Making the Maasai: revisiting the history of Rift Valley Maa-speakers c.1800–c.1930

ABSTRACT

This article offers a re-assessment of Maasai history from 1800 to 1930, taking a critical look at both the existing historiography and the sources on which it is based. It examines how Maasai institutions and group identities adapted to long-term environmental and social challenges, including climate change, disease, conflicts over resources and the advent of colonial overrule, always with survival as the main imperative. What emerges is a more complex and dynamic account of developments in the Central Rift Valley since the end of the eighteenth century.

KEYWORDS:

• Maasai
• history
• pastoralism
• East Africa

Acknowledgements

The author thanks John Berntsen, John Lonsdale, Thomas Spear and Leslie Patrick, together with the two anonymous reviewers, for the careful readings and insightful comments that have significantly improved the article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1 At the core were two still unpublished theses – Berntsen, “Pastoralism” and Waller, “Lords.” Additional input came from another – Sobania, “Historical Tradition.”

2 Notably, Jacobs, “Pastoral Masai.”

3 Tonkin, Narrating, esp. ch.7.

4 Vossen, Eastern Nilotes, ch. 4; Ehret, Civilisations, 277–8, 394. Ongamo-speakers survived into the twentieth century on the eastern slopes of Kilimanjaro – Fosbrooke, “Ngassa,” 153.

5 Jennings, “Beyond Eponymy,” 215; Lamphear, “Grey Bull,” 27–39.

6 Research findings, mainly from lake sediment cores, summarized in Anderson, “Catastrophic Drought,” 45–66.

7 Lamphear, “Grey Bull,” 32; Lamphear, Jie, 159–61, 192–6; Herring, “Mount Otuke,” 294–305; Sutton, “Archaeological Sites,” 1–37.

8 David, “Historical Linguistics,” 86–8; David, “Nilotic Expansion,” 85–6, 565–6; Lamphear, “Grey Bull,” 32–3. Sutton has suggested that the intensification associated with the ‘new’ pastoralism had first appeared centuries earlier in the Nakuru area – Sutton, “Becoming Maasailand,” 46.

9 Lamphear, “New-Model Armies,” 68–75.

10 Krapf, Vocabulary, 14. Murran camps may have been a later innovation, as Erhardt implied; the first external account of them comes from the 1880s – Erhardt Journal, 1 May 1854, CA5/09, Church Missionary Society Archives, Birmingham University [CMS]; Thomson, Masai Land, 247–58.

11 Age-set data presented in Berntsen, “Pastoralism,” 90–100 and Waller, “Lords,” 409–14.

12 Fosbrooke, “Age-Group System,” 188–206; Jacobs, “Chronology,” 10–13.

13 Sobania and Waller, “Oral History.”

14 Kosmin, Time; Shetler, “Rupture,” 385–412.

15 Buckles et al., “Lake Challa,” 1255; Verschuren et al., “Environmental History,” 499; Anderson, “Chamus,” 245.

16 For full accounts of the wars, see Berntsen, “Pastoralism,” 138–54, 262–70; Waller, “Lords,” 378–91.

17 Thomson, Masai Land, 240–2; Krapf’ Journal, 12 Sept.1848 and 9 Nov.1849, CMS: CA5/016; Rebmann Journal, 6 Jan.1849, CMS: CA5/024.

18 Jennings, “Scatterlings,” 5–6, 102–3. Jennings suggests that conflict with Tatog-speaking groups around Lake Manyara may already have primed them for war.

19 Krapf’ Journal, 6 Aug.1851; Krapf to Venn, 30 Aug.1853, CMS: CA5/016. The name Iloogolala – ‘people with hard/strong teeth’ – may originally have referred to a clan grouping. Memories of ‘Iloogolala’ in the Loita region suggest that the name could also have applied more widely to other Kwavi groups – Waller, “Lords,” 141; Lamprey and Waller, “Loita-Mara Region,” 17–20; Jennings, “Scatterlings,” 113.

20 Sobania, “Historical Tradition,” chs. 2–3; Lamphear, “Becoming Turkana,” 87–104.

21 Sobania, “Historical Tradition,” 77–100; Spencer, Nomads, 151–3.

22 Sobania, “Historical Tradition,” 90, 97; Jennings, “Scatterlings,” 117–18.

23 Waller, “Arrivals and Departures.”

24 Waller, “Lords,” 398–9; Jennings, “Scatterlings,” 49.

25 Waller, “Arrivals and Departures”; Jacobs, “Narosura,” 83–4. Siria maintained a separate ‘Kwavi’ identity throughout the nineteenth century before ‘becoming’ Maasai – Waller, “Trans-Mara Maasai,” 247–8; Fischer, Massailand, 25–6.

26 Waller, “Trans-Mara Maasai,”250; Sutton, “Becoming Maasailand,” 42–8; Macdonald, “Juba Expedition,” 240.

27 Waller, “Arrivals and Departures.”

28 Waller, “Lords,” 387–8; Sobania, “Historical Tradition,” 143; Berntsen, “Pastoralism,” 263; de Kort et al., “Hydroclimatic Variability,” 77–9. In the 1870s, cattle could be herded across Lake Naivasha to Crescent Island, but the lake level was again rising in the early 1880s – Sikes, “Lake Naivasha,” 82–4.

29 Waller, “Arrivals”; Sobania, “Laikipiak,” 105–17.

30 Jennings, “Scatterlings,” 99–122; Spencer, Time, Space, chs. 7–8.

31 Galaty, “Maasai Expansion,” 75–85.

32 Berntsen, “Eponymy,” 1–20; Jennings, “Beyond Eponymy,” 199–220.

33 Krapf, “Kurze Beschreibung,” 438; Mol, Maasai Dictionary, 231; Heine and Vossen, “Kore,” 272; Lamphear, “Grey Bull,” 31. Spencer argues that “loonkuapi” refers to “people of other lands” – implying difference from the speaker – Spencer, Time, Space, 62–3.

34 Krapf, Vocabulary, 4; Krapf Journal, 11 Oct.1847; Waller, “Lords,” 136–9; Erhardt Journal, 1 May 1854.

35 See Johnson, Kilima-Njaro Expedition, 312–3, 404–7.

36 Erhardt, Vocabulary, 18; Erhardt Journal, 27 Oct.1854. Compare Hamilton and Wright, “AmaLala,” 3–23; Wright, “Being ‘Zulu’,” 35–43.

37 Waller, “Lords,” 365.

38 “Memorandum on the [Northern] Masai,” nd. c1906, Kenya National Archives [KNA]: Native Affairs Dept. Mss, 3/48; Dundas, “Masai Organisation,” 1906, KNA: DC/MKS 26/2/1. Some chekut were stockless Maasai.

39 Krapf, Vocabulary, 4–6; Krapf to Venn, 30 Aug.1853; Waller, “Maa-Speakers,” 90.

40 Waller, “Maa-Speakers,” 87, 119–20; Waller, “Lords,” 305–7; Muriuki, Kikuyu, 98–100.

41 Waller, “Maa-Speakers,” 98–9; Shetler, “Rupture,” 404–7.

42 Anderson, “Chamus,” 244–51; Spear, Mountain Farmers, ch. 2; Waller, “Maa-Speakers,” 92–4.

43 Berntsen, “Pastoralism,” 37; Erhardt, Vocabulary, 21.

44 See Wakefield, “Native Caravans,” 307, 313; Thomson, Masai Land, 239–40; Fischer, Massailand, 22–3, 43, 61; von Hohnel, Discovery, vol. I, 244, 391.

45 Kisongo remained an extensive single entity, although the north (Moipo) and south (Kiteto) were diverging by the 1930s – Fosbrooke, “Administrative Survey,” 9. For Laitayiok and Salei, see Divisions and Locations, Native General IX, Ngong Political Record Book, Part B, KNA: DC/KAJ 1/2/2.

46 See Waller, “Lords,” 146–52.

47 Dundas, “Baringo District,” 50–2; Sobania, “Historical Tradition,” 78–82.

48 Waller, “Trans-Mara Maasai,” 250–1.

49 Jennings, “Scatterlings,” 130–7; Beidelman, “Baraguyu,” 249.

50 Il Dalalalekutuk may formerly have been associated with Laikipiak, but were later incorporated into Il Kinopop – Waller, “Lords,” 128–9; Divisions and Locations, Ngong Political Record Book, Part B.

51 Bassi, “Primary Identities,” 130–1.

52 Spear, “Introduction,” 1–18; Waller, “Maa-Speakers,” 92–102, 131–3.

53 Berntsen, “Pastoralism,” 36–43; Waller, “Lords,” 126–36.

54 Waller, “Lords,” 156–64. For a clear example of segmentary descent and cross-cutting links, see Spencer, Samburu, 71–80.

55 Hollis, Masai, 260; Hobley, Akamba, 120–5 and Merker, Die Masai, 16–18.

56 Thomson, Masai Land, 239–40; Merker, Die Masai, 81.

57 Merker, Die Masai, 18; Waller, “Lords,” 141. Modern Siria, Uas Nkishu and Il Dalalalekutuk retain these clan names.

58 Schlee, Clanship.

59 Berntsen, “Pastoralism,” 260, 270; Waller, “Trans-Mara Maasai,” 247.

60 Waller, “Lords,” 159–61.

61 See Spencer, Time, Space, ch. 2; Waller, “Bad Boys,” esp. 156–62. The division also crossed gender lines, although women’s responses were more ambivalent – see Straight, “Land Conflict,” 1–45.

62 Berntsen, “Pastoralism,” 262–3; Waller, “Lords,” 185, 389–90.

63 Spencer, “Predatory Expansion,” 174–80.

64 See Spencer, Time, Space, chs. 7–8. The difference between “northern” and “southern” models is striking, however.

65 Von Hohnel, Discovery, vol I, 222, 270; Fischer, Massailand, 34; “Shield Patterns Among the Masai,” nd. c.1908, DC/MKS 26/2/1; Winter, “Maasai Shield Patterns,” 324–47.

66 See e.g. Shetler, “Rupture.”

67 Berntsen, “Maasai Prophets,” 134–46; Erhardt to Venn, 27 Dec.1853 CA5/09, CMS. Fosbrooke defined Kisongo as “that group of sections which follow the [Ngoswa] laibon” – Fosbrooke, “Administrative Survey,” 9.

68 Waller, “Kidongoi’s Kin,” 28–64; Waller, “Lords,” 202–9.

69 Waller, “Arrivals and Departures.”

70 Waller, “Lords,” 219–21; Fischer, “Ostufer,” 69; von Hohnel, Discovery, vol I, 396–7 & II, 290; Chanler letter, printed in Geographical Journal, 2 (1893), 540; Hobley, Akamba, 160.

71 Waller, “Kidongoi’s Kin,” 51. The two moieties were already at odds over grazing and salt licks – Waller, “Trans-Mara Maasai,” 250–1.

72 Waller, “Kidongoi’s Kin,” 44–54; Spencer, Time, Space, ch. 5.

73 Waller, “Lords,” 29–58, 125.

74 Wakefield, “Native Caravans,”323; Waller, “Arrivals”; Hildebrandt, “Travels,” 448–53. There is evidence of a low-stand in Lake Naivasha in the 1870s – Verschuren, “Sedimentation Controls,” 821–37.

75 Turton, “Place,” 275; Turton, “Wilderness, Wasteland,” 167–70.

76 Waller, “Lords,” 56–7; Straight et al., “‘Dust People’,” 168–88; Shetler, Imagining Serengeti.

77 Sobania, “Historical Tradition,” 89–90; Waller, “Trans-Mara Maasai,” 262–7, 272–80; Berntsen, “Maasai Prophets,” 135; Hughes, Moving Maasai, 115–8.

78 Berntsen, “Pastoralism,” 172–5; Waller, “Arrivals and Departures.”

79 Waller, “Maa-Speakers,” 119–23.

80 Rockel, “Drought Famine,” 299–324.

81 Waller, “Emutai,” 73–112; Berntsen, “Pastoralism,” 303–5.

82 Waller, “Origins,” 529–53.

83 Waller, “Emutai,” 94–101; “Report of Safari by Capt. Bois,” Appendix B, Marsabit Political Records, KNA: DC/MBT 4/1; Cpt. Gorges, “Report on the Gwas Ngishu Tribe,” Aug. 1901, Uganda Intelligence Reports, IV, National Archives [PRO], FO 2/804.

84 Hardinge to Salisbury, 11 June 1896, PRO: FO 107/53.

85 Eliot, “Introduction” to Hollis, Masai, xvii; Dundas, “Masai Organisation”; Waller, “Emutai,” 109–11.

86 Berntsen, “Pastoralism,” 305–9.

87 Ibid., 314–26; Waller, “Origins,” 541–52; Waller, “Kidongoi’s Kin,” 36–7; Ainsworth to Jackson, 10 July 1902, FO 2/523.

88 Sandford, Masai Reserve, 19; Bagge, “Circumcision Ceremony,” 167–8; Eunoto, Native General VI, Ngong Political Record Book, Part B.

89 Sandford, Masai Reserve, 20–43; Waller, “Arrivals and Departures”; Hughes, Moving Maasai, chs. 2 and 4.

90 Hemsted Memo, 14 Feb.1914 and “Political Events of the 1920s” both in Ngong Political Record Book, Part A, KNA: DC/KAJ 1/2/1; Divisions and Locations, Ngong Political Record Book, Part B.

91 Hobley, “Social Organisation of the Masai,” nd., DC/MKS 26/2/1. The Maasai signatories to the 1904 Agreement were identified by section – Agreements printed in East Africa Protectorate, Correspondence Relating to the Masai, June 1911, Cd. 5584.

92 Divisions and Locations, Ngong Political Record Book, Part B; Sandford, Masai Reserve, 36–7, 58–9; Masai Province, Annual Reports [MPAR], 1927, 1929, KNA: PC/SP 1/2/2.

93 Spencer, Time, Space, 55–6.

94 Buxton to Fazan, 17 Sept.1935, KNA: PC/NKU 2/1/2; MPAR, 1936, PC/SP 1/2/1.

95 Waller, “Arrivals and Departures”; Eunoto, Ngong Political Record Book, Part B.

96 Spencer, Time, Space, 59–60.

97 Waller, “Kidongoi’s Kin,” 37.

98 Waller, “Kidongoi’s Kin,” 38–44; Spencer, Time, Space, 106–22.

99 Waller, “Emutai,” 100–1; White, Comforts of Home, 35; Report on the East Africa Protectorate for the Year 1903–4, Jan. 1905, Cd. 2331, 6; Stigand, Zinj, 229.

100 MPAR 1921, PC/SP 1/2/1; Hinde, Last Masai, xiii; Merker, Die Masai, 351; minute by Crowe, 6 Oct. 1904, on Stewart to Lansdowne, 5 Sept. 1904, FO 2/839. For local administrators’ views, see MPARs, esp. 1916/17 & 1924, PC/SP 1/2/1.

101 Kirk-Greene, “’Damnosa Hereditas,” 406–7; Waller, “Bad Boys,” 141–3.

102 “Native Rights in the Naivasha Province,” memo. encl. in Eliot to Bagge, 7 Sept.1903, FO 2/547; Lansdowne to Stewart, 21 Oct.1904; Waller, “Arrivals and Departures.”

103 See Spear, “Neo-Traditionalism,” 3–27.

104 Waller, “Bad Boys,” 137–49.

105 MPAR, 1923; Waller, “Acceptees,” 226–5. See also, Parsons, “Local Responses,” 491–523.

106 Waller, “Bad Boys,” 155; Waller, “Dictating,” 83–126.

107 See Waller and Homewood, “Elders and Experts,” 69–93; Hodgson, Intrepid Warriors, esp. ch.2.

108 MPARs 1918/19, 1920/21; Gulliver, “Conservative Commitment,” 223–42; Narok District, Annual Report, 1939, KNA: DC/NRK 1/1/3; MPAR, 1921.

109 Kikuyu also created a “useful past,” but officialdom was equally unresponsive – Lonsdale, “Contests,” 201–54.

110 See Tonkin, Narrating. For reworking, see also Straight, “Cutting Time,” 267–83.

111 H. Fosbrooke, “Memo. Re Sociological Survey of the Masai of Tanganyika Territory,” [1939], DC/NRK 6/1/1.

112 Memorandum Presented to the Committee of Enquiry on Land by the Masais at Ngong on 27th October 1932, Jan. 1933, reprinted in Kenya Land Commission, Evidence and Memoranda, vol II, Colonial 91, 1934, 1221–30.

113 Jennings, “Scatterlings,” 40–2; Krapf, Vocabulary, 8–10. Merker, Die Masai, 270–2; Hollis, Masai, 265.

114 Hollis, Masai, 270–2; Fosbrooke, “Memo.,”4; Mol, Dictionary, 20–1.

115 Fosbrooke, “Memo.,”4; Hollis, “Masai Traditions,” 103–4. See also Waller, “Lords,” 398–9. A similar Samburu story has Pakka, on the Leroki Escarpment, as the place where the bird is sighted – Sobania, “Historical Tradition,” 78.

116 Sobania and Waller, “Oral History,” 5.