The Kadam people inhabit
Mount Kadam
Mount Kadam, is near the east border of Karamoja, Uganda with Kenya and has an approximate elevation of . It is just north of Mount Elgon. It was first climbed by Sailesh Kadam, the mountain's namesake.
During the colonial period Mount Kadam was ...
in
Nakapiripirit District
Nakapiripirit District is a district in Northern Uganda. Like many Ugandan districts, it is named after its 'chief town', Nakapiripirit, where the district headquarters are located.
Location
The district is bordered by Napak District to the nor ...
in the
Karamoja
The Karamoja sub-region, commonly known as Karamoja, is a region in Uganda. It covers an area of 27,528km and comprises the Kotido District, Kaabong District, Karenga District, Nabilatuk District, Abim District, Moroto District, Napak D ...
sub-region, located in north-eastern
Uganda
Uganda, officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the ...
.
History
They are closely related to the Tepeth/Tepes or So peoples who inhabit Mount Napak and
Mount Moroto
Mount Moroto, also Moroto Mountain (), is a mountain in the Northeastern part of Uganda.
The native name for this mountain was "Moru To" (meaning "the western mountain", derived from the words "Moru" meaning mountain and "To" meaning west). It ...
, also in southern Karamoja. Some regard them as a sub-group of the Tepeth. There is very little written about them, but local oral history records all these groups as having been the inhabitants of wider areas of present-day Karamoja who took refuge in the mountains when the Karamojong arrived from Ethiopia in the 17th century (see
Karamojong people
The Karamojong or Karimojong are a Nilotic peoples, Nilotic ethnic group. They are agro-pastoral herders living mainly in the north-east of Uganda. Their language is also known as Karamojong language, ngaKarimojong and is part of the Nilotic lang ...
). They are one of the few peoples in Uganda to practise
Female Genital Mutilation
Female genital mutilation (FGM) (also known as female genital cutting, female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) and female circumcision) is the cutting or removal of some or all of the vulva for non-medical reasons. Prevalence of female ge ...
Language
The Kadam speak the
Kadam Language, also known as ''yog toŋi'' which is a variant of the ''So'' language of the
Nilo-Saharan languages
The Nilo-Saharan languages are a proposed family of around 210 African languages spoken by somewhere around 70 million speakers, mainly in the upper parts of the Chari River, Chari and Nile rivers, including historic Nubia, north of where the tw ...
group. It is also closely related to the languages of the peoples mentioned above. The language is endangered;
those who speak Kadam/So as a first language are middle-aged and elderly, the younger generations speak mostly the
Pökoot or
Karamojong language
The Karamojong language (spelled ''ŋaKarimojoŋ'' or ''ŋaKaramojoŋ'' in Karamojong; Ngakarimojong or N'Karamojong in English) is a Nilotic languages, Nilotic language spoken by the Karamojong people in Northeast Uganda.
Ngakarimojong is a N ...
.
References
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Ethnic groups in Uganda