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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 [1].
The Iraqw language belongs to the South Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic family.
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.[1]
The areas surrounding Karatu Town in the Arusha Region are also predominantly settled by the Iraqw.
Recent advances in genetic analyses helped shed some light on the ethnogenesis of the Iraqw people. Their autosomal DNA has been examined in a comprehensive study on African genetics Tishkoff et al. (2009), their genetic profile suggests they descend from the first wave of migrations by Southern Cushitic speakers (ancestral to the Iraqw, Gorowa (Fiome), Burunge, and Mbugu), moving south from Ethiopia into Kenya and then into Tanzania where they currently reside. The Iraqw did not absorb much Bantu or Nilotic admixture from nearby populations and are still predominantly of Southern Cushitic stock[2]. This could be explained by the practice of endogamy in this community.