ABSTRACT
The Sonjo, numbering about 4,500 in population, occupy six villages which are located in the interior of Masai District in northern Tanganyika near the Kenya border. The topography of northern Masai District presents a variety of features ranging from well-watered mountains to desert. In the south of the region, centring on the Ngorongoro Crater, there is a cluster of tall volcanic mountains—Tanganyika's 'Giant Craterland'. Within this essentially pastoral milieu the Sonjo form an enclave of Bantu agriculturalists, markedly different in their way of life from the surrounding Masai. Their nearest Bantu neighbours are the Ikoma, whose territory starts eighty miles to the west across the Serengeti Plain. The topographical situations of all the Sonjo villages are remarkably similar. Built on the rocky slope of an escarpment, each village overlooks a small valley of cultivated fields. The villages were formerly surrounded by dense thickets, pierced only by the gates.
