The Akie (sometimes called Mosiro, which is an Akie clan name) are a

Tanzanian Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands and ...

ethnic and linguistic people living in south western

Ngorongoro District Ngorongoro is one of the seven districts of the Arusha Region in Tanzania. The District covers an area of . It is bordered to the north by Kenya, to the east by Monduli District, the northeast by Longido District, and to the south by the Karatu ...

Arusha Region Arusha City is a Tanzanian city and the regional capital of the Arusha Region, with a population of 416,442 plus 323,198 in the surrounding Arusha District Council (2012 census). Located below Mount Meru on the eastern edge of the eastern ...

. In 2000 the Akie population was counted at 5,268. The Akie, like other hunter-gatherer peoples in Kenya and Tanzania, are sometimes called by the derogatory and misleading term ''

Dorobo Dorobo (or ''Ndorobo'', ''Wadorobo'', ''dorobo'', ''Torobo'') is a derogatory umbrella term for several unrelated hunter-gatherer groups of Kenya and Tanzania. They comprised client groups to the Maasai and did not practice cattle pastoralism. E ...

'' or ''Wandorobo''. The Akie were featured by

Bruce Parry Bruce Parry (born 17 March 1969) is an English documentarian, indigenous rights advocate, author, explorer, trek leader and former Royal Marines commando officer. He employs an ethnographic style and a form of participant observation for his doc ...

in the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

series "Tribe" (10th episode, 2007).

Exonym

The Akie are sometimes officially called Dorobo or Wandorobo, which is a derogatory

Swahili Swahili may refer to: * Swahili language, a Bantu language official in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda and widely spoken in the African Great Lakes * Swahili people, an ethnic group in East Africa * Swahili culture Swahili culture is the culture of ...

exonym for them. This Swahili exonym is derived from the Maa words "Ol‐dóróboni" and "Il‐Tóróbo," which mean "people without cattle."

Lifestyle

The Akie are one of the last actual hunter-gatherer groups left on the African

savanna A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground to ...

. Beside hunting they collect honey, which involves 'steaming' out the bees, making it possible for to reach into the hive and grab the honey. They enjoy

beer Beer is one of the oldest and the most widely consumed type of alcoholic drink in the world, and the third most popular drink overall after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of starches, mainly derived from cer ...

which they make from honey. Due to competition for land with the

Maasai Maasai may refer to: *Maasai people *Maasai language *Maasai mythology The Maasai mythology or Maasai religion are the traditional beliefs of the Maasai people of Kenya and Tanzania. In Maasai culture, nature and its elements are important facets ...

, they have recently been more reliant on

maize Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn ( North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. ...

, although this rarely produces enough food to last year around. The Akie's closest ethnic and linguistic relatives may be the Ogiek who live farther north in Tanzania and mainly

Kenya ) , national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

. They may have been farmers, but were forced to migrate south and resume a hunter-gatherer lifestyle after some hardship. The Akie used to cover the Maasai Steppe, but now agriculture,

poaching Poaching has been defined as the illegal hunting or capturing of wild animals, usually associated with land use rights. Poaching was once performed by impoverished peasants for subsistence purposes and to supplement meager diets. It was set ag ...

and other hunters have diminished the natural resources forcing the Akie into a bitter rivalry with the

over land and

water Water (chemical formula ) is an inorganic, transparent, tasteless, odorless, and nearly colorless chemical substance, which is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living organisms (in which it acts as ...

Language

The Akie people have their own language, also called Akie. Akie is a moribund

endangered language An endangered language or moribund language is a language that is at risk of disappearing as its speakers die out or shift to speaking other languages. Language loss occurs when the language has no more native speakers and becomes a " dead lang ...

, with only a few elders who speak it. The Akie people have adopted Maasai and

, and while no official figures on the number of Akie speakers exist it is reported that younger generations are becoming less fluent in Akie.

Notes

External links

Ogiek.org
{{authority control Ethnic groups in Tanzania Indigenous peoples of East Africa Hunter-gatherers of Africa Indigenous peoples of Arusha Region Dorobo