ISTORY OF JO-p'ADHOLA TRIBE
Jo-p’Adhola (Jopadhola) literally means the people of Adhola. Adhola, on the other hand, is believed by the Jopadholas to be the eponym of the nationality (tribe) of the Jopadhola. They are also known as Badama. The word “Badama” is a Kiganda and Kinyole version of the Dhopadhola (the language of the Jopadhola) word Widoma, a Jopadhola war cry which means you are in trouble. The Jopadhola live in a place called Padhola or Budama. Padhola means the home of Adhola; and Budama also means the home of the Badama. Padhola or Budama is the area to the north-west, south-west and west of the foothills of Tororo Rock near the Kenya-Uganda border.
Crazroolara says: “The name Adhola has doubtless to be related to the Nyi-Udola clan of the Anywaah. Adhola or P’Adhola ………. ” (Crazroolara, J.P.: 315)
The Jopadhola number about according to the population census of…….
Anthropologically, the Jopadhola belong to the group of people called the Luos whose southern members were called Nilotics by the British colonialists. They got the name Nilotics because they supposedly followed the Nile River, trekking from the north to the areas they presently inhabit. Yes, there is some truth in this. The cradle of the Luo as a whole is a place some 50 miles south of Rumbeck in southern Sudan.
Most authorities agree (Ogot 41)
Who was Adhola?
The Jopadhola believe they all originate from a man called Adhola. However, this belief does not tally with the history of the Jopadhola. Prof Ogot, who has studied the migration of the southern Luos, surmises that the belief in a common origin is one aspect of the consciousness of oneness as a distinct ethnic group that developed with time. By the beginning of the eighteenth century, when all but one clan had arrived in Padhola, the Jopadhola were thinking of themselves as the children of Adhola. (Ogot 104) The belief in Adhola as the eponym of the Jopadhola “…appears to have evolved when the Padhola clans were already living side by side in an orderly way, and when they had already accumulated some common historical experience. The various clan leaders referred to themselves as brothers and hence regarded their ancestors as sons of Adhola, from whom the name of the whole derived. Any clan which could not trace its genealogy to Adhola was disparaged; and this attitude fostered a monolithic view of history.” (Ogot 67)
There are other explanation as to who Adhola was.
The ecological zones of Padhola.
The Jopadhola traditionally divide Padhola into three ecological zones: Lul, Mawele and Yowoko. Lul simply means forest and Yowoko, the outside. The real meaning of Mawele is not known; however, Prof Ogot surmises it could have been derived from an Anuak word, Welle which means late arrivals as opposed to Jo-bur, “the people of the settlement”. Lul is the area around Senda and Katandi. This is the lowest, most fertile and was the most thickly forested part of Padhola. Mawele is the southern part of Padhola, close to River Malawa and in the direction of Iyolwa. It is less well-watered and used to be infested with tsetse flies, a factor which initially discouraged settlement in the area. Yowoko is the eastern part of Padhola. It is the highest and coolest part but far less fertile than Lul.
The journey from the north: 67-
Ogot surmises that the first wave of immigrants into Padhola traveled with the last wave of the Kenya Luo (the Owiny group) from Fort Atura area via Kaberamaido, where they lived for a short while. The Jopadhola insist they found Kaberamaido uninhabited and that they are the ones who gave the place the name Kaber maido, meaning this place is suitable for cultivating groundnuts (peanuts). From Kabaramaido they went across River Ugweru and to Bugwere. They did not stay here long. They moved somehow backwards towards present day Mbale, then southwards by way of Busiu and eventually arriving somewhere near Kwapa. This area was then thickly forested and so not suitable for cattle people accustomed to living in hot savannah woodlands. They did not settle here either and moved on to the well-watered lowlands of Padhola. Ogot estimates that they arrived here about fifteen generations ago. The place was uninhabited.
It is important to point out that the account, based on Ogot’s studies, which we have just given, tallies with that given by Y.K. Lubogo in his “History of Busoga”: “ (page 74)
The other authority for this history is Professor David Cohen
The pioneer clans: 87-
The clans that pioneered settlement in Padhola were Amor, Ramogi, P”Angoya, Biranga, Loli, Nyapolo, J’Ode, Lakwar, and Sule. They first settled around either Maundo or Nyamalogo. In fact the name Nyamalogo means a meeting place before dispersal. That is to say the place where the Jopadhola first settled before moving on to other areas.
From Nyamalogo, the various sections of the Amor clan, after disputes and divisions, moved to occupy other areas of Lul. The Kijwala division moved on to Maundo and then Mikwana and Nagongera. There was another split at Mikwana and another splinter group moved away to settle at Kiyeyi which means “the settlement of stubborn people”.
The arrival of the Koi clan: (Page 91-93)
Although the Koi clan arrived at almost the same time as the pioneers, we shall handle them separately because they did not travel together with the clans we discussed earlier. The Koi claim to be descendants of Olum. Ogot surmises that this Olum might be Olum Panya who led the Bito (the royal clan) into Bunyoro. There is some evidence for this in one of the Koi clan songs which blames Olum for causing them problems:
“Olum who began the trouble
Has now departed and left us
And now we’ve a problem in this place.
Second wave of Immmigration: (99)
The second waves of immigrants came from different places
(1) Jo-Nam 99-100
(2) Bendo 100-
Busoga:
The Banyole arrive:
Jo Sewe: 93-95
While Banyole harassed the Jopadhola from the west, the people the Jopadhola called the Sewe harrased them from the east. It is not very clear who the Sewe were. They could have been the Masai. Others think the Sewe could have been the Sebei or even the Nandi. The word “sewe” means maggots in Dhupadhola. One explanation of the use of the word “sewe’ in reference to these people is that “they slept on the ground like maggots.”
The raids of Jo-Sewe took the Jopadhola by surprise. Initial they did not know what to do. Some of them like the Ramogi who had erected defensive forts at Matindi simply fled. Incidentally, the Ramogi clan bore their brunt of the Sewe raids and their bitter experience is recorded in one of their clan songs:
Wangolo of Matindi has returned
Oo Matindi;
The Sewe so massacred the youths of Matindi
That scarcely a living soul was left.”
To deaf with the Sewe raids, the Jopadhola evolved a kind of defensive settlement. They lived in settlements which were surrounded by steep trenches called WUGO.
Jo Misowa (Bagisu):
The Jopadhola fought wars with Bagisu whom they call Jo-Misowa too. The Bagisu are found to the north-east of the Jo-Padhola. They inhabit the foothills of Mt. Elgon, near the town of Mbale. According to Ogot the Bagisu were occupying the Molo areas of Padhola some four generations earlier or roughly between 1650 and 1680. Although the Jopadhola assert that it was the Bagisu who attacked them, this is rather unlikely as the Bagisu were not war-like and aggressive. Whoever attacked first, the upshot was that the Bagisu with their domestic animals, as they have always done, retired to their fortress in the hills. When the Jopadhola attempted to pursue them there, they suffered defeat the same way as others who tried to smoke the Bagisu from the hills had. The Jopadhola and Bagisu then reached a settlement. This was done at a place now called Merekit (which means bundle of peace) because the peace negotiators came with bundles of food and other gifts. From that time on, the two peoples have lived in peace.
Omia (Iteso)
Ramogi (94)
Literature on Jopadhola:
Cohen, David.
Crazzolara, J.P. “The Lwoo,” Mission Africane-Verona, 1950.
Lubogo, Y.K. “History of Busoga,”
Oboth-Ofumbi,
Ogot, B.A. “History of Southern Luo,” East Africa Publishing House, Nairobi 1967.
Southall, A.W. “”Padhola,” a paper read at
