TESO

also called Iteso, or Ateso, people of central Uganda who speak an Eastern Sudanic language of the Chari-Nile branch of the Nilo-Saharan family. They are counted among the most progressive farmers of Uganda; they quickly took to ox plows when they began cultivating cotton in the early 1900s. Millet is the major staple crop; cotton, the main economic crop. Much of the traditional culture and organization of the Teso were lost when they were conquered by the Ganda under Kakunguru at the end of the 19th century. The age-grade system and the clan lost their importance, and much of the indigenous territorial organization was destroyed. Almost all indigenous religion has been replaced by Christianity; previously the Teso believed in an omnipotent but remote god, Akuj, and in a god of calamity, Edeke.