International African Institute

Mirror in the Forest: The Dorobo Hunter-Gatherers as an Image of the Other

Author(s): Michael G. Kenny
Source: Africa: Journal of the International African Institute, Vol. 51, No. 1 (1981), pp. 477-
495
Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the International African Institute
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Africa 51(1), 1981

MIRROR IN THE FOREST: THE DOROBO

HUNTER-GATHERERS AS AN IMAGE OF THE OTHER'
MichaelG. Kenny

1.

The term 'Dorobo' denotes an ethnic categoryembracingsmall hunting-and-gathering

groups residing on the fringes of various agriculturaland pastoral peoples in East
Africa. The essence of the Dorobo's position is that they engage in economically
symbiotic activities with regard to local farmers and herders, while retaining their
social marginality as people of the bush. Much is known of them through the
constructs of their neighbours, who assign them attributescommensuratewith their
marginalsocial position; the Dorobo are amalgamatedwith wild amoralcreatures,and
their ancestorsare thought to have been in attendanceat the birth of the presentworld-
order.2Their marginalitythereforehas economic, spatial,and temporaldimensions.
The Dorobo 'mode of production'is internallybased on sharingbetween domestic
groups, and on the usual male-hunterand female-gathererdichotomy with the added
factor of male-dominatedbee-keeping.3With the exception of honey there is little in
the way of storable wealth among them, and hence little inequality based upon it
(Huntingford 1955:608). But no Dorobo are isolated from neighbouring societies
which are organisedquite differently,being bound into social distinctionsbased on the
control of cattle or agriculturallyproductive land. The Dorobo depend on these
peoples for certainvital items, while they turn to the Dorobo for game and other wild
animal products, for significant ritual services, for informationconcerningpasturage,
and on occasion for assistance in time of famine or plague (Jacobs 1965:144;
1975:407n).From this point of view each generalsubsistencepattern-hunter, herder,
farmer-may be, dependingon local circumstance,part of a largerwhole in which they
all partakeand which is expressed on a representationallevel through myths of how
their associationcame to be, and through images concerning their respective natures
and merits as humanbeings.
The Dorobo pattern has persisted through the influence of ecological and
geographicalfactors which allow it to exist in non-competitiveproximity to herders
and farmers. Surface relief in East Africa is often extreme, and the rainfall patterns
brought aboutby this fact createthe forest refuge of hunter and [Link] where
these wet lands are sufficientlylevel for farming,there seems to have been a long-term
process of Dorobo assimilation into agricultural groups, one which continues at
present;on the other hand, as will be seen, it is likely enough that marginalfarmers
have often enough been partially dependent on hunting. On the plains, relations
between hunters and pastoralistsgenerally seem to have been benign; Maa-speaking
herders,in particular,regardhunting as beneath them and make no point of it even as
a sport. In addition, the Dorobo penetratetsetse fly infested bush in which the herders
simply cannot take their cattle. Thus, it may be supposedthat the mutual symbiosis of
hunter, herder,and farmeris of some antiquity,and thereforethat this situationshould
lend itself to the type of holistic analysis implicit in the phrase, 'mode of production'.
Here I will concern myself with only an examinationof what is known concerningthe
strikinglymultivalentrelationshipbetween Dorobo, and farmersor herders.

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478 THE DOROBOAS AN IMAGEOFTHE OTHER

I shall point out that the position of the various groups called 'Dorobo' is
economicallyand ecologicallyconstrained,and that their marginalitythus established
has become the stuff of dreams-but also that, if the Dorobo did not exist as real
people, their symbolic role would likely be matched by imaginarybeings much like
them. Beyond any specific determinationof belief by some infrastructuralbase, there
is a more general concern which expresses negatively, and here through the Dorobo,
what it is to be human. Of course, what counts as being fully human is swayed by
perception of the activities which it is held to be most worthy for human beings to
pursue; since the Dorobo do not farm or herd, their humanity is questionablein the
eyes of those who do.4 Further, they seemto be outside of the forces which constrain
activity in societies where propertyrelationsare more definitely [Link], the
image of the Dorobo matches that of other beings with the same real or supposed
attributes:in the eyes of men, the Dorobo are like women; in the eyes of normal
morality, the Dorobo are like witches; in the eyes of humanity, the Dorobo are like
God. Hence the constructs surrounding them are found to exhibit a decided
ambivalenceexpressiveof their apparentlack of constraint,and the powersbelieved to
go with that condition; and, in this, they exhibit some of the same paradoxical
attributescommonly associatedwith the perception of class and race, and therefore
provide a lesson with parallelsin the history and structureof industrialsociety. The
Dorobo are like animals, yet they have power over nature;they live in the realm of
witches and wild spirits, but also in the presence of God; they are bufoonish,
profligate,amoralfools, but also the possessorsof secretknowledgeand mediatorswith
powersbeyond our world.
In what is to follow I hope to show how economic relationsmay be seen to have a
representationaleffect in the context of the myth of the Dorobo, but also when more
generalconsiderationsseem paramount.

2.

Bands which have been called 'Dorobo' reside from northeasternUganda to northern
Tanzania. The name itself is somewhat obscure in meaning though it is certainly
Maasai in origin. By one account it is derived from the Maa word for 'short' (Dundas
1908:139; cf. Huntingford 1929:335; 1931:264). By another,it simply means a 'poor
person'-one without cattle (Blackburn 1974:139); by a third it is derived from the
Maa for 'tsetse fly' (Hollis 1905:28n;Maguire 1948:3; Lambert 1949:54). The latter
name is reportedlyassigned to the Dorobo because, being hunters, they live in the
bush like the tsetse fly, whereas the Maasai, being herders, stick to the open plains.
The derivationfrom 'short'relatesto the Europeanand local belief that the Dorobo are
derivedfrom a raceof people of shorterstaturethan the presentresidents,a race, some
Europeanshave believed, perhaps related to the San or Pygmies (Dundas 1908:138;
Hobley 1903:33; 1906:119; Beech 1915:40; Huntingford 1929:336-7; 1951:2-4;
Leakey 1977, v. :51).
The Dorobo are not a tribe or even 'ethnic group', the term being a catch-all
embracinga considerablenumber of bands spread over a wide geographicalarea and
sometimes speaking languagesbelonging to different families; it came into common
parlanceas a Swahili borrowingfrom Maa, and has been applied to virtually anyone

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 THE DOROBOASAN IMAGEOFTHE OTHER 479

who lives by hunting, but is not applied by the hunters to themselves (cf. Blackburn
1974).5Most Dorobo do not have a distinctive languageof their own, the majorityof
groups speaking the Nilotic Maa or Kalenjin-a fact demonstrating a history of
persistentcontact with these peoples, if not actual derivationfrom them. The 'Asa' of
northernTanzania, and the Ik and Tepes of northeasternUganda are exceptions, in
that they have been found to speak Cushitic languages (Fleming 1969; Blackburn
1974:142;Harvey 1976; Lamphear1976:64-73). The linguistic pictureis complex for
all groups due to the contactof the variousDorobo bands with variousforeignpeoples
and their languages(cf. Fleming 1969:16; Ehret 1971:73). The Kalenjin- and Maa-
speaking Dorobo are the most numerous, and the former are the best known
[Link] Kalenjin Dorobo are or were found from Mt. Kenya to the
western escarpmentof the Kenya Rift Valley and down to northernTanzania;6it is
possible that this population was formed through a specialised adaptationmade by
Kalenjin-speakersof the Escarpment,whence they could have spreadacrossthe Rift to
Mt. Kenya and down the Valley to Tanzania. This however is hypothetical,and any
theory which seeks to makethe Dorobo a productof adaptiveradiationmust deal with
the belief that they were indigenous to the area, and predatethe arrivalof the Nilotes
and Bantu-speakers.
The question of Dorobo racialaffinity is so far a blind lead. Though some authors
point out what appear to be minor differences between Dorobo and neighbouring
peoples, there is little to support a theory of racial separateness(Wayland 1931:217;
Routledge 1968:3-5; Blackburn 1971:9; 1974:148-9; Spencer 1973:200).7An early
account finds that, 'the Dorobo in existence at the present day are of much the same
stature as other tribes in East Africa' (Dundas 1908:129), and another from the Mt.
Kenya area states that the Dorobo there were, 'rathersharp-featuredand practically
the same as the Maasai' (Boyes 1911:100; cf. Huntingford 1929:337). One recent
account of the north Kenyan Dorobo finds it, 'unnecessaryto assume that the term
Dorobo refersessentiallyto a racialstock ratherthan to the statusof hunting groupsin
the area with respect to other tribes. In point of fact, the extent of the inter-marriage
and intermigrationin the area, and the constant interchange of cultural and even
institutional features between groups makes any search for racial origins futile'
(Spencer 1973:200; cf. Maguire 1948:2); but such a conclusion must again face the
beliefin Dorobo priority.
As Spencer indicates, there is often little to separatethe Dorobo from surrounding
peoples save their hunting way of life and the technology and attitudeswhich it entails
(cf. Blackburn 1973). The Dorobo share much of the cultural identity of the peoples
they are in contactwith (cf. Blackburn1974:141). Thus the OkkiekDorobo, living in
the forested area of Nandi and Kipsigis country on the western Rift Escarpment,are
assimilatedto Nandi and Kipsigis clans and age-sets(Huntingford 1951:1-2, 29-34;
Blackburn 1974:144); other Dorobo share the Maasai age-set system and other
institutions (Blackburn 1974:145; cf. Merker 1910:244; Weiss 1910:392; Maguire
1948:5-6; Spencer 1973:205). An Okkiekwill take on the clan name of a person with
whom he establishes a ceremonially sanctioned trading relationship (Blackburn
1971:144-46); Dorobo would be adopted into Kikuyu groups in order to establish
these relationships (Lambert 1949:101; cf. Huntingford 1955:627; Leakey,
v.1l:passim).Such bond-friendshipsare also reportedbetween the Ik and the pastoral
Dodos and Turkana (Turnbull 1972:244). Such adaptations are economically

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480 THE DOROBOASAN IMAGEOFTHE OTHER

expedient,whateverculturalor historicalinterpretationsmay otherwisebe proposedto

accountfor them.
Equally, when the institutions of the Dorobo differ from those of surrounding
peoples, this often seems a resultof mode of livelihoodand certainadaptationswhich it
entails (cf. Weiss 1910:401; Blackburn 1971:48-9; 1974:146-7). The social
institutions of the Dorobo, and of other hunter-gatherersin Africa such as the
BaMbuti Pygmies, seem relatively unstructuredin comparison to their neighbours,
who interpretthis as total lack of structureor even as anti-structure(Turnbull 1968;
Douglas 1970:14-16: Blackburn 1974:145; Godelier 1977:51-60). For example,
among the Maa-speakingSamburu pastoralistsof northern Kenya it is necessary to
observethe exogamicrestrictionsof a clan in orderto be adoptedinto it. One such rule
is the sexual prohibitionon daughtersof men belonging to the same [Link] local
Dorobo do not observethis rule among themselves, and a man trying to acquiregroup
membership in a Dorobo band attempts to contract an in-group marriagewithout
regardto the niceties of the age-set system (Spencer 1973:206-7; 1965:283); group
endogamy is typical of the OkkiekDorobo of the Escarpment(Blackburn1974:144).
These facts relate in turn to a great differencein patternsof land-usebetween hunter-
gatherers and pastoralists.8But the Samburu, and presumably other pastoralists,
despise the Dorobo for their supposedly 'incestuous' practices;they are believed to
marry their own 'sisters', an idea in full accord with the animal-like propensities
attributedto the Dorobo generally(Spencer 1965:134-36, 287; cf. Boyes 1911:213).
'To the Samburuthey are immature and behave like children' (Spencer 1965:xxii).
This attitude, however, is ambiguoussince, unlike children, the Dorobo are credited
with being adeptsof sorcery.
The primarycriterionfor Dorobo identity is their livelihood. Given this fact, it is
found that the 'Dorobo' categoryis a permeablemembranethrough which there has
been a continual interchange between hunters and surrounding peoples. An early
Germanwriterclaims that certainTanzanianDorobo are merelyMaasaiwho have lost
their cattle, to become hunters from need, and that they waste no time in resuming
their former way of life when given the chance (Weiss 1910:391-92; cf. Maguire
1948:5-7; Hobley 1905:39).Conversely,transitionfrom a pastoralto a hunting life has
been noted among impoverishedSamburu(Spencer 1973:202),Jie (J. Lamphear,pers.
comm.), and perhaps also among the relatively sedentaryNandi; 'numbersof young
Nandi men, for whom the free hunting life has a charm, leave their homes and go and
settle amongthese people for some years,and probablymarryOggiek[sic]women. It is
thus difficult to discernwhat is the true aboriginaltype of the race'(Hobley 1903:33).
Van Zwanenbergconcludes on the basis of such observationsthat the Dorobo are
'scattergroups'comprisedof personsdispersedby war, famine, or disease;for him the
Dorobo are to be defined by a 'mode of production'(1976:18; but cf. Harvey 1976).
He is certainlycorrectabout the presenceof refugeesamong the Dorobo groups;but,
equally, the Dorobo environmentof forest and bush is a distinct and often profitable
eco-niche which could easily have been exploited from ancient times regardlessof
other possibilities elsewhere (cf. Blackburn 1974:145-7; Sahlins 1972; Woodburn
1968). Van Zwanenbergis on more certain ground when he points to the regionally
interconnected nature of pastoral, agricultural, and hunting-gatheringadaptations,
each of which is 'involved in a system of trade or exchangewhich createdrelationsof
interdependencebetween each form'(1976:14; cf. Jacobs 1975:407).

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 THE DOROBOASAN IMAGEOFTHE OTHER 481
As L. S. B. Leakeynoted (Lambert1949:57),'there are Dorobo and Dorobo.' It is to
be expectedthat impoverishedpastoralistsareeagerto acquirecattle;but 'true' hunter-
gatheringDorobo would be unwilling to do so save for short-termadvantage,since it
would interferewith their way of life; such Dorobo, if they acquirestock, are believed
to eat them at once, thus contributing to their reputation as gluttons (cf. Berntsen
1976:4). Dorobo groups which have long held to a hunter-gatheringsubsistence base
may be expected to show more significant cultural differencesfrom their neighbours
than if they were mere refugeeshunting from necessity.
The 'Dorobo' appellationis obviously quite flexible; Bernsten(1976:3) points out
that the term has been used in regardto non-Maasaiwho were pure hunter-gatherers,
to hunters who had some cattle and lived in the homes of Maasai, to relatively
prosperouspastoralistswho still gatheredhoney and hunted, and to Maasaiwho had to
hunt during the rinderpestepidemic of the late 19th century. Given this flexibility, it
is not surprisingto discoverthat Dorobo can become 'Maasai,''Samburu,'or 'Kikuyu'
and vice versa' (cf. Weiss 1910 0:392; Maguire 1948:5; Spencer 1965:286;
Huntingford 1953a:13). A more complex example is that of certain 'Maasai' east of
Mt. Kenya who became 'Dorobo' hunters, but finally regardedthemselves as 'Meru,'
presumablywhen they become sedentarycultivators(Mahner 1975:408n).
Dorobo are always closely associated with other groups (cf. Blackburn 1971:12).
They seemingly have acquiredtheir identity by virtue of a specialized ecological and
economic adaptation, reinforced in certain cases by real cultural and linguistic
distinctiveness; it is a stable adaptation, in so far as they do not compete with
pastoralists,agriculturalists,and modern governmentalgame-conservationschemes.
They exploit distinct environments with distinct potentialities, and because of this
have symbiotic trading relationships with herders and cultivators (cf. Huntingford
1955:609). The most significant Dorobo product both to themselves and to their
tradingpartnersis honey; bee-keepingor honey-collectingis reportedfor most, if not
all, Dorobo groups (Weiss 1910:405-06; Merker 1910:232; Boyes 1911:189, 207;
Wayland 1931:282;Kenyatta 1953:25;Huntingford 1953a:58-9; 1955:619;Turnbull
1972:96-7; Blackburn 1971:passim; 1974:147; Lamphear 1976:69);9wild animal
productswere also exchanged(Jacobs 1965:143-44). In return for honey the Dorobo
received iron, stock, leather, or agriculturalproducts(Weiss 1910:1934; Huntingford
1955:604;Spencer 1973:201).

3.

These are the basic economic parametersof Dorobo ethnic identity, but there
remains the question of their historical priority. Huntingford, in his ethnographic
summary,states that 'it is clear from traditionsof the Nandi, Masai, and Kikuyu, as
well as of the Dorobo themselves, that the Dorobo (whatevertheir origin) were living
in the Kenya highlandswhen the Nilo-Hamites and Bantu arrivedthere' (1953:54; cf.
Hobley 1906:119; Blackburn 1971:11; 1974:149-53). Merker reports that, of the
Dorobo groups in northernTanzania, the Asa were held to be the most ancient, and
indeed it is possible that they were, since the Asa are Cushitic-speakersand perhaps
actually prior to those speaking Maa or the other languages of the area (cf. Ehret
1971:passim).The same reasoningapplies to the Cushites of Uganda, though in each
case whateverprioritymay be assignedon the basis of languageis contaminatedby the

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482 THE DOROBOASAN IMAGEOFTHE OTHER

temporalaspectsof the symbolismwhich surroundsall Dorobo. There is no linguistic

evidence for temporalpriority on the part of most other Dorobo groups. Indeed, the
assumedpriorityof the Dorobo is largelybased on traditionswith highly mythological
properties, and perhaps on the assumption that, since hunter-gathering is the
aboriginalhuman way of life, the Dorobo preceded the other inhabitantsof eastern
Africa.'0Of course, the priorityof hunter-gatheringdoes not entail the conclusion that
the Dorobo in particularare representativeof an early stratum of the East African
population,only that somehunter-gathererswere surelythere first.
One characteristictale of Dorobo priority is from the Kikuyu; it also introduces
anotherinteresting supposed aboriginalgroup-the Gumba; accordingto the source,
the Kikuyu(c. 1905) say:

. . that the country, when their fathers first came to it, was held by a race of hunters,
whomthey termedAsi, or occasionallyAkieki[i.e. Okkiek-Kalenjin-speaking Dorobo],
which last they say is the old name,but that there were also spreadover it in part a
diminutiveraceknownas the [Link] Asi were,theysay,the sameas the peopleto-
dayknownas the Ndorobo,a Masaiterm,livingon the elephantandotherwildgame,and
on wildhoney,[Link] madeno attemptat cultivation,builtno permanent
huts, andownedno goatsor cattle(Routledge1968:3;cf. Hobley1906:119;Huntingford
1953a:9;Blackburn1974:150-51).11

Anotherspelling given for 'Asi ' is 'Athi' and Lambert,in the context of a discussion
of Kikuyu land claims, was inclined to derive this word from a root denoting, 'earth,
soil, down below' (Lambert 1949:50);his preferencefor this derivationis based on a
widespreadbelief in an original Dorobo or Agumba occupation of Kikuyu country,
and on the belief that some groups of these prior occupants lived in holes in the
ground; the Kikuyu associatethe Gumba with actual depressionsin the earth which,
on archaeologicalevidence, appearto have once been occupied, though it is not known
by whom (Taylor 1966).12One Kikuyu informant, testifying to the legitimacy of
Kikuyu aboriginalclaims, stated that, 'the earliest owners of the land were Gumba.
They lived beneath the ground and then they disappearedinto it. Our fathers when
they died, would go there too. And so they could not drive the Dorobo out by force'
(Lambert 1949:121;Leakey 1977, v.l:90). This accountassimilatesthe Gumba to the
Dorobo, whereasmost believe the Gumbapreceededeven the Dorobo, or were distinct
from them in some other way (cf. Kenyatta 1953:24). All at least agreethat these prior
inhabitantswere hunters or (significantly)blacksmiths,and that, as one might expect
in a lands-claiminvestigationconductedunder colonial authority,the Kikuyu assumed
controlof the soil peacefully.
Two furtherKikuyu storiesbearingon the matterare cited by the ivory hunter and
adventurer, John Boyes. The first, taken from the famous Kikuyu
'chief'-Karuri-states that his status as chief was based on Asi descent, which is of
interestin light of the common idea that the first occupiersof the land are rituallypre-
eminent over those who came later(cf. Boyes 1911:297;Dundas 1908:138).13

The legendruns that a Masaiwarrior,living on the borderof whatis now the Kikuyu
country,but was then a vast forest,inhabitedby a raceof dwarfs,of whomthe Kikuyu
speakas the Maswatch-wanya, was in the habitof ill-treatingone of his wivesto such an
extentthatshe usedto fromtimeto timeto takerefugeamongthe dwarfs,returningto her
husband'[Link] treatmentbecameso badthatshe fled to the

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 THE DOROBOASAN IMAGEOFTHE OTHER 483

dwarfsandremainedthere,givingbirthto a son afterherdefinitesettlementamongthem.

Lateron, the storyruns,she hadchildrento herownson, whichchildrenmarriedwiththe
Maswatch-wanya, and fromtheiroffspringthe presentKikuyuracederivetheirdescent
(Boyes1911:297-98).

This story incorporates three interrelated subsistence modes into a common

'mythological'frame and is also a commentaryon the recognisedcultural similarities
between Kikuyu and Maasai. Though the 'Maswatch-wanya'were parties to these
strange events, they are not representedin this story as being particularlystrange
themselves, a deficiency amply made up elsewhere. The following tale follows directly
on the heels of a comment concerning'a race of cannibaldwarfscalled Maithochiana'
originalemphasis;cf. Arens 1979:passim):

The Maithochiana appearto be a varietyof earth-gnomeswithmanyof theusualattributes;

they are rich, very fierce,very touchy... Like earth-gnomes in most folklore,they are
skilledin the artof iron-working. They lived roundthis part(i.e., southof MountKenia
[sic]),but theyweredrivenout by anotherlegendarypeoplecalledthe 'Gumba,'whodwelt
in cavesdugin the earth,andwho disappeared one nightafterteachingthe Kikuyuthe art
of [Link] the earththemselves(Beech1915:40).14

Various sections of the Meru, around Mt. Kenya eastwardsof the Kikuyu, also
claim that odd characterswere in their country when their ancestors first arrived;
among one section, 'the original inhabitants... are said to have had tails; some
information indicates that they were Borana [a Cushitic-speakingpastoral group];
others that they were Dorobo' (Mahner 1975:407). The Tharaka sub-tribe
rememberedthe following experience:

Duringtheirtravelsthey met a peoplewho opposedtheirprogress,demandinga curious

formof hongo(toll).Everytime the Tharakawantedto drawwaterthey wererequiredto
handovera platefulof body-liceto the [Link] the Njuwewereequally
astonishingto the [Link] was no mutilationof the genitalsof either sex at
initiation,if indeedtherewas any initiationat all, andtherewas a strangereversalof the
usualsystemof exogamy;a mancouldonly marrywithinhis own familycircle;he could
marryhis own sister, but not a womanwith whom he could claim no relationship.
According to an account . . .the Njuwe were 'a degenerate race of half-wits' (Lambert
1949:15).

These Njuwe are merely inverted Tharaka; they marry oppositely to normal
practiceand do not engage in that which separateshumansfrombeasts, and child from
adult-circumcision and [Link] they are Dorobo-like,they are held in
some accounts to have kept stock; it is held that they intermarriedwith the Tharaka,
and by this meansthe Tharakaacquiredcattle. Thus, like the Kikuyu who 'purchased'
land from the Dorobo and adopted some of them, the Tharaka entered into an
exchangerelationshipwith aboriginesat the dawn of their history;such stories are like
so many otherswhich generatecivil society out of an act of contractor reciprocity.'5
Though recognising that such stories are often inconsistent, localised, and
confusing, a recent historian of the Kikuyu (Muriuki 1974:35-46) has attempted to
extractfrom this type of account a history of ethnic mixing in the Mt. Kenya region.
Undoubtedly, such mixing did occur; the Okkiekafter all are real people, though the
Gumba and Maswatch-wanyaareof more dubious status. But, whateverthe case, there

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484 THE DOROBO AS AN IMAGE OF THE OTHER

is an importantdifficulty, in that statementsof temporal priority do not necessarily

relate to temporalfact. As Muriuki himself notes, and as Lambertpointed out before
him, such statementsmay conceal political problems concerning legitimacy of land-
holding and social status(cf. Hobley 1967:317). But they also conceal other things. In
the above stories, beings with strangepropertiesare assignedaboriginalstatusby those
who have reportedtheir qualities to us. The Dorobo/Gumbaare judged to be strange
by the Kikuyu, but the Dorobo themselvesbelieved the Maswatch-wanyato be equally
strange,and to have been there before them (Hobley 1906:120; Leakey 1977, v.l:51).
These stories are archetypes, as is obvious in tales from physically and culturally
separatepeoples which, in common, implicate the Dorobo in events at the beginning
of the world.
It is believed that God found a Dorobo alreadyin existence when he came to create
humanity and that Dorobo played important parts in the act of creation itself. The
Dorobo have distinctive qualities which inhere in their ambiguous status as hunters
and aborigines and, because of their marginality, they are represented as lacking
normalsocial and moral sensibilities. Much of myth is a commentaryon the natureof
social convention, and accomplishesthis end through pseudo-historicalstories about
the emergenceof social orderfrom amoralchaos. The Dorobo have practicaleconomic
relationswith those who see them as paradigmsof disorder;but the forestand bush are
theirs and, unlike the rest of humanitywhich must submit to convention, the Dorobo
give the illusion of being able to escape it-into the marginalarea of human control,
where they are believed to be in contact with beings expressive of practicalhuman
insecurities. The assumed priority of the Dorobo is therefore based on their
economicallygeneratedsocial marginality.

4.

The first and second stories to follow are from the Kalenjin-speakingNandi, the
third is from the Maasai, and the fourth and fifth from the Baraguyu,a Maa-speaking
group in northernTanzania:

1. Godcameto preparethe [Link],an elephant,

the thunderanda Dorobo;the latterkilledthe elephant,andthe thunder,frightenedat the
Dorobo'sabilityto turnover in his sleep, fled in fearof his life to the sky, leavingthe
Doroboin possession(Huntingford 1953b:124;fromHollis1909a:113-14).
2. Amongstthe Moi clanthereis a traditionthatthe firstDorobogavebirthto a boy anda
girl. His leg swelledup one [Link] lengthit burstanda boy issued
fromthe innerside of his calf, whilsta girl issuedfromthe outerside. These two in the
courseof time had children,who were the ancestorsof all the peopleon earth(Hollis
1909a:98).16
3. Long ago when sky and earth were one, a Masai elder came upon the first Dorobo while
crossing the slope of a hill. The Dorobo was eating an elephant which he had just killed.
The Masai had never seen a man doing this before and (in curiosity) followed him to his
home, which was a hole in the ground covered with leaves. Watching from a distance the
Masai heard 'God' (enkai)say to the Dorobo, 'Come to me tomorrowfor I have something
to give you.' The Masai slept in the near bushes that night and the next morning, just
before dawn, he went to the place where God had spoken to see what he would give the
Dorobo. But the Dorobo did not come. Then God saw the Masai and said, 'Where is the

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 THE DOROBOASAN IMAGEOFTHE OTHER 485

Dorobo?'The Masairepliedthathe did not [Link] then let downa bark-rope (many
informantssay a fire-stick)fromthe sky andbeganto let cattledown,until therewereso
manythat they intermingledwith those of the [Link] the Dorobocame,and he
couldno longerrecognisehis cattleamongthoseof the Masai,he wasangryandshotaway
the bark-ropewith an arrow(manyinformantssay he brokethe fire-stick,which is an
extremeformof ritualcursingin Masai).17 Godcausedthe cattleto stopdescendingandhe
movedup into the sky, andwasneverseenon the [Link] all the cattlewhich
the Masainow ownwerefirstgivento themby God,andit is becausethe Dorobolost his
cattleby not listeningto Godthathe mustnow huntwild animalsfor his [Link] it is
becausethe Doroboonce shot an arrow(cursed)at him thatGod is foundonly in the sky
today(Jacobs1965:26-7).
4. Longago Godhada leather-cord whichwastied to the [Link] placeda blind
Doroboon it andthenkickedhimout(of heaven)so thathe fell downalongthe leather-cord
of God. So he tookout a knifeandcut it andit went backup so that todayGod remains
above(separated fromus)(Beidelman1968:87).18

5. [Link] Dorobowasfoundroastingmeatandhe
was asked,"You,whatareyou doingto the meat?"( ...) He said,"I got somethingfor
roastingit." He [Link] he showedthemandtoldthemthatwasit.
["He showedthemfire-sticks;the passivestickis consideredfemale,the activatedstickis
consideredmale"](ibid:88).

These stories revealthe attributesof the Dorobo. In all cases the Dorobo has a prior
claim of some kind; he may pre-existthe imposition of order, and co-exist with natural
forces to which he proves to be superior. God may mean for him to have the good
things of life-especially cattle-which, because of innate flaws he is unable to retain;
he may introduce such vital cultural items as fire; given the commonly perceived
analogybetween sexuality and fire-making(cf. Jacobs 1965:282), it is possible that he
is sometimes seen as responsible for the introduction of sexuality itself; this is
suggested by the Nandi story in which the Dorobo's leg spontaneouslygeneratesthe
first human couple (unlike God, who createsintentionally).Negatively, the Dorobo is
responsiblefor the separationof man from God, and for the introductionof poverty,
work, and death-a role customarilyreservedfor women. The Maasaiare able to retain
cattle because of their greaterself-restraintand respect, whereasthe Dorobo is 'blind'
(cf. Beidelman 1968:83-5).
The Dorobo is the trickster-transformer; he both createsand destroysthrough self-
centred amoral behaviour. He muddles categories but yet is responsible for their
[Link] with transitionfrom unity to plurality;the self-sufficiency
of the Dorobo becomes the interdependenceof sexual division, and all that goes with
it. In turn, the incest of the first human brother-sisterpair becomes the plurality of
organised [Link], peoples such as the Kikuyu, Nandi, and Embu emerge
from chaos(for the Embu cf. Lambert 1949:19).
The Dorobo also appear as transformers in real social contexts. They act as
circumcisorsfor Maasai, Baraguyu, and Nandi-turning boys into men, and taking
onto themselves the blood-pollutionof their act (Leakey 1930:189, 208; Huntingford
1951:37;Jacobs 1965:287; Blackburn1971:146-47; Rigby 1976:22). The Dorobo are
ideally suited for such roles. They are intermediatebetween man and beast; they are
uncouth and lack moral and emotional stability (so it is said); they have the power to
transformand are creditedwith powers akin to those of sorcery;their creativeprowess

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486 THE DOROBOASAN IMAGEOFTHE OTHER

is evidencedin the origin of humankind'schief technicaltransformer-fire.

The Kikuyu prayedto God on Mt. Kenya (Leakey 1977, v.2:1108 & passim).'9And
Spencerfound that Mt. Ngiro in northernKenya is associatedwith the Dorobo, yet is
a ceremonialcentre for the Samburu,and in turn is associatedwith the ritually senior
phratry of the Samburu themselves; 'the ritual primacy of the mountian itself
combined to give the Masula [phratry]of this area an unquestionable ceremonial
superiorityover all Samburu:this is equally true of the ex-Dorobo newcomersto the
tribe and of the fully Samburunewcomersto the area'(1973:203-04). The Masula are
judged to be Dorobo-like(Spencer 1965:287). They are close to Mt. Ngiro, which is
the abode of God and of the Dorobo; the Dorobo are the first inhabitantsof the land,
and the closest to the powerswhich were abroadat its creation.
Such a marginal status, as I have said, is inherently ambiguous, and potentially
aligned with evil or good. John Lamphear(pers. comm.) found that, for the Turkana
and Jie-Nilotic-speaking herdersalong the northernKenya-Ugandaborder-the areas
in which Dorobo live 'are areas inhabited by mischievious or downright malevolent
spirits, whereas God's realm is the sky and such places as sacred trees, rock-
outcroppingsetc. withinone's own country. Seemingly an exception to this would be
very high mountains,which are frequentlythe homes of'Dorobo' groups. However, I
have it explained to me by many informants that it is only the very peak of the
mountain-'the regionwhich touches the sky'-that God inhabits,whereasthe Dorobo
areonly on the lower slopes.'
There is much additionalinformationof this sort on the attitudes of neighbouring
peoples towardthe Dorobo, and I summariseit as follows:

They have a special affinity or identity with animals: (Huntingford 1953b:69; Hobley
1903:33;Wayland1931:212;Blackburn1971:139,152;1974:143-44;Spencer1973:202).

Theydo notknowhowto behaveproperly:(Hollis 1905:317;Boyes 1911:207-07;Spencer

1965:209,286;Blackburn1971:171-74;1974:147;Berntsen1976:4).

Theyare sorcerers,
rainmakers,
possessors (Dundas1908:139;Hollis
of arcaneknowledge:
1909b:177;Wayland1931:206;Maguire1948:24;Lambert1949:51;Huntingford1954;
123;1955:604;Hobley1967:186;Spencer1965:285).

These attributes are a litany of the traits assigned to outcastes and marginals
[Link] the local context of East Africa, many of these are assigned to women
by men, or to the membersof low-castesubmergedgroups (cf. Huntingford 1931). In
so far as personslack authority,and are segregatedfrom those who imaginethemselves
to possess it, they are thought of by the latter of being incapableof its exercise. Such
marginals-whether Dorobo, women, blacksmiths, slaves, the 'lower classes,' or
outcastes-are seen as having propensitieswhich do not lend themselvesto reasonand
calm deliberationexercised in the interests of society at large; they are seen as being
emotionallyerraticand self-willed,but often as also being close to supernaturalpowers
with the same features,or as being susceptible to their influence.20Certainspirits are
seen as being laws unto themselves,and the arbitrarinessof human fate is proof of their
activities.
But there is also law, and certain stories in which the Dorobo appear are
commentarieson its emergenceand nature.21

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 THE DOROBOASAN IMAGEOFTHE OTHER 487

5.

The above discussion is based on materialdrawn from a number of spatially and

culturally separateareas. The Dorobo groups in question are widely distributed,but
yet the Dorobo are representedas having the same qualities whereverthey are. The
common featureof the relationshipwhich producesthis matrixis physical marginality
based on hunting and honey-collecting, mediated by economic symbiosis. Now it
would be well to briefly examine cases in which the markersof Dorobo identity occur
as central features of the ritual life on non-hunting peoples. The main example is
providedby the Meru of Mt. Kenya, with the centralreligious office of the Maasaias
secondaryillustration.
The Meru are chiefly known ethnographicallyfor the functions of their former
ritual leader-a priestly office-holder called the Mugwe. He mediated between the
Meru and their God, and acted to consecrate important occasions such as age-set
transition ceremonies (Bernardi 1959:110-18; cf. Needham 1973:passim). He
possessed Dorobo-like attributes, though the Meru are farmers, and there are
indications that his office was thought of as having originated from the Dorobo
populationof Mt. Kenya. Yet there is no doubt of his centralityto the life of the Meru
even throughmuch of colonialtimes.
It has been pointed out that some believe the Chuka sub-tribeof the Meru to have
been aboriginal in the area, and that they, 'have always been in the forests of Mt.
Kenya whence they moved down to their present abode' (Bernardi 1959:5; cf.
Lambert 1949:3, 30, 41). And, as the following shows, the Meru share in the
traditionalhistoryof the Mt. Kenya region at large:

Onemaybe correctin consideringthe Chukaas primarilyMeruwho, havingclimbedthe

first slopes of Mt. Kenya, clearing the forest for cultivation . . ., mixed with the aboriginal
inhabitantsof the forestand establishedsome kind of contactwith the Embu. These
seemto havebeenthe Gumba,nowonlyremembered
aboriginalforestinhabitants by some
traditionsanddescribedas [Link] seemscertainthattheywerea pygmyrace
(Bernardi1959:506).

Some have claimed that the office of the Mugwe descends from the Chuka,or from
the closely related Tharakawho, as seen above, first had contact with the perverse
Njuwe (Bernardi 1959:5; cf. Lambert 1949:3). Perhaps it is significant that the
Tharakawere identified with honey, and that the Mugwe blessed the people by the
spitting of sacredhoney-beer(Lambert1949:3).
The Mugwe is also identifiedwith the colour black (Bernardi1959; Needham 1973;
Mahner 1975), which in turn is associatedwith rain-making(blackrainclouds)and the
powersof the forest. Individualsor groups identifiedwith black were assignedthe task
of performing ceremonies for the benefit of the community as a whole, as though
'blackness'dissolved all distinctions between its members (Mahner 1975:405, 407);
and often these rituals were carriedout in the forest itself.22Among other things, the
'Njuwe' aboriginalsare rememberedas having been black and in this regardresemble
the Mugwe (Lambert1949:15).
The power of the Mugwe resided in his left hand and sacred honey-beer. One
account of the origins of Meru age-setsis that the first to be created(and which is re-
created cyclically with each alternategeneration)was that of the Mugwe, and that it

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488 THE DOROBOASAN IMAGEOFTHE OTHER

was the first to hang beehives in the forest;the second set was that which first initiated
cultivation (Bernardi 1959:66-7). The same complementary obtains among the
adjacentMbeere where, of the two alternatinggeneration-sets,the one associatedwith
herdingratherthan cultivationis the one rituallyresponsiblefor 'the most valued wild
food: honey' (Glazier 1976:320). Thus, in each instance, the first age-set in time is
identified with honey-collecting, the forest, and economic pursuits other than
[Link] the Meru, it is the set of the Mugwe.
The Mugwe is related to autochthonous powers which are akin to those of the
Dorobo, but which are benign whereas those of the Dorobo are ambiguous. This,
however, maps the respectivepositions of the Mugwe and Dorobo quite exactly. The
Mugwe is a mediator with generic natural forces, but lives within society. The
Dorobo's status is generatedfrom economically-basedmarginality,while that of the
Mugwe is created symbolically and is expressed in a pseudo-historicalmyth of his
aboriginalorigins. The Meru social order is imaginativelybrought into being by a
fusion of supposed aboriginals possessing powers over nature, with an incoming
population representedas having civilised virtues such as knowledge of cultivation.23
The power of the Mugwe is that of a domesticatedDorobo, broughtinto the pale of an
agriculturalsociety and harnessedto its ends.
Ultimately, the power of the Mugwe was believed to reside in a 'tail' which he
carried within his own body and perceivable only to the magically adept (Bernardi
1959:72). The Njuwe, in addition to being amoral savages, also had tails. Thus, the
Mugwe is the fusion of beast and man. He stands between the Meru and the powers
which reside on Mt. Kenya: the huge volcano-creator of the rains, refuge of forest
creatures,abodeof God, and the Dorobo(cf. Leakey 1977, v.2:1077; v. 1:202).
Similar observationscan be made concerningthe ritual leadersof the Maasai-the
[Link] story of the origins of this office places its founder outside the Maasai
society; he was an 'orphan' found on a mountain top (Jacobs 1965:326, 321; Hollis
1905:326). His successorshave remainedoutsiders, and have no political role within
the dominant Maasai social institution-the age-set system. They transcend such
divisions through their very externality (Jacobs 1965:327; Fosbrooke 1948:16), and
mediatebetween God and the Maasaias a people: 'Maasaisay of a tribalexpert, "he is
like Divinity but not the same; he stands between man and Divinity"' (Jacobs
1965:325; Fosbrooke 1948:23). And, he is associatedwith the earth, and yet at the
same time with the mountainsand the sky-as arethe Dorobo(Jacobs1965:28).
The supposed ethnic origin of the first olaiboni is unclear (ibid: 321), but his
attributes are Dorobo-like in many regards: externality, transcendance, montane
origins, mystical abilities, and connection to the soil. Jacobs contrasts the central
values of Maasai society to their presumed opposites-most of which apply to the
olaibonokand the Dorobo alike. The Maasaiemphasisereason,respect,and discipline,
to which their image of the Dorobo is totally antithetical; yet, the olaiboni gains
mystical insight through overcoming reason, in intoxication brought about by beer
made from the principal Dorobo exchange item-honey (cf. Beidelman 1960:256,
275).

6.

'Ontological hierarchy is also historical succession' (Wrigley 1973:320). The

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 THE DOROBOAS AN IMAGEOFTHE OTHER 489

Dorobo are the primordialbeings of a temporalsequencein which orderemergesfrom

disorder. However, 'order' is very much in the eye of the beholder. Statements
involving transition from chaos to order conceal assumptions about power and
reciprocity; societies with an institutional aristocracy regard those without it as
primitive; agriculturalistsregardthe hunters as next to bestial. The Dorobo stand in
contrastto the moralityof herderand farmer,which in turn is shapedby economically
constrainedsocial relationships;here the concept of 'mode of production'has a clear
relevanceto the understandingof the myth of the Dorobo. This 'normal'morality is
built upon the necessaryreciprocitiesof settled life, from which the Dorobo seem to be
immune; and, even if the Dorobo were not there, this negative image can always be
filled by the fantasy of the inverted witch-moral and well-disposed by day, but
harbouring grudges and envy secretly-to become greedy, incestuous, and
cannibalisticby night.
But the Dorobo are not themselves seen as witches, though akin to them in some
[Link] witch is an invertedinsider, the Dorobo is a free outsider-and it
is this freedomwhich gives the Dorobo a touch of the divine. The relationshipof the
Dorobo to their neighboursis not usually one of subordination(cf. Huntingford 1931),
but is based on relativelyequal exchangeof [Link],
such as adoption of Dorobo into clans and age-sets reinforce this economic
[Link] outsider is brought partiallyinto the fold, but it would appear
that those of Dorobo origins, no matterhow fully incorporated,tend to retainsome of
the outsider's mystique. And still more interesting is the symbolically produced
externalityof the Mugwe and olaiboni,which places them in relationto the same forces
amongwhich the Dorobo arethought to move, and to some degreecontrol.
Finally there is the similaritybetween supposedattributesof the Dorobo and certain
categories of insider. All societies in question here have a sexual division of labour
which is rooted in a combinationof biology and [Link] Dorobo are
allied with the images which cluster around women in the minds of men-lack of
properrationalcontrol, a proclivity for suspect mystical practices,and so forth; yet in
both cases these 'outsiders' are regarded in a profoundly equivocal fashion, both
representinga perhapsuncontrollabledynamism.
All these factors, rooted in local economic realities, may seem to have an influence
on the way in which the Dorobo are [Link] the first instance,the Dorobo way of
life is renderedpossible by the extraordinaryecological diversity of interior northern
East Africa;this has provided niches for the hunters and, in close proximity to them,
for herdersand farmersas well. Their differentlivelihoods and the stringenciesof the
environmenthave ensured a degree of complimentaritybetween them, accompanied
by interchangeof personnel. Here 'ethnicity' may, among other things, be seen as an
economic strategy.
The abode of the Dorobo also lends itself to the attractionof universal images of
aloofnessand power;mountainswill be the place of God, whetherthere are hunterson
them or not. What is there in common between God and such equivocally regarded
outsiders?Freedomperhaps,and whimsicalitylike the God of Job. This quality of the
arbitraryis in part a projectionof the insecurity of an uncertainsubsistencebase and
inadequatecontrol of disease;if control were of a higher orderthe god of the rainsand
of epidemic would be unnecessary,and the symbolism incarnatein the Dorobo would
alterits significance.

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490 THE DOROBOASAN IMAGEOFTHE OTHER

The Dorobo are seen as being in the 'state of nature' of a strictly hand-to-mouth
existence, in which social restraintand normalreciprocityare [Link] the eyes of
the pastoralists, they are 'worthless people' who 'live in the forest like baboons'
(Lamphear1976:65-6); they 'eat the heifer,' an absolutelymad act which strikesat the
base of pastoralistaccumulation,but which could make good sense to the Dorobo in
their own terms.
There is something of the symbolism of class running all through this. The
attributesof the Dorobo and those assigned by the 'higher classes' to the 'lower' are
similar, due to the outsider's presumably amoral, though enviable, freedom from
[Link] symbolismassociatedwith class is not restrictedto class-basedsocieties,
since marginalityitself, however brought about, is also an important element. The
images discussed here feed on perceptionsof what normal social relationsshould be,
and thereforeare contingentupon the factorswhich establishthe norm in a given case.
If social relationsin an agriculturalsociety, such as those perceivedthroughthe idiom
of kinship, were not of such a necessarilydense and constrainingvariety, the Dorobo
would not be such an evocative counterpoise to them. The ties of kinship are
interwoven with so-called relations of production;if these relations were to become
more fluid, then the stereotypes built by inverting them, such as those of the
incestuous witch and Dorobo, would again alter accordingly. Social relations in a
pastoralsociety, for which the environmentcompels frequent movement in search of
water and pasturage, are of a different character from those among sedentary
[Link] latter provide more fertile soil for witchcraftaccusationsthan do the
former;whereas cultivatorsmust live in with their neighbours, herders are more at
their liberty to leave them if difficulties arise. Yet they too are ultimately bound into
constrainingwebs of economic relations,based upon obligationsin livestock. In either
case the Dorobo seem to slip throughthe web.24
All of this falls within the theoreticalreachof a [Link] 'stateof
nature' is envisioned and judged through a concordanceof negativities, whereby all
that we are-whatever that may be-the Dorobo of the world are not. If we see
ourselvesas having invidious class distinctions,at least there is comfortin the fact that
the Dorobo do not. But if we, in our own eyes, are the advanced members of an
obviously progressive and moral society, we must have progressed with regard to
something, such as the degraded and promiscuous savagery of the hunters or the
drunkenamoralityof the workingclasses. Thus, the Dorobo are a mirror,in which one
sees what one is-with the termsreversed.
It is not a little ironic that Turnbull (1972) happened to work among an
impoverished'Dorobo' group in easternUganda, who seemed to him to representthe
Hobbesian nightmareof the state of natureas one of general war (cf. Wayland 1931).
The Ik were taken to be the ultimate individualists, without a social contract, and
without the ability to impose even a semblence of one (1972:182)-a caricature,in
short, of the dangerous tendencies working within, 'society in the civilized world
today' (ibid:293).It is the function of the hunters to bring others to consciousnessof
their own condition;the behaviourof the Ik, as reportedby Turnbull, is much like that
which neighbouring peoples believe to be typical of all Dorobo at all times. Social
science, it seems, aspiresto replacemyth.
If the Dorobo do not exist in fact, they are invented-and are always there, just out

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 THE DOROBO AS AN IMAGE OF THE OTHER 491

of the light of the cooking fire, or out of sight, but not out of mind, on the wrong side
of the tracks:
... it is by no meansa lightundertaking to distinguishproperlybetweenwhatis original
andwhatis artificialin the actualnatureof man,or to forma trueideaof a statewhichno
longerexists, perhapsneverdid exist, and probablyneverwill exist;and of which it is,
nevertheless, necessaryto havetrueideas,in orderto forma properjudgmentof ourpresent
state ([Link], Discourseon the Originof Inequality).

NOTES
1 I thank Peter
Rigby, John Lamphear, Norman Townsend, and Rodney Needham for advice and
informationconcerningthis paper, and, of course, William Watsonand EdwardWinter.
2 Less is known
concerning the Dorobo's opinions about farmersand herders, no doubt an interesting
matterfor investigationin itself.
3 I will be using an 'ethnographicpresent' throughout, since the sources pertainingto the Dorobo from
differentperiods are mutuallyconsistent.
4 While the herdersappearto regardthe cultivatorsas effete, the latterregardthe formeras barbarians.
5 The Dorobo would be
collectively referredto in Kiswahili as 'Wandorobo',or in Maa as 'Il-torobbo';
here they will simply be called 'Dorobo.'
6 Blackburn(1974; 141n) finds that the Dorobo who
formerlylived on Mt. Kenya and in the Aberdare
range are ambiguouslyrelatedto those of the west Rift Escarpment;some of the formerhave since taken to
herding.
7 Even if such small physical differences are found to exist, they could be easily accounted for by
randomgenetic factorsor by nutrition, as by distinct racialorigins.
8 Among the Okkiek, rights to gather honey are in fact considered private
property (Blackburn
1974:146).
9
Boyes (1911) gives a fascinatingdescriptionof'Dorobo' finding honey by means of a honey-guidebird.
10 The group with the best claim, until recently, to be regarded as truly ancient is the Hadza (or
'Hadzapi,' or 'Tindiga') of northernTanzania. Their language contains phonemic 'clicks' and it has been
supposed that they are the remnants of a once more widespread San population now restrictedto south-
western Africa. This is debateable(cf. Bleek 1931:274; Woodburn 1968:49). To my knowledge the Hadza
have never been categorisedas Dorobo in print, though they were until a short time ago exclusively hunter-
gatherers. Their relations with neighbours are symbiotic in the Dorobo manner, and, again, their most
importantproduct is honey (Bleek 1931:278;Cooper 1949; 9; Woodburn 1972:198).
l It has been suggested that the term 'asi' is of wide provenance,perhapsexpressive of a formerlymore
widespread distribution of [Link] embodying this root appear to exist in the Kisii
highlands of western Kenya, and my own work in Gwassi Location suggests a prevalance of hunting
activities at one time in the Gwassi Hills along Lake Victoria(Malcolm Ruel, pers. comm.; Kenny 1977).
12 'In the forests there lived a race of
people called Gumba (pigmy), who were engaged in hunting.
They were very short and strong. Their homes were built underground,they were shy and did not like to
mix freely with strangers[Kikuyu]. To avoid meeting other people they dug tunnels connecting different
sections of their undergroundvillages. As soon as they saw a strangerthey ran into the tunnels, which were
cunningly concealed;then they would run quickly undergroundand reappearat the other end. The Gikuyu
were very much astonished, for they thought that these people had magic of opening the earth and
disappearing therein at will... it is said that they disappearedunderground and no one knows what
becameofthem' (Kenyatta 1953:23).
13 As for Karuri'sorigin and careercf. Muriuki (1974:158-62). Boyes calls Karuri a 'chief, but in pre-
colonial times the Kikuyu had no such office in any usual sense. Karuri in fact appears to have derived
much of his authorityfrom his associationwith Boyes and, later, with officials of the ImperialBritish East
Africa Company, and therefore is representativeof the first generationof African colonial chiefs. Hobley
(1906:119) derives Karuri personally, and the rest of the Dorobo in general, from a group called the
'Digiri,' claiming that 'Digiri' is the earliest known ancestor of the 'Aggiek.' 'Digiri, however, appearsto
have lived so long ago that all details about him are lost.' Elsewhere (1905:39-40), Hobley recounts his
encounter, while camping on Mt. Kenya in 1891, with a 'few specimens of a beardedrace of men who were
said to live in the depths of the forest on that mountain.' He later found, 'representativesof these people'
on the north-eastside of the Aberdares,'and it was then elucidated that the beardedpeople are the Digiri
clan of the Oggiek tribe' (cf. Muriuki 1974:38).
14 The name
'Maswatch-wanya'is also rendered 'Masiswai Chiana,' 'maithoachiana,'or 'maitho ma
chiana.' These terms have been rendered, equally variously, as 'the eyes of the children' (supposedly

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492 THE DOROBO AS AN IMAGE OF THE OTHER

alluding to their shy manner),'the fierce little people,' or 'the enemies of the children'(cf. Middleton 1972;
15; Leakey 1977, v.l:51). The latter terms seem to imply sorcery-like powers. As for the Gumba,
Christopher Wrigley proposes (pers. comm.) that the term itself is derived from a Bantu root connoting
'bone' or 'remains'(cf. Lugandaggumba-'bone'), and states that, "when people come across potsherds of
obsolete style, bones where there is no known grave, they infer that they belong to people who died so long
ago that they no longer count as [Link] is quite correct. The error-ours ratherthan theirs-is to
infer that the bones are those of people who were not in fact ancestralto the modern population." This
could account for the associationof remainswith old pit houses (or so they appearto be), and with a people
called the 'Gumba.'
15 The same vision of'savage' aboriginalsis held among the pastoralistsof northeasternUganda. In the
beginning where the Dorobo (Tepes, Ik, and semi-mythological Ngikuliak), created by God on their
mountainsto hunt and gather honey, there to be found by the pastoralistswhen they and their herds first
enteredthe country(Lamphear1976:65).
16 A similar story from the Maasai is given in Fuchs (1910); but in this version the man with the
pregnantknee is not specificallyidentified as a Dorobo.
17 The image of breakingthe fire-stickis also a sign of the Dorobo's senior status, since threat of this act
is one used by elders to discipline juniorsin the age-set system. Here the Dorobo even seems to be superior
to God.
18 There are a number of recordedversions of the story in which the Dorobo cuts, or is responsible for
the breakingof the link between heaven and earth. For a Maasai version too lengthy to reproducehere see
Hollis (1905:266-69); other Maasai versions are in Fuchs (1910:76-7) and in Blackburn (1971:201).
Turnbull recordsa permutationof the story in which God himself cuts the vine on which he lowered the
first man to earth,because men refusedto sharethe meat of the hunt with women (1972:187).
19 A Kikuyu prayer:'God, since it was you that created this mountain [Mt. Kenya], and made it Your
dwelling place, and since it was you that createdus and our fathersand forefathers,I pray to you now. ( ..)
I beseech You to bless this sacrifice and to bless me and my family and all I possess; make us firm and
strong like Mount Kenya, which You created'(Leakey 1977, v.2:1108).
20 See Kenny (1978) for a discussion of a similar problem in a different ethnic context. Here it is also
worth mentioning the parallelbetween Maasaiattitudes towardDorobo, and towardtheir own blacksmiths
(the Il-Kunono)."The il-Kunono, we are told, 'are not rich in cattle . . . they have no luck with cattle' "
(Huntingford 1931:263).The blacksmiths,"are thought to be of differentrace from the Masae [sic]." "It is
possible that they represent the remains of a people said formerly to have inhabited the Uasin-Gishu
plateau in Kenya" (ibid:264).Thus the smiths are viewed as being incompetent at herding, and as having
originated from some group already present before the arrivalof the Maasai. The Maasai despise them,
regard them as polluting, but yet are dependent on their iron products; I think the smiths to be
symbolicallyisolatedbecauseof the magicalpowers associatedwith smithing.
21 The ambivalenceof ideas concerning God may be seen among the Lugbara, for whom God in his
'immanent' aspect appears in the form of a grotesque half-humancreature manifesting itself in the wind
and mountain grass-fires,and death to those who see him (Middleton 1960:254). And the comparabilityof
the Dorobo to women appearsin a Kikuyu story analogousto that of how the Dorobo lost his cattle; here a
woman once had cattle, but lost them because of angering God; her animals ran away to become beasts of
the forest, and only men have kept livestocksince (Beecher 1939:81;cf. Beidelman 1968:84).
22 Bernardihad discovered that Meru clans were divided into colour classes-white, black, and red.
These clans believed that their colour identities were acquiredaccordingto the time of day at which they
crosseda river into their present home from a place of putative origin on the sea; the white clans crossed in
the daylight, the black at night, and the red at dawn (Bernardi1959:9, 58; Needham 1973:112). But it was
also found that the white and red clans were grouped together and opposed to the black in a moiety-like
manner. This was later confirmed by Mahner (1975), who came to the conclusion that the opposition
between the red/white group and the black symbolically expresses a distinction between immigrants and
aboriginals;that, as is likely, the Meru are of heterogeneous origins (ibid:407).This again reinforces my
point about the putativeaboriginalstatus of the Mugwe.
23 This equationcan be reversedand still retainthe same underlyinglogic, as in the common story of the
wanderinghunter-kingand the settled aborigines.
24 It might be expected that the attitudes of
pastoralists and farmers toward Dorobo would vary in
accordwith the relativelyfluid social relationsof the former, and the relativelyconstrainedof the latter-a
useful topic for furtherfield investigation.

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Resume
Le miroirdans la foret:les chasseurs-cueilleursDorobo
ou l'image d'autrui
On examine dans le present article un ensemble d'id6es qui ont cours chez certainsdes peuples
agricoles et pastorauxd'Afrique Orientale et qui ont trait a la nature et aux modes sociaux de
leurs voisins chasseurs-cueilleurs,connus g6enriquementsous l'appellation de 'Dorobo'. On
passe tout d'aborden revue les facteurseconomiqueset ecologiques qui soustendentl'existence
d'une adaptationind6pendantea la chasse et a la cueillette: on montre ensuite comment cette
adaptation ou 'mode de production' entraine l'apparition d'un ensemble distinct de
representationsliees a ceux qui la pratiquent.

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 THE DOROBO AS AN IMAGE OF THE OTHER 495

Les Dorobo sont isoles socialement de ceux qui entretiennent ces croyances a leur egard et
qui peuvent donc, sans restriction, concevoir les Dorobo comme les representantstypiques de
l'Ptatde desordre,impressionrenforceepar l'associationintime de ces derniersa la brousse et a
ses creatures. Ainsi, on attribue aux Dorobo des tendances animales reliees dialectiquementa
certains traits que les cultivateurset les pasteursestiment etre caracteristiquesd'eux-memes. Si
l'individu normal et pondere fait preuve de respect vis a vis des conventions sociales, le
Dorobo, a ses yeux, ne manifeste de respect envers rien. II apparait donc comme un etre
incestueux, qui s'adonnea la sorcellerie,a la boisson et aux pitreries.
Mais ces stereotypes ethniques renferment une ambiguite essentielle: en effet, une autre
croyancetres repandueest que les Dorobo ont ete les premiersoccupants du territoireet qu'ils
ont donc des rapportsintimes et fructueux avec les forces naturelleset avec Dieu. Les pasteurs
et agriculteurs utilisent donc l'etre "Dorobo" comme mediateur avec ces memes forces ou
creent symboliquement,au sein de leur propresociete, des chefs rituels que l'on croit doues des
memes capacites. Le present essai s'attachedonc a faire ressortirl'ideologie concomittanted'un
mode de production dans lequel un processus de symbiose etablit des rapports reciproques
entre les chasseurset leurs voisins.

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