Ateso Dictionaries

Apuda Ignatius Loyola -
2004: Finally published the Ateso-English Dictionary for Intermediate Learners, the compilation having started back in 1991. For example, computer programs at that time (such as Word Perfect, Office Works) were not user-friendly (they were using F1 -F9 for document creation, saving, retrieval, etc) and computers were few. Storage devices then like floppy disks were small in

storage and unreliable (they could refuse to open, with all your data locked in there). Onapito-Ekomoloit laughing at me at The Crusader offices near Fido Dido, that I was doing a futile exercise writing a language 'no one will ever read'. In addition, the cost of printing books was high, let alone a book of 500 pages printed back-to-back. Funds were hard to come by (Hon. George Michael Mukula will remember how I pestered him in his Divine Tours/ Speedbird Aviation offices on NIC Building in Kampala). Thanks to my Acholi friend and NUSAF1 colleague, Ambrose Olaa, who funded the printing from his earnings (his stores were rented by World Food Programme in Kitgum). The reception of this book in Teso was great. I remember our own Etop Newspaper writing in their editorial that my effort had lifted the burden from the Iteso Cultural Union's shoulders. I was later able to publish the English-Ateso Pocket Dictionary, the English-Ateso Phrasebook, the Bi-lingual Ateso Dictionary that is approved for use by teachers in schools. The Ministry of Education and Sports even ordered for 3,100 copies for government-aided schools in Teso and Bukedi (Tororo and Pallisa) regions in 2010. Thanks to my effort, today Ateso Dictionaries are used almost in every office (especially by tour operators, radio stations and Ateso media organizations) and school.