Kidepo Valley National Park meaning

Kidepo Valley National Park meaning

Kidepo Valley National Park meaning; Just like we humans all have a background of our naming origin, so do places. The naming of places is usually as a result of something or someone.

Kidepo national park as a tourist destination has its origin as to why the park is called Kidepo national park till date. Before Kidepo National Park was gazetted as a game reserve by the British colonial government in 1962, then later as a national park, the area where the park sits was a settlement area for the Dodoth and IK people. The Dodoth and Ik people were mainly practising pastoralists who survived on their animal and gathering fruits.

The area where the park sits happened to be rich in borassus fruit trees used by the locals for fermenting to make palm beer and so the communities found pleasure in gathering and picking those fruits. So when the area was gazetted as a game reserve, the communities were relocated however; they kept on encroaching to gather and pick borassus fruits from the trees in the gazetted reserve. Several reports came up how the community illegally picked fruits from the gazetted area as this would be said locally in Karamojong language where “to pick” is said as “akidep”. However due to the mispronunciation of words by the white man, it was pronounced as Kidepo hence the name Kidepo where the park derived its name.  Therefore this is where the Kidepo Valley National Park meaning was derived.