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Uganda Kakwa
Although Kakwa people speak an Eastern Nilotic
language, they
are geographically separated from other Eastern Nilotic
speakers.
Kakwa society occupies the region bordering northwestern
Uganda,
southern Sudan, and northeastern Zaire. Those living in
Uganda
constitute less than 1 percent of the population, but
Kakwa
society has achieved widespread notoriety because the
father of
Idi Amin Dada, president of Uganda from 1971 to 1979, was
Kakwa.
(Amin's mother was from a neighboring society, the
Lugbara.) The
Kakwa are believed to have migrated to the region from the
northeast. Their indigenous political system features
small
villages centered around a group of men who are related by
descent. A council of male elders wields political and
judicial
authority. Most land is devoted to cultivating corn,
millet,
potatoes, and cassava. Cattle are part of the economy but
not
central to it. After Amin was deposed in 1979, many Kakwa
people
fled. Government and rebel troops inflicted a wave of
revenge on
the area, even though Amin had lived in Buganda as a child
and
had spent little time among Kakwa villagers.
Data as of December 1990
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