the political figure and the rainmaker which the Kakwa of Koboko still admits. Chieftainship was confined to the clans ho rain make and the chief would assume two titles i.e. the chief of the rain and the chief of the land.

There were clans like the Ludara Kakwa who didn’t have rain makers because they believed that their ancestor Solo didn’t belong to the rain making family and therefore in this case Chiefs were separated and they would have the chief of the land and the chief of the rain. The chief of the rain was assigned to the person who wasn’t a chief though it used to be so rare to find a chief who was a not also a rain maker.

The Kakwa were in conjugal society and the position of the chief was hereditary though the non rain making clans their office wasn’t hereditary. Clans without rain makers could borrow them from other clans and a borrowed rainmaker did not have a political influence. He would instead be paid for his services

The Kakwa people had no classes among them but it contained the lower people who were the young children, the house servants, the cattle headers. It also had the upper class which contained people who looked after dependants well and they would remain with them even after they married. Clients would leave and look for another master if they were treated in a hostile manner which made him look differential. A client would normally go somewhere else if he was referred to as stranger in the home known as monyatio. Whenever a client attained marriageable age, he would have his bride wealth paid for him by his master and thereafter becomes part of the family.

During the installation of the chief, all the clan members would gather at the chiefly house known as Kadina mata. They would bring food and beer and it was customary that the elders would sit alone and invoke the ancestral blessings to enable the new chief lead his people in peace and prosperity. Then there would follow dancing and rejoicing.

A person would perform some traditional ritual before someone was appointed as a chief. Chiefs had secret beads that passed onto them by his predecessors and would normally drop a bead in food without the knowledge of his sons and invited them to eat. The person who discovered the bead normally would become a successor and would be made to carry a chiefly stick and the stool whenever he went. He would also be required to observe what the father was doing in preparation for future responsibilities.

The elders had the powers to reject a nominee if it was known to then that he was irresponsible and look at other ways of selecting another successor. If a chief had no sons, the closet relative would succeed him and if a chief died leaving a young son, a regent would be appointed to act in his place until the child came of age

The chief had a role of shifting his people away during the time of danger and also had to protect the hunting grounds of his clan from other clans and also advise his clan to prevent its cattle from grazing on the other crops of other clans.

He also had to negotiate for peace in the event of external aggression and defeat.

He also acted as an advisor to the council of elders.

If he acted in his capacity as a rainmaker, he did not need advice from the elders. This was due to the belief that the power to make rain and perform fertility rites could not be possessed by a common man, elderly tough he might be.

Religion

The Kakwa people have Islamic traditions in them and polygamy is accepted. In the past, they used have shrines that are called Uriya as what they pray as religion that symbolize the spirits of the dead. They never used to have temples for worship. Uriya symbolized fig trees known as Laru or distinctive stones known as rabongo. they normally made sacrifices for the ancestors as a way of communicating with them in case anything going on was wrong, if they wanted to thank him or if they were asking for forgiveness thinking that they are they are receiving punishment for the disasters happening to them so they would make sacrifices for the spirits to come and rescue them and also forgive them. They also made periodic sacrifices during the ritual of appeasing the dead.

Economic setup

The Kakwa have always been cultivating millet, corn, cassava fishing and cattle. Wealth among the Kakwa was measured number of granaries full of foodstuff one had in one’s compound and the number of the livestock in one’s kraal. In the event of famine which was common among them people would migrate to another area where there was plenty of food.

Most families in the Kakwa families were mainly subsistence farmers but there are families who practiced mixed farming and they are also known for keeping cattle, sheep and goats apart from farming. The Nyanaila clan specialized in iron smelting, making spears, knives, hoes and a variety of other iron implements.

Men dug the fields, built and repaired the houses, reared the animals, sowed the seeds and women would clean the granaries and also store the crops, engaged in basket weaving, pottery and salt making.

Courtship and marriage

The girl and boy had no say over the choices of their partners because the elders knew better. Among the Kakwa they believe that marriages come with blessings from parents and therefore if one is not blessed their marriage will not last. These blessings come after both sides have paid their bride price. Marriages were arranged by elders because they knew which families where the good families with beautiful disciplined girls who would be able to hold up a family and gather people.

 It’s believed in Kakwa that one man cannot marry a woman: rather it’s the responsibility of his father and his clansmen to marry a wife for their son. When preparing for marriage between two families, the boy’s family writes a letter to the girl’s family to inform them of their son’s interest. In the letter, they inform the girl’s parents of the day they would want to come and introduce them. The girl’s parents also reply to the letter, either to welcome them or to tell them to hold on. The letter also contains what the groom is expected to bring when coming to visit. They will also tell them the number of people expected for the ceremony.

The groom is expected to buy three pairs of shoes, three hats, three coats, three pairs of gumboots, hoes, bows and arrows (the number again depends on the family) and some money for the bride’s father. He is also expected to bring a gomesi (traditional dress) for the bride’s mother, kikoyi (the inner lining of the gomesi) and the sash for tying it, a pair of shoes, a hand bag, necklace, earrings and one roll of wax material which she will divide among her sisters.

The groom is also expected to bring seven or more cows depending on the family’s possibilities and seventeen goats or more, depending again on the family, and chickens, the number of which is not definite. The Kakwa believe that a girl’s bride-price is best brought during a sunset. The bull is then slaughtered which chose from those which are paid as a bride price and every one of the girl’s family members, including the extended family will eat it, apart from the girl in question. All the unmarried girls in the family are not expected to eat it either, since it will bring them bad luck, and they may never get married.

During this marriage ceremony, the women have no say and their voices are not heard except for the paternal aunt of the bride who only speaks after the bride price has been approved. The mother of the bride and the bride herself are only allowed to say ‘hello’ in greeting. The bride is called in only to acknowledge the groom and after that she is not expected to be anywhere close to the negotiation area.

After the ceremony has ended, the bride’s paternal aunt and two other women take her to her husband’s place and will then stay with her for a few days. On their return, the bride’s husband will be required to give them some little money and the ceremony will be closed.

Death and burial

 Among the Kakwa regardless of the cause of death of a married woman, her relatives would not allow burial until the in-laws release a final part of the dowry called ‘kasik’ (consisting of goats). To enforce this step, the relatives of the deceased woman would symbolically mount an armed guard over the corpse until the fine is paid. An equivalent ceremony is performed for a deceased man, but the maternal uncles usually mount the armed guard.