Mengu Celestino, Seventh Chief of Ondikuru and Speaker of the Kebhu
Wearing the woven cap of office and seated against a leopard skin, Mengu Celestino introduces himself plainly: “I am Mengu Celestino. Mengu is the 7th Chief of Ondikuru and speaker of Kebhu.” Then he sets out where his people live, clan by clan.
The kingdom holds four distinguished clans: the Avazi in Jang’Okoro, the Yuu in Zombo and Arua districts, the Imgbatama in Arua City and Athuma Subcounty, and his own Ondikuru. Paidha has Kebhu, Avon and Kaya families, and Yuu and Ondikuru households have settled in Awika near Lake Albert.
He follows the migrations east to Laropi in Adjumani and to Angulangiya in Kitgum, where families crossed the Nile and settled in Butunda Subcounty and Karuma. Others moved south into the Bunyoro sub region. Across the border in Mahagi district of DR Congo he counts over 34 Kebhu sub clans. Many of the men there work in the gold mines.
“We are large, yet still hidden, community,” he says. Officially the Kebhu are listed as a minority. In practice they are spread across the whole West Nile region, united, as he puts it, in heritage and history.
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