Clarifying on Our Tribe's Name, Ethur or Jo-Abwor?

By Oscar Okech Kanyangareng

IN summary, we are Ethur. How did we end up with that name and how did the other names crop up?

First, we came direct from the remnants of the Luo in South Sudan, from among the Shilluk tribe in a place called TwenKidi. We got the Acholi were already in Uganda.

After reaching Acholi, one group passed via Puranga, came and settled in present day Kanu and spread to the rest of the hills. We didn’t have one leader but a dozen clan heads who met as a council and agreed on issues of the land.

One of the clans was led by Obwor. Obwor while in Acholi, met the Acholi dominant Chief of Payira clan and picked the practice of using regal instruments like drums, whisks, leadership stuff, dress code, royal seat etc. and -they came with it.

As a result of Obwor’s cultural practice, other clan leaders and the people started giving him more and more respect. Thus, all the people now came to be known as Jo KaObwor. As time passed on, the name got shortened to Jabwor.

Obwor's clan today is known as Epaebwor. We later came to be administered under Acholi during the colonial rule. It’s the Acholi who gave us the name Jo-Labwor as it is in their vocabulary.

The name Labwor therefore went on official record books of Uganda. Meanwhile, the use of the name Acholi-Labwor was just a survival instinct during the regime of Obote/Tito Okello in the 1980s, as a way of trying to identify with them (Langi/Acholi).

Uganda was so tribalistic then. The Langi/Acholi called us that way and we also accepted to identify with that name for survival reasons. But when the above regimes passed on, we withdrew from the name, though it’s still used by other Ugandans as the easiest way to identify us.

We need now to promote the proper identity of Ethur. Meantime, let’s also trace the answer to the question of how the name “Ethur” come about.

As I said earlier, we came in two groups. The the first group of Jo-Abwor came via Puranga and Kanu to Abim. While the second group of Jo-Akwa passed via Orom, Jie and settled around Mt. Toror. They later migrated to present day Nyakwae. It was after a big famine that they migrated to Bokora (present day Napak District) and settled along Nangololapolon, around Lopei Sub County.

After some decades, one time they went for a cattle raid. They were the main fighters yet when it came to sharing the loot, the Bokora cheated them. They protested and decided to come back.

By these decades, their accent and culture had somewhat changed -some of it picked cultural practice of the Bokora. They reversed anyway and settled to be known as Jo-Akwa with thier own ‘Abila’ (cultural assembly) from Bokora.

While the rest of Abim were Jo-Abwor with their own ‘Abila’ under Othem Abiiro, the grand, grand parent of both Jo-Akwa and Jo-Abwor leaders back in Sudan was called Thuri. The name ETHUR and JOABWOR was often earlier used interchangeably by our people.

Labwor and Labwor County was a creation of Colonial/Acholi and government administrators. Therfore, in a bid to unite both Jo-Akwa and Jo-Abwor, we now agreed, spearheaded by the late Hon. Omwony Ojwok, that we should be called Ethur and it was the late Hon. Obonyo Jabwor who was C.A. delegate who proposed it to be put in the the 1995 constitution of Uganda.

Now what we need to do is -sought ways to adjust to the new identity because the official records still refer to us as people of Labwor. The adulterated English version calls us Labworians and even our MP is for Labwor County.

Well, I can’t explain the above exhaustively but these are just highlights and we may need to talk about them in more details in other fora in future so that we can decide for the rightful name for our land.

Oscar Okech Kanyangareng is a veteran journalist, founder and  Execative Director of Pastoralist Poverty Frontiers (PPF)