[4] Archaeological evidence suggests that they were still in the Ngorongoro Highlands until around 150 years ago, before they were chased out by the Maasai, who live there to this day, still calling the area Osupuko loo Ltatua (Mountains of the Tatoga).

[5] The Tatoga then headed south along the eastern branch of East Africa's Great Rift Valley and eventually split into groups they call emojiga.

Many Barabaig were forcibly evicted from the Basotu Plains in the 1990s to make room for a large-scale wheat-growing project of the Canadian and Tanzanian governments.

Serious offences are dealt with in camera and sanctions imposed by a Makchamed made up of selected senior elders[9] The Barabaig live by hunting, farming, and animal husbandry.

They provide milk, meat, and occasionally blood for sustenance, skins for clothing, horns as drinking vessels, dung for building and urine as a cleanser.

Before a bung'ed is accorded to an elder (sometimes, but rarely a woman), his clan meet to discuss whether he qualifies by having lived a moral life, had many wives and children, possessed many cattle, and commanded authority through oratory, displayed brave deeds and shown wise judgement.

Thereafter, the site of the burial becomes sacred, carries the deceased's name and is maintained by the clan in perpetuity[14] The Barabaig are nomadic in that they follow a grazing rotation around the Hanang Plains and beyond.

In the wet season, they moved their herds north up onto the Basotu Plains when there was enough surface water for them to exploit the rich pastures found there they call muhajega.

They therefore challenged the government's agent, the National Agriculture and Food Corporation (NAFCO) that managed the farms, and mounted a case in the High Court.

After an initial judgement in favour of their customary rights in Yoke Gwako & 5 Others v. NAFCO & Gawal Farm (Civil Case No.52 of 1988), the ruling was overturned on appeal through legal technicalities (Tengo, R. & Kakoti, G. 1993 The Barabaig Land Case: Mechanics of state-organised land-grabbing in Tanzania in Veber, H, Dahl, J., Wilson, F., & Wæhle, E., "Never Drink From The Same Cup", IWGIA / CDR, Copenhagen).

Apart from the loss of land, the Barabaig have had to endure the destruction of sacred sites, violation of their human rights with beatings, rapes and summary fines and convictions for trespass on the farms resulting in incarceration.