CHAPTER XIX 



MASAI, TUBKANA, SUK, NANDI, ETC. 



^r^HE remaining section of the Uganda population to be discussed in 

 J- this book is that offshoot of the NiLotic stock which includes the 

 interesting Masai * people — a group of Africans rather isolated in their 

 physical characteristics — the gigantic Siik and Turkana, the elegant, fine- 

 featured Elgumi or "V\'an}ia, and the Nandi tribes. With them also may 

 be considered the negro Karamojo, with a Bantu physique and a language 

 closely related to Turkana ; and the mongrel Andorobo, a nomad hunting 

 people speaking usually a dialect of Nandi, but composed of very mixed 

 physical types. 



The present writer believes that the Masai represent an early mixture 

 between the Nilotic Negro and the Hamite (Gala-Somali). This blend of 

 peoples must have been isolated somewhere in the high mountains or 

 plateaux which lie between the Nile and the Karamojo country. Here the 

 ancestors of the Masai race were no doubt first located, and here the 

 Latuka — descendants of the ancestral Masai — still remain, speaking a 

 language that is closely allied to the Masai tongue. This ancient inter- 

 mixture between Hamite and Negro must have been a strong power 

 thousands of years ago in the mountainous region east of the White Nile 

 between Latitudes 3° and 5°. They subjugated a section of the Nilotic 

 Negroes' (the Bari) and imposed on them a corrupt dialect of the Masai 

 stock (the Masai itself being a branch of the Nilotic family much modified 

 by Hamitic influence). Some tumultuous movement from the north, 

 possibly on the part of other Nilotic Negroes like the Dinka and Shiluk, 

 or else intertribal warfare or famine consequent on drought, drove the 

 ancestors of the modern Masai from the mountainous region east of the 

 White Nile in the direction of Mount Elgon and Lake Rudolf. 



After a prolonged settlement on the lands lying between this great 

 extinct volcano and the south-west coasts of Lake Kudolf, the Masai 

 became divided into two groups— evidently not a very ancient division, 

 since both sections speak practically the same language, at the present 



* This word should be pronounced " Ma'sai," with a strong accent on the-first 

 syllable. 



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