ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the strategic manipulation of ethnic identity by the Yaaku (Mukogodo Maasai) of Kenya. It is notable that changes brought on by the British colonial government led the Yaaku away from their traditional life as independent hunters and gatherers into the orbit of the ‘high status’ Maasai, whom they began to emulate. Under British colonial rule, the Yaaku found themselves increasingly in close contact with the Maasai. The Yaaku were looked down upon by the pastoralist Maasai neighbours, who saw them as dirty, poor and uncultured. In the 1920s, the British created a Dorobo reserve in Mukogodo division of Laikipia district as a safe haven for the Yaaku. The loss of the Yaaku language is worrisome because language embodies a people’s culture while serving as the vehicle for its transmission.
