ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the military age-group organization, with briefer notice of the organization of younger and older age-groups. The Sonjo recognize three major age-grades: the first encompasses the life of a boy up to the time of his circumcision; an individual in this grade is referred to as a kijori. The second starts with an initiation ceremony occurring shortly after circumcision and lasts for about fourteen years; a young man in this age-grade is called a motana. Circumcision is performed on boys1 between the ages of about nine and fifteen. The manifest function of Sonjo age-grades, as any thoughtful Sonjo would explain, is to provide a military force to protect the villages against attack by their enemies the Masai. A sizeable military force in any society, besides protecting the society against foreign enemies, is an instrument of political power within the society.
