Ateker, or ŋaTekerin, is a common name for the closely related Jie, Karamojong, Turkana, Toposa, Nyangatom, Teso and Lango peoples and their languages.

In the Turkana language, Ateker means a distinct group with related customs, laws and lifestyle and who share a common ancestry.

In the context of ethnic identity and nationhood, the Turkana language classifies different people with common characteristics as belonging to distinct ateker.

The ancestral cradleland of the Ateker communities is thought to lie in Longiro, 'the place of engiro' in the Sudan.

From here, movements in a southern direction then east and finally northwards brought them to present Matheniko, located south of what was then Maliri territory.

[7] According to traditions recorded by Wilson (1970), the Jie advanced eastward and entered the present Karimoja territory at Adilang, an area that was at this time occupied by the Maliri.

This state of affairs did not hold for long, for the people from the hill of Turkan, now calling themselves Turkana, broke away from the Jie at Kotido and started advancing eastward.

The other group, calling themselves Pokotozek moved south and arrived at Nakiloro, which lies on the Turkana escarpment just north of the Moroto mountain.

Women of each major part could be distinguished by dress, and each group is said to have lived in its separate, but adjacent, territory and shared the water of a common well.

At the same time, family traditions present a picture of close association growing up between certain clans, often derived from frequent intermarriage, which sometimes transcended the distinctions between major parts.

He notes that the two major groups took on a common name 'Turkana' while some settlers abandoned the Tarash to move south to the area beyond Mount Elgon.

There were three communities already resident, who lived in close association with each other, herding an array of livestock which included exotic creatures with long necks and humps on their backs - the first camels the Ateker had encountered.

Of the three societies, one appears to have made the most impact on the Turkana, they kept sheep, goats and camels like their associates but specialized in cattle.

[14] Turkana folklore records that as their early settlements expanded north, they reached a hill which came to be known as Moru Ang'issiger where they met another group of 'red people' who herded a distinctive type of long-horned black cattle.

The Turkana thus turned their gaze north to the territory of the weakened Siger, and, coveting their highland pastures, began to encroach on them, just as the Rift Valley was seized by a terrible drought.

While similar, the Ateker languages vary due to the regions they occupied and the communities around them, having borrowed some of their words from the assimilated minorities or neighbouring people.

Other laws govern grazing (achok or akitwar) lands, which elders precise over ceremonies (akiriket) like rain making, peace, annual livestock blessings (akero) etc.