Ik people
Primarily subsistence farmers, most Ik live in small clan villages, or odoks, in the area surrounding Mount Morungole in the Kaabong district.
[1] The word Ik means "head of migration"; they are traditionally believed by locals to have been some of the region's earliest settlers from Kenya.
Notable traditions include itówé-és ("blessing the seeds"), a three-day festival that marks the beginning of the agricultural year, and ipéyé-és, a coming-of-age ritual in which young men must cleanly slaughter a male goat with a spear.
The road system in rural Kaabong is poor, and access to education and health services is scarce: in 2016, only one Ik student completed their O-level examinations.
[7] In 1972, they were the subject of anthropologist Colin Turnbull's highly contested book The Mountain People, which described a culture of extreme individualism in which love and altruism were virtually unknown.
Both are considered rights of passage and are practiced by only men: ipéyé-és marks the beginning of manhood, and tasapet the initiation to elderhood.
Men who have completed tasapet are considered the highest members of the Ik: no decisions can be made without their consent, and they are entitled to respect from those younger.
In subsequent ceremonies, the groom is expected to provide food or beer to various other members of the clan, in order to help integrate the newlyweds into society.
They have a ritual dance in which they practice responding to an attack, in which the men defend the village and women help lead children to hidden positions, as well as caring for wounded.
He depicts the Ik as a people forced into radical individualism to survive, such that they take no care or responsibility for others, sharing nothing, never cooperating on anything, and treating the elderly, infirm and even their own children as little more than burdens.
[10] Turnbull records his horror at many of the events he witnesses, such as their disregard for familial bonds, leading to the death of children and the elderly by starvation.
The book raises questions about human nature, and the abandonment of love and altruism in time of severe hardship; it also suggests parallels to the individualism of Western society.
The physician and poet Lewis Thomas wrote an essay, "The Ik", which Cevin Soling read as a child and sparked a documentary, Ikland (2011).
The film depicts the Ik people in a positive light by showing how easily befriended they are, how they survive and live as families, their music and dancing, and their ability to step into acting roles.
The documentary concludes with members of the tribe mimicking a staged performance of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens as a Western metaphor for 'redemption'.
