1. One major task faced by scholars concerned with the ethnography of the Maasai has been to arrange the numerous ritual-political units into a meaningful framework. Early in the nineteenth century several groups were structurally equal in that their members shared a unique corpus of clan names and participated in a unique cycle of age-set ceremonies: Il Maasai, Il Uas Nkishu, Ilosekelai, Il Parakuyu, Iloogolala (“Enganglima”), Il Dalatlekutuk, Il Siria, Il Sampur (Samburu), and perhaps Ilaikipiak. Some of these groups were destroyed or absorbed by the Il Maasai during the nineteenth century. Within the Il Maasai, members of territorial units defined themselves by performing certain age-set ceremonies together: Purko, Damat, Keekonyukie, Dalatlekutuk, Iloodokilani-Matapato, Kaputiei, Iloitai, Kisongo, and Salei. Further unifying, or in some cases cross-cutting, clan-ceremonial identities was allegiance to various famlles of prophets (il oibonok).

2. For a few recent examples of this tendency see Jacobs, A.H., “The Traditional Political Organization of the Pastoral Maasai” (D. Phil., Oxford, 1965), 34, 48, 55Google Scholar; idem, “A Chronology of the Pastoral Maasai,” Hadith 1 (1968), 16, 21, 24; idem, “Maasai Inter-Tribal Relations: Belligerent Headsmen or Peaceable Pastoralists? in Turton, David and Fukui, M., eds. Warfare Among East African Herders, [Senri Ethnological Studies 3] (Osaka, 1979), 33–52Google Scholar; Lawren, William L., “Masai and Kikuyu: An Historical Analysis of Culture Transmission,” JAH, 9(1968), 575CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Waller, Richard, “The Maasai and the British 1895-1905: The Origins of an Alliance,” JAH, 17(1976), 532.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Waller uses the phrase “Iloikop Wars” but his interpretation of the “Iloikop” and the wars of the nineteenth century among Maa-speaking pastoralists is closer to my own. See also Waller, Richard, “The Lords of East Africa: The Maasai in the Mid-Nineteenth Century (cl840-cl885)” (Ph.D., Cambridge, 1978)Google Scholar; Berntsen, J.L., “Pastoralism, Raiding, and Prophets: Maasailand in the Nineteenth Century” (Ph.D., University of Wisconsin, 1979).Google Scholar

3. See Elphick's, Richard discussion of Khoi-San identity in his Kraal and Castle (New Haven, 1977), esp. 23–30Google Scholar; Newbury, David, “Bushi and the Historians: Historiographical Themes in Eastern Kivu,” History in Africa, 5(1978), 131–51CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Southall, Aidan, “Nuer and Dinka are People: Ecology, Ethnicity and Logical Possibility,” Man, n.s., 11(1976), 463–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

4. “Richard Brenner's Forschungen in Ost-Afrika,” Petermann's Mitteilungen 16(1876/1877), 462, and mapGoogle Scholar; for more recent uses of Kore, or a form of it, see A.F. Holford-Walker, Handing Over Report, Lokitaung, Turkana District, 20 September, 1946. Rhodes House Library, Diaries and Papers of A.F. Holford-Walker, MSS. Afr.s. 831; Carr, C.J., Pastoralism in Crisis: The Dasanetch and Their Ethiopian Lands, [University of Chicago, Dept. of Geography, Research Paper No. 180] (Chicago, 1977), passimGoogle Scholar; Ylvisaker, Marguerite H., “The Political and Economic Relationship of the Lamu Archipelago to the Adjacent Kenya Coast in the Nineteenth Century” (Ph.D., Boston University, 1975), 99n.Google Scholar

5. Huntingford, G.W.B., Nandi Work and Culture (London, 1950), 11Google Scholar; Weatherby, J.M., “Nineteenth-Century Wars in Western Kenya,” Azania, 2(1967), 133–34CrossRefGoogle Scholar; idem, “Inter-tribal Wars in Western Kenya,” Uganda Journal, 26(1962), 200.

6. Walter, B.J., “The Territorial Expansion and Organization of the Nandi, 1850-1905: A Study in Political Geography” (Ph.D., University of Wisconsin, 1968), 212–16.Google Scholar

7. Interviews conducted by Judy Butterman and used with her permission. Martinius Oyugi, August 10, 1977; 01 Mera ole Sile, September 28, 1977; and Ntae ole Kaka, October 2, 1977.

8. Stigand, C.H., The Land of Zinj (London, 1913), 207.Google Scholar For a study of Samburu-Rendille interaction see Spencer, Paul, Nomads in Alliance (London, 1973).Google Scholar

9. Krapf first mentioned -humba in 1850. According to his informants, members of a caravan from Ukimbu in Unyamwezi, the land of the Chagga was Humba. Krapf, J.L., Reisen in Ost-Afrika, (2 vols.: Stuttgart, 1858), 2: 181.Google Scholar Gustav Fischer noted that the Mbugwe and other peoples west of them toward Lake Victoria used “Humba” for the Maasai. “Bericht über die im Auftrage der geographischen Gesellschaft in Hamburg unternommene Reise in das Masai-Land,” Mitteilungen der Geographischer Gesells ahaft in Hamburg (1882/1883), 225Google Scholar; Burton, Richard F., The Lake Regions of Central Africa (New York, 1860), 213, 216–17, 416, 475.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

10. Jacobs, , “Political Organization,” 31, 34Google Scholar; Last, J.T., “A Journey into the Nguru Country.…” Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, 4(1882), 148–157CrossRefGoogle Scholar; idem, “A Visit to the Masai People.…” Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society, 5(1883), 517-43; Kenya National Archives, Southern Province Miscellaneous Correspondence, 1948-1954, PC/SP.6/2/1B.

11. Boteler, Thomas, Narrative of a Voyage of Discovery to Africa and Arabia… from 1821 to 1826…. (2 vols.: London, 1835), 2:180.Google Scholar For “Kwavi” and “Akabi,” see Krapf, Reisen, passim. I am not aware of any nineteenth-or early twentieth-century references to “Akabi” by Bantu peoples in western Kenya but see Osogo, John, A History of the BaLuyia (New York, 1966), passimGoogle Scholar; Ruel, M., “Kuria Generation Classes,” Africa, 32(1962), 16n.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

12. We do not know when Maa-speaking peoples began to identify themselves by various names such as “Il Maasai,” “Il Parakuyu,” “Il Oikop,” etc. Perhaps they have “always” used these terms. Certainly the rapid expansion of the Il Maasai in the nineteenth century made their name familiar over a wider area than the names of other Maa-speaking groups.

13. The most complete accounts of the missionaries' writings are their letters and journals in the Church Missionary Society Archives in London: Krapf (CA5/016), Erhardt (CA5/09), and Rebmann (CA5/024). Rebmann and Erhardt published “Memoire zur erläuterung der von ihm und J. Rebmann zusammengestellten Karte von ost- und central-Afrika,” Petermann's Mitteilungen, 2(1856), 19–32.Google ScholarErhardt's, Vocabulary of the Enguduk Iloikob… (Württemburg, 1857)Google Scholar appeared after he had left east Africa. Letters and journal selections of all three missionaries appeared in the Church Missionary Intelligencer between 1849 and 1855. After his return to Germany in the mid-1850s, Krapf gathered his and Rebmann's available letters and journals and published an edited version, the Reisen, an abridged version of which appeared in English as Travels, Researchers and Missionary Labours in Eastern Africa (London, 1860).Google Scholar His Vocabulary of the Enguduk Eloikob (Tübingen) appeared in 1854Google Scholar, and his Dictionary of the Swahili Language (London) in 1882.Google Scholar Several letters and shorter accounts of his travels appeared in a number of English and German journals. Presumably the missionary writings were “must” reading for intending travelers to eastern Africa.

14. While the pastoral idealogy and transhumant grazing pattern of many Maa-speaking peoples militated against involvement in agriculture, all of them depended upon their agricultural neighbors for grains and bananas. For Krapf's, “Wakuafi,” see his Vocabulary, 11–12.Google Scholar

15. Erhardt, Journal of the Usambara Journey, September 6 and October 5. Tanga Journal sub April 9, CMS, CA5/09. Krapf, , Reisen. 2:101, 107.Google Scholar

16. Krapf, , Vocabulary, 4–31Google Scholar; Erhardt, Tanga Journal, passim;. Erhardt referred to his own manuscript of Maa vocabulary as “enguduk iloikobani (Language of the Masai).” July 24, 1854.

17. Krapf, , Reisen, 1:454–57.Google Scholar See also Rebmann's sketch map (1848) in CMA, CA5/016, and Erhardt's and Rebmann's map accompanying the “Memoire” (1856).

18. Wakefield, Thomas, “Routes of Native Caravans from the Coast to the Interior of Eastern Africa…,” Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, 40(1870), 303, 306, 312, 327.Google ScholarNew, Charles, Life, Wanderings, and Labours in Eastern Africa (London, 1873), 353–65Google Scholar, gives a valuable description of Taveta in the late 1860s.

19. Wakefield, “Native Caravans,” passim.

20. Guillain, M., Documents sur l'histoire, la géographie et le commerce de l'Afrique Orientale (3 vols.: Paris, 1857), 2:274–95Google Scholar; Burton, Richard, Zanzibar: City, Island and Coast (2 vols.: London, 1872), 2:67–80CrossRefGoogle Scholar; von der Decken, Carl Claus, Kersten, O., ed., Reisen in Ost-Afrika, (2 vols.: Leipzig: 1869–1871), 2:22–37Google Scholar; Christie, James, Cholera Epidemics in East Africa (London, 1876), 195–235.Google ScholarAvanchers, Leon des, “Equisse géographique des pays Oromo au Galla, des pays Soomali, et de la côte orientale d'Afrique,” Bulletin de la Société de Géographie, ser. 4, 17(1859), 153–70Google Scholar, utilized independent sources from among Somali and Swahili traders of Barawa as well as Krapf's and Rebmann's observations.

21. Fischer, , “Bericht,” 36–99, 189–279Google Scholar; later published as Das Masai-Land (Hamburg, 1885)Google Scholar; Thomson, Joseph, Through Masai Land (London, 1885), 200–30, 330–40.Google Scholar

22. Fischer, , “Bericht,” 60–61, 89–93Google Scholar; Thomson, , Masai Land, 263–69, 284–86.Google Scholar

23. Fischer, , “Bericht,” 45Google Scholar; Thomson, , Masai Land, 240–43.Google Scholar

24. Fischer, , “Bericht,” 36–39, 60–1, 89–93Google Scholar; Thomson, , Masai Land, 263–69, 284–86Google Scholar; Höhnel, Ludwig von, Discovery of Lakes Rudolf and Stephanie (2 vols.: London, 1894), 2: 1–5.Google Scholar

25. Farler, J.P., “Native Routes in East Africa,” Journal of the Royal Geographical Society, 4(1882), 730–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

26. Johnston, Harry H., The Kilimanjaro Expedition (London, 1886), 78, 312Google Scholar; Höhnel, Von, Discovery, 2: 1–5Google Scholar; Merker, , Masai, 9, 18, 20Google Scholar; Hollis, , Masai, 280–81Google Scholar (Lumbwa = farmers); idem, “Notes on the History and Customs of the People of Taveta, East Africa,” Journal of the African Society 1(1901), 98-125.

27. Höhnel, Von, Discovery, 2: 1–5Google Scholar; Merker, , Masai, 8–20Google Scholar; Kenya National Archives, Ngong Political Record Book, Part B, DC/KAJ.1/2/2.

28. In 1854 Erhardt noted that Maa was “generally but imperfectly spoken by all the Masai traders at Tanga.” Letter of H. Venn, Oct. 27, 1854, CMS CA5/016; Fischer, , “Bericht,” 75, 97.Google Scholar

29. Ibid., 60-75.

30. For a brief, and perhaps unjustifiably harsh, summary of Sadi bin Ahedi's career, see Thomson, , Masai Land, 4, 126.Google Scholar

31. For example, Thomson noted that Martin, James, his companion and assistant, “knew Ki-swahili well… and could talk about ten languages in sailor fashion.” Masai Land, 10.Google Scholar Cf. Burton, , Lake Regions, 406.Google Scholar

32. Johnston, , Kilimanjaro Expedition, 76Google Scholar; most of his Maa vocabulary can be found in Erhardt's Vocabulary.

33. Among the works which contained observations on the Maasai are Dawson, E.C., ed., The Last Journals of Bishop Hannington (London, 1888)Google Scholar; idem, James Hannington (London, 1887); Lugard, F.J.D., ed. Perham, M., The Diaries of Lord Lugard, (3 vols.: London, 1959), vols. 1 and 3Google Scholar; Hobley, C.W., Kenya: From Chartered Company to Crown Colony (London, 1929)Google Scholar; Jackson, Frederick J., Early Days in East Africa (London, 1920)Google Scholar; Meinertzhagen, Richard, Kenya Diary, 1902-1906 (Edinburgh, 1957)Google Scholar; Peters, Karl, New Light on Dark Africa (New York, 1891)Google Scholar; Kallenberg, Friedrich, Auf dem Kriegspfad gegen die Massai (Munich, 1892).Google Scholar

34. F.G. Hall, Diaries and Papers, Rhodes House Library, MSS Afr. s. 54-62; Hall, B.E.F., “How Peace Came to the Kikuyu,” Journal of the African Society, 37(1938), 432–47Google Scholar; Baumann, Oscar, Durch Massailand zur Nilquelle (Berlin, 1894)Google Scholar; Meinertzhagen, Kenya Diary.

35. S.L., and Hinde, H., The Last of the Masai (London, 1901)Google Scholar; Johnston, Harry H., The Uganda Protectorate, (2 vols.: London, 1904), esp. vol. 2Google Scholar; Hollis, Alfred C., The Masai: Their Language and Folklore (Oxford, 1905)Google Scholar; Eliot, Charles C., The East African Protectorate (London, 1905).Google Scholar

36. Merker, Masai.

37. Eliot, Charles, “Introduction,” to Hollis, , Masai, ix, xi.Google Scholar

38. Sandford, G.R., An Administrative and Political History of the Masai Reserve (London, 1919).Google Scholar

39. Leakey, L.S.B., “Some Notes on the Masai of Kenya Colony,” Royal Anthropological Institute 60(1930), 185–209Google Scholar; Storrs-Fox, Donald, “Further Notes on the Masai of Kenya Colony,” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 60(1930), 447–65Google Scholar; idem, “Description of Masai Shields and Spears,” Journal of the East Africa and Uganda Natural History Society, 37(1930), 201-02; idem, “Notes on Marriage Customs Among the Masai,” Journal of the East Africa and Uganda Natural History Society, 42/43(1931), 183-93; Tignor, Robert L., “The Maasai Warriors: Pattern Maintenance and Violence in Colonial Kenya,” JAH 13(1972), 271–90CrossRefGoogle Scholar; idem, Colonial transformation of Kenya: The Kamba, Kikuyu, and Masai from 1900 to 1939 (Princeton, 1976). Huntingford, G.W.B., The Southern Nilo-Hamites (London, 1953), 12.Google Scholar

40. Information about these events can be found in the Kenya Land Commission, Evidence and Memoranda, (3 vols.: London, 1934), 2: 1199–1210, 1570–80, 1866–68.Google Scholar

41. Fosbrooke, H.A., “An Administrative Survey of the Masai Social System,” Tanganyika Notes and Records no. 26 (1948), 1–50.Google Scholar The published version was basically the same as the original (1938) a copy of which can be found in Kenya National Archives, Narok District: Miscellaneous Correspondence, 1938-1948. DC/NRK.6/1/1.

42. Spencer, Paul, The Samburu: A Study of Gerontocracy in a Nomadic Tribe (London, 1965)Google Scholar; Jacobs, “Political Organization.”

43. Ibid., esp. 20-113.

44. Ibid., 96-99; idem, “The Irrigation Agricultural Maasai of Pagasi.” University of East Africa, Social Science Conference (January, 1968), 1-11.

45. Ibid., 8-10.

46. In addition to the works noted above, information concerning interaction between agriculturalists and Maa-speaking pastoralists can be found in Merker, Moritz, Rechtsverhältnisse und Sitten der Wadschagga [Petermann's Mitteilungen, Supplement 138] (Berlin, 1902)Google Scholar; Meyer, Hans, Der Kilimanjaro (Berlin, 1900)Google Scholar; Schoeller, Max, Aequatorial-Ost-Afrika und Uganda, 1886-97. (3 vols.: Berlin, 1901), 1: 162–222Google Scholar; Arkell-Hardwick, A., An Ivory Trader in North Kenya (London, 1903)Google Scholar; Beidelman, T.O., “The Baraguyu,” Tanganyika Notes and Record no. 55 (1960), 245–78Google Scholar; idem, “Beer and Cattle Theft in Ukaguru,” American Anthropologist, 63(1961), 534-49; idem, “A Note on Baraguyu House Types and Economy,” Tanganyika Notes and Records no. 56 (1961), 56-66; Chanler, W.A., Through Jungle and Desert (London, 1896)Google Scholar; Dundas, K.R., “The Wawanga and Other Tribes of the Elgon District, British East Africa,” Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 43(1913), 1–75Google Scholar; Lemenye, Justin, Maisha ya Sameini ole Kivasis (Dar es Salaam, 1953)Google Scholar, translated into English by Fosbrooke, H.A. and published as “The Life of Justin,” Tanganyika Notes and Records, no. 41 (1955), 31–57Google Scholar; 42(1956), 19-30.

47. Krapf, , Vocabulary, 7.Google Scholar

48. Erhardt, , Vocabulary, 57, 93, 94.Google Scholar In his Tanga Journal Erhardt claimed that the Maasai and the Iloikop called each other “orlmangadi.” sub May 1, 1854. Il mangati (s. ol mangat), “enemies,” is used by Maa-speakers for any pastoral group with whom they compete for cattle.

49. Merker, , Masai, 214–15Google Scholar; Hollis, , Masai, 311–12Google Scholar; Jacobs, , “Political Organization,” 33Google Scholar; Waller, , “Lords of East Africa,” 139n.Google Scholar

50. Wakefield, E.S., Thomas Wakefield: Missionary and Geographical Pioneer in East Equatorial Africa (London, 1904), 179.Google Scholar

51. Schanz, Johannes, Mitteilungen über die Besiedlung des Kilimandscharo durch die Dschagga und deren Geschichte. [Baessler Archiv, Supplement 4] (1913; rpt. New York: 1968), 4–6, 19–23.Google Scholar

52. Augustiny, Julius, “Geschichte der Hauptlinge von Madschame,” Zeitschrift für Eingeborene-Sprachen, 17(1925), 185–86.Google Scholar A.R.|Barlow, “About Mbatia,” Barlow Papers, “Miscellaneous File,” University of Nairobi Library, translated from the Kikuyu by Tabitha Kabogo; Burton, , Lake Regions, 156, 213, 216–17, 416Google Scholar; Leakey, Louis S.B., The Southern Kikuyu Before 1903, (3 vols.: New York, 1977), passim.Google Scholar

53. For examples see Merritt, E.H., “A History of the Taita of Kenya to 1900,” (Ph.D., Indiana University, 1975), 66–68Google Scholar; Osogo, , BaLuyia, 8, 90, 115Google Scholar; Mwaniki, H.S.K., Embu Historical Texts (Kampala, 1974), passim.Google Scholar

54. Erhardt, , Vocabulary, 94Google Scholar; Johnston, , Kilimanjaro Expedition, 323Google Scholar; Krapf, , Vocabulary, 4–7.Google Scholar

55. Johnston, , Kilimanjaro Expedition, 313Google Scholar; Thomson, , Masai Land, 240–41Google Scholar; Fischer, , “Bericht,” 60–61, 89–93.Google Scholar

56. For Samburu usage see Stigand, , Land of Zinj, 207Google Scholar; Jacobs, , “Political Organization,” 30Google Scholar; Simmel ole Senteu Loitai, March 9, 1975.

57. Jacobs, , “Political Organization,” 31.Google Scholar

58. Mesikongi Lekoiam, Arusha, November 30, 1975; Lentasin Oliokurukur, Kisongo, claimed that the Parakuyu also referred to the Kisongo as “Iloikop.” Kisongo Maasai did not pay compensation to either the Arusha or the Parakuyu in pre-colonial times. November 23, 1975. Wanga ol Danyati asserted that the Parakuyu (“Lumbwa”) called the Kisongo “Iloikop” because the Kisongo killed without paying compensation; “if we had paid [nkishu ool] oikop, they would not call us [Iloikop]”. November 28, 1975. Uason Kishu and Purko did not pay each other compensation. Sentamu ole Kuraru, Keekonyukie, December 16, 1975.

59. Fischer, Gustav, “Die Volkstämme in den Gebieten der ostafrikanischen Schneeberge,” Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 16(1884), 220Google Scholar; idem, “Bericht,” 45-46. Separate interviews with Santamu ole Kuraru and Saane ole Kuraru, Keekonyukie, December 16, 1975. Mukishoe ole Nemanto, Kaputiei, interviewed by Alan Jacobs, November, 1967.

60. Simmel ole Senteu, with interjection by Jackson ol Papit, Loitai, March 9, 1975; Lentasin Oliokurukur, Kisongo, November 23, 1975; Wanga ol Danyati, November 28, 1975.

61. Merker, , Masai, 214–21.Google Scholar

62. Bernsten, “Pastoralism, Raiding, and Prophets,” chapters 3-6.

63. Ibid.

64. Jacobs, , “Political Organization,” 108ff.Google Scholar; Waller, , “Lords of East Africa,” 139Google Scholar; Fratkin, Elliot, “A Comparison of the Role of Prophets in Samburu and Maasai Warfare” in Warfare Among East African Herders, 53–68.Google Scholar

65. Spencer, , Samburu, xviiiGoogle Scholar; I am deeply indebted to Elliot Fratkin, who freely discussed his research on Samburu prophets.