East African Pastoralist

The East African Pastoralist group includes the Somali, Afar, Oromo, Turkana, Maasai and Kalenjin. Somali is often explained as meaning go and milk. The Turkana raised camels and zebu cattle. The Afar appear as the Dankal in a thirteenth-century account.

The Maasai came from South Sudan and took age-set organisation and circumcision from their Cushitic neighbours, and their warriors were feared as raiders. The Oromo were governed by the gadaa system, with leaders chosen for eight-year terms, and about 1530 began a great expansion out of southern Ethiopia.