The Ik Project
Through the Family Care Foundation we were contacted by Richard and Sally Hoffman who had been missionaries to the Ik some 10 years earlier, asking if we would consider helping to record Bible stories in Icetot (pronounced i-che-tot) the language of the Ik tribe–an amazing remote and endangered tribe living on the peaks of mountains along the far Northern Ugandan/Kenyan border. These people have only recently been developing a written language. The Hoffmans also contacted Audio Scripture Ministries in Michigan, USA, and requested that 35 Hand-cranked tape recorders be sent to our team after educated tribesman John Mark Lomeri had recorded 3 hours of relatable Bible stories for the first time in Icetot.
The next challenge was getting these tapes and tape-recorders to the Ik people, since it would necessitate traveling for days across Karamoja, a district in Eastern Uganda which can be quite hostile. AK47s have replaced the original bows & arrows used during the cattle raids of the Karimojong, and anyone traveling during the day time could be very subject to ambush, robbery and worse.
We were counseled to travel therefore at night for the first sector as the Karimojong tend to return to their highly fenced kraals for protection from leopards and hyenas, rather than risk being vulnerable. The rough roads were a challenge for our faithful old Nissan Safari jeep, but we managed to navigate the distance, checking in with local regional directors and overseers along the way. The Turkana tribe in Kenya had recently raided the Dodoth Karimojong, so revenge cattle raids were expected at any time. 50 people had been sadly killed in the course of the last raid 4 days before our trip, so we desperately asked God’s guidance and protection.
John Mark had extreme skill in navigating, because once we had left Kaabong, the last town on the way north, & then past Kalipata, the last tiny Karimojong village, the roads were almost totally indecipherable, apart from his expert experience & sense. This was November 2004 & the area was extremely dry, with rains not having fallen in over 7 months. We navigated to small Ik communities in Lokwakaramoe, Kamion, and Timu, the last having been raided and many huts and community areas burned by the Turkana only days before we arrived.
We prayed for all the attendees of the meetings we held at each settlement for salvation and any healing requests they had. We also prayed desperately for rain as it had been such a long drought and these dear people were really suffering. At the end of our second meeting from a completely clear sky, white clouds began to form and by the time we were back on the road the sky began to rumble and rain fell heavily! It was thrilling to us to see such specific answers to our prayers in the other 2 communities we stayed with also–just as we were leaving each time!
The Ik people have been extremely poorly represented in a book called “The Mountain People” written by Colin Turnbull in 1972 As a result of his book, the Ik are studied in universities today by sociology students as being “The Tribe With No Love” and “The People Who Don’t Sing”. We found these claims to be entirely unfounded and were most impressed by their incredible peaceful ethic. They actually have one of the most caring societies in many respects in terms of resolving conflicts. If a disagreement was to begin, rather than argue, one of the two involved will simply walk out of the hut, to enable peace to remain and the issues are settled later when they are less emotionally charged. If only politicians, countries and most of us in our inter-relating could have such a high level of civilization!
Second Trip
Over the months after our return, John Mark had been busy continuing to translated more Bible stories into Icetot, so we took a second trip to the area, in March 2005, this time bringing a further 45 hand-crank tape players to those in communities which hadn’t received them, along with many copies of a further 3 hours of Bible stories on tape.
One of the biggest challenges of this second trip, was the fact that we’d just experienced some El Nino rains which were quite unseasonal & they turned the deep miry clay into almost impassable, slippery paths. This time the LRA (rebel group who had terrorized the North of Uganda for the last 19 years) had been attacking vehicles north of Soroti. The Lord showed us to not take the road via Moroto that we’d taken on the last trip, but rather to take a short cut from Soroti to Kotido. This meant navigating a road where there was extremely little traffic, massive flooding and, as it ended, had huge holes in the small patches of concretized road that crossed canals. We soon found that it was wiser to drive beside the road in places than on the hazardous concrete road, which in 3 places suddenly dropped off to a 3-4 foot deep drop with zero warning!
When we got up to Kaabong, we had another challenge awaiting us! The 20′ high bridge which crosses the Kaabong river, had just hours before we came, crashed down, leaving a raging river beneath, with very dubious means to cross it. This sort of challenge is what we love & thrive on, so we took time to pray, hear from the Lord & felt it was going to be good to not turn back, but to ford the raging river. Hundreds of people had been stranded on both sides, & soon cheers rang through the whole area as they egged us on, as we crossed with the fairly strong current & unknown bottom of the river. Happily we made it & this second trip seemed to really build on everything established on our first trip to this unique, fascinating and challenging part of the world.
The thing that was most thrilling from this second trip, was the reaction people had after having been able to listen to all those Bible stories, words of Jesus & such for the previous months. Many testified of the peace it gave them, of an awakening to the Spirit again which had died since the Camboni missionaries had left them in the 60s. It was thrilling to see the results of greater peace, since the security of the area had continued to be very difficult. One community we visited this second time were really starving. Several of their women & children had been shot by Karimojong as they wended their way down the mountain side over 1km below them, so they were very hungry, thirsty & extremely needy. Needless to say, we emptied our jeep of whatever cans of food we had, many of the water jerry cans & we prayed with them, promising to contact their representatives in the political world.
The language of the Ik, Icetot resembles English in the fact that, just as the latter added what today is the majority of its vocabulary from Norman French, Latin, Greek and other sources to a core Anglo-Saxon foundation, so Icetot assembled at least half its vocabulary from neighboring Nilotic speaking tribes (and later through them from Swahili, French and English) to build upon the core vocabulary of an earlier, autochthonous language.
When other more aggressive and prosperous tribes such as the Dodoth and Turkana came into the same farmland as the Ik, the Ik were usually relegated to the less-productive mountain tops as subsistence farmers without cattle, while the larger tribes held the plains and the cattle. And to add insult to injury, Kidepo, a neighbouring natural area was turned into a national park during Milton Obote’s first administration in the 1960s, with the Ik expelled from that bountiful area and told not to “poach” game.
They are currently at physical risk in their ancestral locations from enemy raids and starving droughts, but given the slightest chance and some understanding from the outside world, can not merely survive but prosper.
To be sure, the Ik have not been easy to reach, for their villages lie at the end of miles of obscure foot paths through head-high elephant grass in a section of Uganda made dangerous by cattle raids and not infrequent guerrilla warfare. They also migrate between the mountains and the plains of Kidepo and Turkana.
We believe the tapes and players we took to them will aid them in learning their newly developed written language. The fact that we were able to strengthen them spiritually, when they had been fearful and had fest that both God and man had forgotten them, is a great encouragement to them. Along with this we also able to bring donated medicines for flu and malaria as well as school supplies for 700 students at the 2 schools in the region. (which are manned by 1 kind Karimojong teacher who doesn’t speak Icetot, and several volunteer Ik young men who had studied to S4 and who felt called to pass on at least all they had learned to the younger generation following them. It’s very difficult to find teachers brave enough to endure living in such an isolated, insecure, poor area and we underscore the need for such committed teachers. If you would like to experience the thrills, dangers and touching moments from our trips to the Ik land, Contact Us for the beautiful and compelling documentary of our trips, “The Miracle on the Mountain” and order your copy today. Don’t miss the awesome photography of the Ik tribe taken during both our trips there.
Aiding Through Art
Nyx Martinez, a Filipina member of the second team who went to the Ik lands was very touched and impressed by thi special people & their needs. Soon after returning to Kampala, she wrote a number of poems and started to recapture her feelings, experiences and the beauty she saw with the Ik people. The medium she used is oil pastel on darker felt-paper. Hauntingly beautiful images began to emerge from the paper and soon a friend was expressing that art of this level should be put in a gallery so that people could capture what she was expressing.
The Sheraton Hotel in Kampala graciously donated the gallery space so that all proceeds from sales could go to the Hope Found Orphanage in Bunia, Democratic Republic of Congo. Soon newspaper articles began to appear, drawing attention to the needs of the Ik. Even HRH Sabbassaja Ronald Mutebi, the King of Buganda viewed the gallery and bought one of the paintings. We had a lot of informational material available for those who passed by and several have since made tangible steps towards assisting the Ik people, which we are thrilled about.
Nyx Martinez’ special skill and artistic talents were soon taken to another dimension. Two volunteer medical professionals visited the Sheraton and were impressed by the unique style of art portrayed there. They had been volunteering at Mulago General Hospital for several months & they were suddenly excited about the possibility of cheering up the Pediatric Ward. They kindly arranged to sponsor all the water-proof washable paint & asked Nyx and our team if we could try to cheer up the Ward.
What ensued was a weekly time of volunteering which many friends joined in with us, transforming the previously darker walls, into bright, colourful, hope-filled paintings of giraffes, colourful animals, and beautiful angels hovering over the beds of the children who were so ill.
Positive Entertainment and Benefit Funraisers
The RadioActive Dancers have performed Asian and International dance to raise funds for different charity drives including:
United Nations Spouses Association (UNSA)- Children with Hydrocephalus condition.(Water in the brain)
International Women s Organisation (IWO)- To acquire sports equipment for poor schools and sewing tables for Candlelight (home for vulnerable girls) to make a living.
Miss Uganda Ltd.- To raise funds for a mammogram for women with breast cancer.
Indian Women s Association- To raise support for children with AIDS to be able to study.
Children s Vision Uganda (NGO)- Raised school fees for several hundred registered orphans to stay another year in school.
Private Functions, Business Openings, Anniversaries, Birthday and Holiday Parties-To raise support for our center and operating costs of our charity work.
Donation Distribution and Charity Work
Since setting up we have done a wide range of humanitarian work. In 1999 Family Care Uganda designed a curriculum for character building after learning of the plight of many child soldiers who had been exposed to many attrocities from a young age, never learning right from wrong. We found this “Character Building” course to be very helpful for children from all walks of life and we hope to get this series sponsored and put in schools everywhere in Uganda.
We approach companies about the needs of many orphanages and babies homes that we looked into and asked for help. Due to the generosity of these companies and individuals we have been able to collect and distribute clothes, shoes, school supplies, food and even special treats like toys, ice-cream and chocolate on occasion which is very much enjoyed by these children.
Recently, aid has been given to Nsambya Babies’ Home, L Arche Community for Disabled, Kampala School for Disabled, Widows and Orphans of AIDS Victims, Noah s Ark Children s Home, Sanyu Babies’ Home, New Life Center, 10 tons of aid was recently sent up to the IDP camps in Karamoja, IDP children in Gulu under ASHOKA, Uganda Cheshire Home and many more.
“Nu Beat” and Live Radio Programs and Listeners’ Seminars
RadioActive Productions has produced a musical radio program called “Nu Beat” to benefit residents mainly of northern Uganda such as Paidha, Teso, Toro, Soroti, Nebbi, Fort Portal, Karamoja and Masindi to teach them about God and to open a line of communication for other problems they face. The show is syndicated and aired on 8 stations weekly and has been going for 3 years.
We have received countless letters from listeners who have formed their own “Nu Beat” clubs in schools and communities and who write us saying how much of an impact this show has had in their lives and learning about things such as Peace, Honesty, Comfort in Trying Times and more has improved their lives. We have received many requests to come and hold seminars so they can learn more which we have been able to do in many of the above cities.
We have weekly live radio shows on 102.1 Alpha FM, including an upbeat, educational show for children full of stories, music, facts and interesting dramas all teaching values and the fun of learning. Another show is for parents and teachers counselling them on raising their children and teenagers positively in today s society and also tips on adding spark to marriage.
Promote and Assist Local Talent
We promote local singers and musicians and aid them in producing music with meaning, positive values, and substance. We have recorded 8 artists, produced 4 hit songs including, “East Africa- Hakuna Matatta”, “Spirit of Africa - Now East Africa’s Theme Song for the Cricket Tournaments, “Miss Uganda” and “Spend time in Africa”. We are currently producing 5 new songs with new artists including The Obsessions and Barbara Kayaga.
