Iloikop wars

Nile records indicate that the three decades starting about 1800 were marked by low rainfall levels in regions south of the Sahara. East African oral narratives and the few written records indicate peak aridity during the 1830s resulting in recorded instances of famine in 1829 and 1835 in Ethiopia and 1836 in Kenya. Among Kenyan Rift Valley communities this arid period, and the consequent series of events, have been referred to as Mutai. A feature of the Mutai was increased conflict between neighboring communities, most noted of these has been the Iloikop wars. Earlier conflicts preceding the wars appear to have brought about the pressures that resulted in this period of conflict. Von Höhnel (1894) and Lamphear (1988) recorded narratives concerning conflict between the Turkana and Burkineji or at least the section recalled as Sampur that appear to have been caused by even earlier demographic pressures. Turkana - Burkineji conflict Turkana narratives recorded by Lamphear (1988) provide a broad perspective of the prelude to the conflict between the Turkana and a community he refers to as Kor, a name by which the Turkana still call the Samburu in the present day. Lamphear notes that Tukana traditions aver that a dreamer among them saw strange animals living with the people up in the hills. Turkana warriors were thus sent forward to capture one of these strange beasts, which the dreamer said looked 'like giraffes, but with humps on their backs'. The young men therefore went and captured one of these beasts - the first camels the Turkana had seen. The owners of the strange beasts appear to have struck the Turkana as strange as well. The Turkana saw them as 'red' people, partly because of their lighter skin and partly because they daubed their hair and bodies with reddish clay. They thus gave them the name 'Kor'. Lamphear states that Turkana traditions agree that the Kor were very numerous and lived in close pastoral association with two other communities known as 'Rantalle' and 'Poran', the names given to the Cushitic speaking Rendille and Boran communities. Fragmentation According to Maasai traditions recorded by MacDonald (1899), the expansion of early Eloegop (Loikop) communities into a society occurred from a base east of Lake Turkana on three fronts. Pushing southward from the country east of Lake Turkana the Loikop conquered a number of communities to occupy the plateaus adjacent to the Rift Valley. Krapf writing in the mid-19th century, recognized two notable pastoral population groups in the East African hinterland. One of these, whom he referred to as Wakuafi (Kwavi) had territory that lay on the "broad, level, pasture land, which stretches to the south-east of the White Mountain". He noted that this district "is called Kaptei or Kaputei". He also noted that the "chief seat of the Masai" then was at "...mountain Samba", located south-west of Oldoinio eibor. Krapf states in a different account that "regarding Oldoinio eibor it is necessary to remark that by this term is meant the Kirénia or Endurkenia, or simply Kenia, as the Wakamba call it..." ==Maasai - Kwavi war: c.1830s==

Enkangelema war Contemporary understanding of the wars indicates that the Enkangelema sections of the Maasai occupied the steppes today known as the Nyika plateau. They were pushed out of the plateaus in the 1820s and 30s, most of the survivors fleeing westwards to Taveta or south to join the Parakuyo. Ludwig Krapf (1854) recorded accounts of the Engánglima from Lemāsěgnǒt whose father was "Engobore, an Mkuafi of the tribe Engánglima" who had "married a woman in the Interior near Oldoinio eibŏr (white mountain)" by whom he got his son, Lemāsěgnǒt. Krapf notes that Engobore resolved to reside at a place called Muasuni which was situated on the upper course of the Pangani river in the vicinity of the kingdom of Usambara when he returned from the interior. Krapf states that "the reason which had induced Engobore to join the nomadic settlement of the Wakuafi tribe Barrabuyu...was because his own tribe Engánglima had during his stay in the interior been nearly annihilated by the wild Masai". His account of his informant alludes to a corporate identity that he refers to as 'Wakuafi' which had within it at least two sections, that he refers to as Engánglima and Barrabuyu. Krapf noted that the Enganglima territory occupied the vast territory situated between Usambara, Teita and Ukambani. Thompson in 1883 wrote of the 'Wa-kwafi' and their territory which by his description is roughly contiguous with Engánglima territory as mentioned by Krapf. Thompson states that, "The original home of the (Wa-kwafi) was the large district lying between Kilimanjaro, Ugono and Parè on the west, and Teita and U-sambara on the east. This large region is known to the Masai as Mbaravui. Krapf notes that the Engánglima; According to Thompson's account, a 'series of misfortunes' fell upon the Kwavi about 1830 leading to the eventual collapse of the community. He states that; This attack and the subsequent scattering of the Kwavi were noted by other writers about the same time... {{quote box Outcome A number of traditions agree that the Kwavi were ejected from their homes, leading to the scattering of this community. The areas were depopulated and were for a time known as the Wakuafi wilderness. In 1857, after having depopulated the "Wakuafi wilderness" in what is now southeastern Kenya, Maasai warriors are reported to have threatened Mombasa on the Kenyan coast. ==Reformation: c.1840s/50s==

According to Thompson's narrative, the Kwavi were not entirely annihilated 'for a large division of the clan kept together, and contrived to cut their way through Kikuyu and to reach Lyikipia where they settled. Another section crossed the meridional trough and reached the opposite half of the plateau in Guas' Ngishu'. Stigand's accounts portray a picture of significant military activity during the reformation period. He portrays raiding activity directed north, east and south. ==Laikipiak wars: c.1860s/70s==

Combatants Thompson (1883) noted that the ''''Wa-kwafi' of Guas'Ngishu and those of Lykipia''', having increased in numbers and grown bold, allied together to make war on the Maasai. He was advised that this was about fifteen years before then i.e. c.1870. Berntsen (1979) notes that elders of the Purko-Kisongo Maasai relate that it was warriors of the Il Aimer age-set (c. 1870–1875) who blunted the attack of their northern neighbours the Ilaikipiak and then destroyed them as a social unit. The elders do not attribute the victory to the Maasai warriors to superior military strength but rather to the prophetic-ritual leadership of the famous laibon Mbatian who exploited his influence among several Purko-Kisongo sections to unite all the warriors of the Purko-Kisongo against the Ilaikipiak. Prelude According to Purko informants, the Purko and the Laikipiak allied to raid the Uasin Gishu during the warriorhood of the Il Nyankusi age-set (c. 1860s - 1870s). These traditions imply a joint or at least a coordinated attack. More recently, there has been scholarly speculation that some Purko sought charms and medicines from the prophet of the Ilaikipiak - Koikoti ole Tunai - whose kraal was located much closer to the Purko than was Mbatian's. Only two Loikop sections, Parakuyo and Sampur, managed to survive the Iloikop wars as intact pastoralist communities. By the end of the nineteenth century however, Maasai, and many outside observers began to think of all non-Maasai Loikop as socially inferior sub-set of the now dominant Maasai community. ==References==