The Assa are an ethnic and linguistic group based on the Maasai Steppe of northern Tanzania. In 1999 the Assa population was estimated to number 300, after the eastern Assa became absorbed into the Maasai.[1] The Assa language is a Afro-Asiatic one called Aasáx [2] ,[2] though it is often mistakenly labelled Dorobo.