Adhola people

The Adhola people, also known as Jopadhola or Badama, are an ethnic group of Uganda. They live Tororo District in Eastern Uganda and comprise about two percent of the country's total population. They speak Dhopadhola (a Luo language), which belongs to the Western Nilotic branch of the Nilo-Saharan language family. They are primarily pastoralists. The Jopadhola call this land

Padhola which, according to historian Bethwell Ogot, is an elliptic form of “Par Adhola” meaning the “place of Adhola. Adhola was the founder father of the Jopadhola. Officially, Padhola is called Budama, but according to tradition this is the Bantu (Buganda) version of “‘Widooma’ - a Jopadhola war cry: ‘You are in trouble’”. The social structure of the Jopadhola can be described as polysegmentary because there is no traditional centralized government and its organization is limited to a clan called Nono. There are over 52 clans, each with cultural practices, common ancestry and a distinct lineage.

Jopadhola traditional justice