This original landrace variety, the defining traits of which the Sokoke breed was later developed to formalize and preserve, was locally named Khadzonzo by the Giriama people of Kenya, who had known of the variety for a considerable time, possibly centuries before the intervention of Western fanciers and breeders.
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The distinctive, free-roaming feral cats of the Kenya coastal area – found from city streets to the Arabuko Sokoke forest – were "discovered", in the Western cat fancy sense, by horse breeder and wildlife artist Jeni Slater in 1978.