Lango of Uganda

The Lango people are Nilotic ethnic group of northern Uganda. According to their oral traditions, they originated from Abyssinia present day Ethiopia and from Israel prior to arriving in Ethiopia. In his book "The Tricenerary of Lango people In Uganda" 2013 by Julius Peter Odwee, He traces the migration of the Lango tribe right through Otuke hills and mentions several similarities between Lango culture and their Ateker neighbours. He continues to assert that the Lango acquired adopted a mixture of the Luo Nilotic dialect as a language due to intermarriage between the Lango and the Luo speaking neighbours. This he asserts happened prior to their migration into present day Uganda. He continues to mention several names in Lango that originated from their variations in Ateso as well as those derived from ancient Hebrew phrases such as "Edau" to mean "David" and "Abia." He asserts that Lango are descended from an offspring of King David of Israel through his grandson with Queen Makeda also named after his father "David" and called Menelik the first male king in his kingdom. He asserts that some Hebrew traditions are still present among the Lango today such as the right of naming children after their grand parents to ensure the memory of the ancestor lives on through their grand children.

His argument varies slightly from the oral tradition of the Ateso who believe they migrated from Egypt as a breakaway group from the major Israeli group that returned to Israel in search of the promised land after the death of their Patriarch. His work is a compedium of several years of research and travel involving interviews with clan elders and older members of the Lango community as well as cultural analysis of the communities around him. His assertion is supported by the clan leaders and elders of Lango including the His Highness Won Nyaci Yosam Odur as the origin of the Lango people.

Several scholars asserted that the Luo like dialect the Lango speak was acquired through intermarriage. They live in the Lango sub-region (politically Northern Region) of Uganda. The Lango sub-region includes the districts of Amolatar, Alebtong, Apac, Dokolo, Kole, Lira, Oyam, and Otuke. The population is about 1.5 million people according to the 2002 population census. They speak Lango which is a hybrid of the Ateso language and the Luo language that forms a dialect cluster with other Southern Luo languages.

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