The Iraqw, known as the Mbulu in Swahili, are a Cushitic people of the Arusha and Manyara Regions of north-central Tanzania, near the Rift Valley wall and south of Ngorongoro Crater. In 2001 the Mbulu population was estimated to number 462,000 http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=TZ.

They speak a South Cushitic language belonging to the Afro-Asiatic family.

However, their genetic profile shows that they may be descendants of an archaic African population related to Nilotes and distantly to Khoisan, who mixed with Afro-Asiatic speaking people and adopted their language. According to Knight et al. (2003), a group of 6 Iraqw men consisted of one man belonging to Y-haplogroup A. This A-lineage is also found among Khoisan tribes, Cushitic and Ethio-Semitic populations (10% among Oromos and 14% among Amharas). The old origin of the Iraqw is confirmed by the predominance of archaic mtDNA haplogroups L0a and L0f, distantly related to L0d and L0k that were detected in Khoisan tribes.

The core area of the Iraqw is Iraqw?ar Da/aw (or Mama Issara) in the Mbulu Highlands. It has long been known for its locally developed intensive cultivation, and referred to as an ?island? within a matrix of less intensive cultivation (Börjeson, L. A History under Siege. Intensive Agriculture in the Mbulu Highlands, Tanzania, 19th Century to the Present. 2004, Stockholm University).

The areas surrounding Karatu Town in Arusha Region are also predominantly settled by the Iraqw.

References

• Mous, Maarten. 1993. A Grammar of Iraqw. Hamburg: Buske.

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