Teso
The Wateso (Iteso) — Farmers of the Western Border
About
The Iteso are a Nilotic ethnic group in eastern Uganda and western Kenya — among the Plain Nilotic groups closely related to the Turkana, Karamojong, Toposa, and the Maa groups of the Maasai and Samburu. Their presence in Kenya is itself a product of colonial cartography: the Kenyan Iteso are an extension of their Ugandan counterparts, merely separated by the partition of East Africa — just like the Maasai of Kenya and Tanzania, or the Oromo of Kenya and Ethiopia. In 1902, part of eastern Uganda was transferred to western Kenya by the British, drawing a new border through the middle of Teso territory. With 417,670 Iteso recorded in Kenya's 2019 census, they are found mainly in Busia County's Teso North and Teso South sub-counties, with significant communities in parts of Bungoma and Trans Nzoia counties. The word Malaba — the name of the Kenya-Uganda border town — is itself a Teso word meaning "crossing," a quiet monument to their divided homeland. Among their most celebrated historical figures is the warrior-general Oduk and his wife Among'in, the renowned prophetess whose battle visions are said to have guided the Iteso to military victories across the entire Lake Victoria region.
Language
Ateso (Teso) is an Eastern Nilotic language within the Teso–Turkana language cluster of the Nilo-Saharan family, closely related to Turkana and Karamojong. In Kenya, approximately 417,670 Iteso speak Ateso (2019 census), primarily in Busia County, with additional speakers in Bungoma and Trans Nzoia. The language forms a dialect continuum across Uganda and Kenya, with three main Ugandan varieties — Teso (central), Tororo (eastern), and Pallisa — alongside the Western Kenya variety spoken in Busia and Trans Nzoia, which exhibits distinct patterns shaped by cross-border differences. Ateso has 22 letters in its alphabet and is used as a medium of instruction in early primary school grades in Kenya. The language's closest relatives include Turkana and Karamojong — a linguistic family that speaks to the Iteso's ancient shared origins in the Ateker cluster of Eastern Nilotic peoples.
Culture
The Iteso people are the only Plains Nilotic people whose lifestyles underwent drastic changes — having been pastoralists since time immemorial, they are now among the most successful farmers in both western Kenya and eastern Uganda. This agricultural transformation came through their own initiative: the Iteso were noted for their quick adoption of the ox plough in the early 1900s, a technology they embraced faster than most neighbouring communities and which drove their shift from herding to crop farming. Women farmed and foraged while men herded cattle; cotton was the primary cash crop, grown in separate plots by both men and women during the short rains, alongside tobacco and subsistence crops like millet, sorghum, groundnuts, and peas. Community life is anchored in clan identity, with a child given three names immediately after birth — according to the prevailing weather conditions, the time of day, and the farming season, embedding the individual in the rhythms of the land from their very first breath. The ajon — a communal sorghum beer drunk together through long straws — is a distinctive social institution used at gatherings, ceremonies, and dispute resolution. One of the Teso's most unusual mortuary traditions is the practice of exhuming bones of the dead for secondary burial ceremonies, a rite that maintains the bond between the living and their ancestors.