Datoga

Alternative Names

Datoga, Tatog, Tatoga, Datoog, and Mangati.

Location and Linguistic Affiliation

The core Datoga area has for several centuries been the Hanang and Mbulu Districts of Arusha Region in northern Tanzania, but Datoga groups are spread over much of Tanzania in small localized enclaves.

Datoga is a Southern Nilotic language. The various subsections have different dialects which are internally comprehended among all Datoga.

Overview of the Culture

The Size of the Population

The size of the Datoga population is rather uncertain owing to the lack of ethnic variables in recent censa and to the considerable dispersion of Datoga throughout Tanzania. The Datoga population of Hanang District has been estimated at 30,000 (Lane, 1996), but the total number of Datoga in Tanzania is probably several times that number.

Economy and Occupations

Datoga are pastoral in the sense that there is an immense cultural emphasis on cattle. The cultural elaboration of cattle