Smiths and metalwork

In Driberg’s time metalwork was the work of men who inherited the skill, usually from their fathers. The smith was called atet: the atet tong made spears, knives, finger rings, earrings and the heavy brass bracelet called ogul, and the atet ariko made only the chain apron, the ariko.

• The Lango smith did not smelt iron ore. A customer brought the metal in the form of iron hoes, and brass came from imported wire.
• The fee was never large and depended on the labour: an ariko cost one to three goats. The smith kept the finished piece until he was paid, and the payment was called a “ransom” for his work.
• The smithy, ot tet, stood outside the village: one round hut without walls, with a roof that came almost to the ground to keep out the wind. It held the bellows, the furnace, the moulds, tongs, hammer and charcoal. Nobody stole from it.
• An apprentice, often a relation, worked the bellows and was paid by learning the trade.

Source: J. H. Driberg, The Lango: A Nilotic Tribe of Uganda (London, 1923), pp. 86–87; public domain. It describes life about a hundred years ago as a colonial administrator saw it, so customs have changed and some may be told differently today. Elders and families are invited to correct it and add what they know.