ABSTRACT
The Arusha determine their descent patrilineally and all ‘true-Arusha’ are able to trace their descent line to one of the first-settlers who came to live on the lower edge of the forest on the southwestern slopes of Mt. Meru. The origins of the various first-settlers who are now remembered in this way are traced to the people of Kikoin (Arusha Chini), the Logolala (Kwavi), or some ill-defined Masai-like group; but their genealogical connections are unknown. Where there is some knowledge, it invariably refers only to the father of a first-settler and does not effectively extend the range of the genealogy. This means that all genealogies are shallow: in many cases, in the middle of the twentieth century, the earliest ancestor was the grandfather of the oldest generation of living men, and in all other investigated cases he was the great-grandfather. Arusha say that most of the first-settlers were young men, and remembered first ancestors fathered sons in their old age.
