Some time ago, as I was growing up, as a young girl, a ‘big man’ in Teso was classified as one who possessed a lot of wealth in form of large herds of livestock; extensive land; married many wives; had homesteads and granaries of food stuffs; and had produced many children. This has changed in the recent years because of many factors.

Now, a ‘big man’ in Teso is one with a lot of money and has political influence; can offer cash gifts for funerals, school fees; and cash gifts for building churches, mosques, schools and so on.

Age does not matter, but it is somebody with ability to ‘shake mango trees’ (able to give us money), that is who is regarded as a ‘big man’ in Teso today.

By Stella Rose Aguti, a beneficiary of our CPAR Uganda programme, “Mentoring Young Adults into Innovators against Poverty.” Her comment herein was in reaction to a blog post: “To be a ‘Big Man’ in Teso is earned not inherited” posted by Norah Owaraga on her website; a post which discusses findings of empirical research.