The Barabaig are a sub-tribe of the Datooga people based in the northern volcanic highlands near Mount Hanang (3418m) in Manyara Region, Tanzania, speaking the eponymous dialect of the Datooga language. The best known and most numerous sub-tribe of the Datooga peoples are the pastoral Barabaig, whose scared nature makes it an important theme in Barabaig myth and song.
The Barabaig have no supreme leader or chief (acephalous society). They are organised into clans made up of descendants who can trace their lineage to a single ancestor.
The Barabaig are nomadic in that they follow a grazing rotation around the Hanang Plains and beyond. Cattle are central to Barabaig life. They provide milk, meat, and occasionally blood for sustenance, skins for clothing, horns as drinking vessels, dung for building and urine as a cleanser. Traditionally, the Barabaig did not grow crops, but they now cultivate farm plots with maize, sorghum and beans. They also grow vegetables in gardens near their homesteads.
Among the Barabaig (also Datooga) of Tanzania and Karamajong of Uganda, these “goggle” tattoos surround the eye sockets of both men and women and are usually pigmented. The tattooist picks up a fold of skin and cuts the tip removing the skin from the body. A charcoal pigment mixed with cow urine is rubbed into the incisions resulting in small bumps that delicately encircle the face over time.
Photo Gallery: © Lluis Font / Tanzania - 2020
Extended info about Barabaig People