Clan Explorer
Histories, totems, lineages and leaders of the 149 Lango clans.
25 / 149 clans on the website so far — more are being added · 25 shown
Akwaich
The leopard (kwaich) is the totem of this clan. Members do not hunt or injure it and mourn when one dies. Tradition said that in the old days mothers of the clan could place their babies in a leopard's mouth without harm.
Alipa
The flesh and hide of the duiker are forbidden to women, and the hide of the waterbuck to everyone. Only girls may wear the ariko, the apron of metal chains.
Along
The flesh of the waterbuck is forbidden to women and its hide to everyone.
Amolo
Women do not eat the flesh of the duiker and no one keeps its hide; nobody wearing or carrying such a hide may enter the courtyard of a woman of the clan. No one may point out a stag-beetle to a child.
Apach
Neither men nor women eat a kind of mongoose called ayita.
Apany
Women do not eat the flesh or use the hide of the waterbuck, may not touch, use or pass under the shade of the fig tree ebu, and do not use the plant adyebepar.
Apelo
Women may not touch or use goatskin or the hide of the waterbuck.
Apeto
Neither men nor women may touch or use the plants ocholi and aywe.
Arak
Recorded by Driberg as Jo Arakit. Women do not eat the flesh of the kob, waterbuck or oribi, and no one keeps those hides; giraffe are neither hunted nor eaten; no one plays with or throws bits of broken pot. Pregnant women keep away from the entrance of a cattle kraal.
Arom
Women do not eat the flesh or use the hide of the duiker, and may not touch or use the fig tree ebu.
Atek
Recorded by Driberg as Jo Atekit, a large clan with many branches. Women do not eat the flesh of the duiker, and no one keeps its hide; women do not use the hide of the waterbuck or eat honey; no one uses or touches the fig tree ebu. Boys at puberty take part in a ceremony called epet me wilo dongo, "buying adulthood", with a feast of bulls.
Ato
Women may not touch or use the fig tree ebu, and may not walk over the kind of ant-hill called ogwe.
Atule
Women do not use the hide of the waterbuck, may not step over a tree trunk lying across the path, and may not walk across a laro jok, a bare patch of soil in the grass called "god's threshing-floor".
Ayer
The flesh of the duiker is forbidden to women and its hide to everyone.
Ayom
The patas monkey (ayom) is the totem of this clan. Members do not hunt or injure it, and they mourn for it as for one of their own when one dies. No other prohibitions are recorded.
Eling
Women do not eat the flesh or use the hide of the duiker. A pregnant woman may not step over a tree trunk lying across the path, and women do not use the plant adyebepar.
Etoko
A woman of this clan may not step over a young calf lying on the ground, and a man wearing a calfskin may not enter the village.
Ngwiyo
Pregnant women do not eat the flesh or use the hide of the bushbuck and waterbuck, and a man who sees a pregnant woman does not mention or comment on her condition.
Obua
Women do not eat the flesh of the leopard or sleep on its skin, may not use the fig tree enanga, and may not step over a tree trunk lying across the path. In a branch, Jo Obua me tung Olonga, a husband stays away from the house and courtyard for eight days after a birth.
Okarowok
Recorded by Driberg as Jo Akarawok, a clan with many branches. Boys before puberty and women do not eat the flesh of the duiker, and no one keeps its hide. Boys at puberty take part in the etogo me wilo dongo festival, held every alternate year.
Oki
Recorded by Driberg as Jo Oki. Boys before puberty and women do not eat the flesh of the duiker, and no one keeps its hide. In the etogo me wilo dongo festival, held every alternate year, the boys who have killed a chicken eat it together with their elders.
Okori
Women do not touch or use goatskin, and the hide of the waterbuck is forbidden to both sexes. At the funeral of a man many chickens are killed in the village and the people lash each other with withies of the tree epobo or with whips of buffalo and hippopotamus hide.
Olwa
Women do not eat the flesh of the duiker; neither men nor women keep the hide of the duiker, kob or waterbuck. Women do not eat the fruit of, touch or use the tree awelo, and no one uses the fig tree ebu. Women may not step over an ant-hill of the kind called ogwe.
Opali
Women do not eat the flesh or use the hide of the duiker, may not use sheepskin to carry a baby or cover the head in the rain, and may not enter an otogo (the young men's hut). Children may not lie on the hide of a bushbuck, and pregnant women keep away from the entrance of a cattle kraal.