Lango
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The Lango are a tribe in Uganda belong to the Nilo-Hamitic ethnic group of East Africa. They inhabit the central area of Uganda north of Lake Kyoga.
Lango are a group of people who live in present day northern Uganda. they make up about 5% of the 26 million Ugandans. They were originally cattle keepers and subsistence farmers. An area of interest is about the origins of this group of people, this is more so because the tribal groups in east Africa have well traceable origins.
The Lango occupy the area north of Lake Kyoga, bordered by the Acholi in the west and north. Their language, "Leb Lango" is actually a Luo dilect but with vocabulary from the nilo-hamitic tribes in eastern Uganda. This group of people is mainly known in Uganda because of their participation in post-independence Ugandan politics. The first Ugandan prime minister and later executive president was a Lango. In the volatile politics of the country, state inspired violence was used to decimate the elite of this tribal group together with its neighbour the Acholi.
Today the two groups are a standard of poverty for the UNDP. In the period after Uganda's independence, the country was lead and later ruled by presidents from the north. In 1986 the last northern government fell to rebels of the mainly southern tribes. There was a vengeance for their rule that led to raiding of all the cattle from the northern area to the south, where they were used to feed the new government army. It was said that the taking of cattle and burning of food stocks was in order to deny the remnants of the fallen government and its supporters of an economic base to resist the militant occupation by the southern tribes.
Up to today the Lango are maily subsistance farmers, and are among the poorest people in Uganda.