THE IRAQW TRIBE , The LAST Southern CUSHITES , Tanzania.

#cushites #oromo #somali
The Iraqw People.
Welcome to Afroartista Films. In today's video, we investigate the Iraqw, a Southern Cushitic ethnic group living in Tanzania. The following are ten remarkable facts about these people.

1. The Iraqw are a Cushitic-speaking ethnic group who live in northern Tanzania. They are a prominent group that formed in the north-central Tanzanian districts of southern Arusha and northwestern Manyara, near the Rift Valley.
2. The Iraqw have long been thought to be descendants of Afro-Asiatic peoples who practiced agricultural and animal husbandry in the Great Lakes region. The Iraqw are said to have originated in Ethiopia, namely in the Oromia region near Harar and Dire Dawa.
3. The Iraqw speak the Iraqw language as their mother tongue, which is part of the Afro-Asian family's South Cushitic branch. Iraqw speakers are also fluent in Swahili, Tanzania's native language.

4. A thorough anthropological examination of the ethnic Iraqw reveals that they have strong similarities with other Cushitic-speaking groups in general. The Iraqw, however, have some phenotypic linkages with local Bantu communities due to intermarriage with the neighboring Tanzanian populations.
5. Recent developments in genetic studies have thrown some insight on the Iraqw people's ethno genesis. The E1b1b haplogroup has been shown to be present in 56% of Iraqis. This indicates that they are mostly Cushitic in origin. The Iraqw's second most common paternal lineage was Haplogroup B, which is typical in Nilotic groups. It is observed in 22% of Iraqi males. The E1b1a haplogroup, which is very common among Bantus and is found in 11% of the Iraqw, was the third most frequently observed paternal DNA marker.
6. According to current estimates, the Iraqw number around 1,000,000 people. Their primary habitat is in the Mbulu Highlands of the northern Manyara Region. It has long been noted for its intense farming and has been referred to as a "island" inside a matrix of less intensive farming. The Iraqw also dominate in the areas surrounding Karatu town in the Arusha region.
7. The Iraqw may be Afro-Asian Neolithic populations who settled in Northern Kenya and later moved south due to clashes with Nilotic and Bantu peoples; this hypothesis has been confirmed by remains discovered in Kenya's Kerio Valley that testify to the presence of Neolithic farmers who used complex irrigation systems similar to those still in use in Iraqw fields. The area was subsequently abandoned due to an epidemic pestilence, which may have been the cause of the Iraqw migration south.
8. Many foreign groups have been assimilated into Iraqi culture. The majority of the latter are Nilotic (particularly Datoga) and Bantu in ancestry.
9. The Iraqw, like the Maasai and the Datoga, measure their wealth in terms of the number of livestock they own, but unlike the other two groups, they are large-scale farmers as well as livestock keepers.
10. The Iraqw are predominantly Christian, due to the efforts of Western missionaries. A small minority is Muslim and the rest adhere to various animist beliefs. They celebrate a number of rites, the most prominent of which is male circumcision, which symbolizes the journey to adulthood and involves youngsters aged 3 to 10 years.

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Somali people, oromo people, cushites.