The Doko pygmies were first described in 1842 by Sir W. C. Harris and later by Borelli and Donaldson Smith, and Rigby also in 1842 reported from hearsay evidence the existence of some pygmies called Berikimo about six weeks inland from Mombasa. The latter are probably the pygmies near Lake Baringo, and the former may be the dwarf Dume who are found in the vicinity of Lake Stephanie. Another group of pygmy nomads exists on the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro known as Wapare.
Among the Turkana to the west of Lake Rudolf we find the Teuth, who live on roots and grubs and hunt the smaller mam mals, and farther south the Ogiek, known to the Masai as Doroba from the Masai word for tsetse fly to which their arrows are likened, wander over a wide area of forest and bush country be tween Lake Victoria and the eastern lowlands, maintaining a live lihood by hunting and trapping. Among the Nandi the Ogiek are the hunters, but the Kunono fulfil this menial role for the Masai. The Embu speak of pre-Embu inhabitants of Kenya as "Agumba" or "Asi," pygmies, forest-dwellers and hunters. The northern Watta of Lake Tana are fishers and skilled watermen, who use papyrus rafts, and on Lake Kwanya the Kenyi, a Bantuized type of nomad, live on the papyrus marshes and are completely aquatic without any interests on the land, being reminiscent culturally of the Batwa on Lake Bangweulu.
Wherever the nomads are found in East Africa they are treated as pariahs and are engaged in trades or occupations which are con sidered ignoble, such as hunting, fishing, metallurgy, leather-tan ning and pottery. Among the Kaffa and the Galla they provide the executioners. They are dispossessed rather than conquered, and though among the Kaffa they perform menial services like the collection of fuel it is just among the Kaffa that their tribal organization is most developed under an independent chief.
They adopt the language of the tribes among whom they live, and in many cases their social organization, costume and even religion. Thus the Sanya have a clan organization based on Galla clans with Galla clan names, and have imitated the Galla initia tions and system of age-grades. The Somaliland nomads use Mo hammedan invocations and celebrate the Mohammedan feasts in addition to their own pagan ritual. But, generally speaking, their religion is a vague ancestor-worship. Except when, like the south ern Watta, they build temporary villages they are monogamous, and the family wanders from place to place erecting no more than a rude shelter for the night. When anything more permanent is
built the little huts are situated close to river banks and are roughly thatched with palm fronds. The northern Watta have portable cane huts which they carry with them in their wanderings. Caves are also used as dwellings and others build hiding-places in trees. They possess no domesticated animals except dogs, and few practise agriculture, and that only of the most elementary kind. Their weapons are the bow and arrow with sometimes a spear in addition, and poison is applied to all weapons. The northern Watta, like the Ogiek, use a hunting spear with a detachable head, which carries the owner's distinctive mark enabling him to claim the kill. Game pits are used also.
Usually they are naked, but they may adopt some of the cos tume of their neighbours. Thus among the Kaffa the nomads have adopted the Kaffa headdress, a conical hat of monkey fur, and wear the large skin aprons worn by their Kaffa overlords. The Fuga, adjacent to the Watta, now clothe themselves with the typical Galla kilt. The Midgan women plait their hair after the Somali fashion, but long, plaited hair is an indigenous character istic among several groups, particularly in the Bantu zone, as among the Amba negrillos on the Western flanks of Ruwenzori. The Ogiek plait their hair like the Nandi and wear a skull-cap made from the stomach of a goat like their Kamasia neighbours.
Everywhere the nomads, despite their low status, are respected and feared, both for their knowledge of poisons and of sorcery in which they are thought to be most proficient. This attitude points to the probability that they were the original owners of the coun try, their conquerors recognizing their greater spiritual affinity with the soil together with its magical implications ; and tends to discredit a Watta legend (of doubtful authenticity) that the Watta were banished from Egypt and on arrival at their present habitats were subjected by the Hamites who were already in possession of the country.
d'Abbadie, Geographie d'Ethiopie (189o) ; Gustavo Bianchi, Alla terra dei Galla (5884) ; Enrico Cerulli, "The Folk Literature of the Galla" (Harvard African Studies, vol. iii., 1919) ; Sir H. H. Johnston, The Uganda Protectorate (1902) ; Capt. C. H. Stigand, The Land of Zinj (1913).