This paper was presented during the symposium East African Age Systems in Transition: Contemporary Political and Military Contexts held from 28 November – 2 December 1995 at the National Museum of Ethnology in Osaka sponsored by the Taniguchi Foundation and organized by the Senri Foundation. It was included as Chapter 3 in Conflict, Age & Power in North East Africa edited by Eisei Kurimoto and myself and published in 1998 in the series Eastern African Studies van James Currey in cooperation with East African Publishing House, Fountain Publishers and Ohio University Press.