Datooga people
Wamang'ati | |
---|---|
Karatu District, Arusha Region | |
Total population | |
87,978 (2000)[1] | |
Regions with significant populations | |
Tanzania
Cushitic peoples |
The Datooga, (Wamang'ati, in
History
Origins
Linguistic evidence points to the eastern
It is thought that beginning in the
Linguist Christopher Ehret proposes that between 1000 and 700 BC, the
He suggests that the cultural exchange perceived in borrowed loan words, adoption of the practice of circumcision and the cyclical system of age-set organisation dates to this period.[5]
Linguist Christopher Ehret suggests that around the fifth and sixth centuries BC, the speakers of the Southern Nilotic languages split into two major divisions - the proto-Kalenjin and the proto-Datooga. The former took shape among those residing to the north of the Mau range while the latter took shape among sections that moved into the Mara and Loita plains south of the western highlands.[6]
Recent History
There are at least seven Datooga sub tribes:
- Bajuta
- Gisamjanga (Kisamajeng, Gisamjang)
- Barabayiiga(Barabaig, Barabayga, Barabaik, Barbaig)
- Asimjeeg (Tsimajeega, Isimijeega)
- Rootigaanga (Rotigenga, Rotigeenga)
- Buraadiiga (Buradiga, Bureadiga)
- Bianjiida (Biyanjiida, Utatu)
The dialects of the Datooga language are often divergent enough to make comprehension difficult, though Barabayiiga and Gisamjanga are very close. The Datooga have interacted with neighboring ethnic groups since at least the 19th century, and the Datooga leader Saigilo is widely known throughout region.
References
- ^ "Datooga | Ethnologue".
- ^ "Datooga | Ethnologue".
- ^ a b Ehret, Christopher. An African Classical Age: Eastern & Southern Africa in World History 1000 B.C. to A.D.400. University of Virginia, 1998, p.7
- ^ Clark, J., & Brandt, St, From Hunters to Farmers: The Causes and Consequences of Food Production in Africa. University of California Press, 1984, p.234
- ^ Ehret, Christopher. An African Classical Age: Eastern & Southern Africa in World History 1000 B.C. to A.D. 400. University of Virginia, 1998, pp.161–164
- ^ Ehret, C., History and the Testimony of Language, p.118