aaaaauuuuuuiiiiii, aaaaaaauuuuuuuiiiiiiiiii, that sounds like nduru za wakikuyu. The Sonjo on the border btwn Kenya and TZ are referred to as Thonjo by their Kuyu brothers.

That is true.

Nevertheless, their reputation as fearless fighters kept many intruders (including Bazungu explorers) from crossing Masailiand.

The Masai do 'occupy' the land, but their concept of ownership is very different from Bantu agriculturalists - basically summarized in that nomadic belief that: "the land (specifically anything that grows on the surface), belongs to the cow."

The fact that the Masai roam widely does not imply lack of ownership. After all they named every inch and would fight to protect grazing grounds from intruders, especially if there animals are threatened. Granted they will not bother to secure title, as a Kikuyu would, for instance, believing that the cow does it for them.

But that's it. There are very few other kikuyu sounding words. Maybe I need to give it another listen.

I think it's in Yuval Noah Harari's 'Sapiens' where the writer makes the argument that Europeans were able to conquer the rest of the world because of how our societies were closed.

He observes that the Spaniards conquered different tribes in the Americas using the same strategy. Had there been good information flows, the conquests would not have been as easy.

Also in those days you couldn't lurk too far from the secure fortified villages coz of wild animals e.g. the man eaters of Tsavo. Language barriers and suspicions also meant communities in the hinterland couldn't have meaningful conversations with coastal communities beyond the barter trade. Lastly the life expectancy was very low hence some info that a singular elder could have passed to several generations was only shared with 1 or 2 generations hence either got distorted or lost altogether