Cushitic and Nilotic peoples of North-East Africa

(Horn of Africa, The Sudans, and Surrounding Areas)

151 min readMay 13, 2021

Cushitic peoples

The Cushitic peoples (or Cushites) are a grouping of people who are primarily indigenous to Northeast Africa (Nile Valley and Horn of Africa) and speak or have historically spoken Cushitic languages of the Afroasiatic language family. Peoples of substantial Cushitic ancestry and native speakers of Cushitic languages are primarily found in the Horn of Africa (Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia), as well as the Nile Valley (Sudan and Egypt), and parts of the African Great Lakes region (Tanzania and Kenya).[13][14] Some examples of ethnic groups who strictly speak Cushitic languages and have not undergone a language shift are the Oromo, Somali, Beja, Agaw, Afar, Saho and Sidama, among many others who still retain speaking a Cushitic language or communities that currently have adopted a different language.[14] In some cases, non-Cushitic language speaking ethnic groups with substantial Cushitic ancestry and who have had a language shift towards speaking Ethiosemitic, Central Semitic, Nilo-Saharan and Omotic languages as their native, heritage, or ancestral language, as well as those who adopt a different langue through immigration in the diaspora are considered Cushitic peoples. Non-Cushitic language speaking ethnic groups with substantial Cushitic ancestry and cultural affinity who have had a language shift towards speaking Ethiosemitic (such as the Amhara, Gurage, Tigrayan, Tigre, Tigrinya, Harari, etc. ethnic groups), Central Semitic (Sudanese Arabs and Beta Israel ethnic groups), Nilo-Saharan, and Omotic languages as their native, heritage, or ancestral language, as well as those who adopted a different langue through immigration in the diaspora are considered Cushitic peoples.

Linguistic evidence indicates that Cushitic languages were spoken in Lower Nubia, an ancient region which straddles present day Southern Egypt and Northern Sudan, before the arrival of North Eastern Sudanic languages from Upper Nubia.[15] Many historical populations of northern Nubia such as the Medjay and the Blemmyes spoke Cushitic languages related to the modern Beja language.[16] Less certain are hypotheses which propose that Cushitic languages were spoken by the people of the C-Group culture in northern Nubia,[15] or the people of the Kerma culture in southern Nubia (other, more recent, research suggests a Nilo-Saharan linguistic affinity for the Kerma culture[17][18][19]). Historical linguistic analysis indicates that the languages spoken in the Savanna Pastoral Neolithic culture of the Rift Valley and surrounding areas, may have been languages of the South Cushitic branch.[20]

Cushitic populations constitute the majority of the population in the Horn of Africa; an area that is believed to be the location of dispersal of Cushitic speakers across most of East Africa. The Cushitic peoples primarily adhere to Islam (Pew: 68% to 77% Sunni [21]) and Christianity (mostly Oriental Orthodoxy) with a small minority still practicing traditional beliefs and Judaism (mostly Haymanot Judaism). The Somali language is the main and dominant Cushitic language recognized as an official language in Somalia,[22] while the Oromo, Afar, and Somali languages along with two other non-Cushitic Afro-Asiatic languages of Amharic and Tigrinya (both of which are Ethio-Semitic languages with a Central Cushitic substratum [23]) are recognized as co-official working languages of Ethiopia;[24][25][26] (Tigrinya is also a major language spoken in Eritrea). In Djibouti, Afar and Somali are recognized as national languages while the official languages of the state are Arabic (Central Semitic Afro-Asiatic) and French (Romance Indo-European) which are not Cushitic languages.[27]

Ethnonym[edit]

Afar man in traditional nomadic attire

A Somali woman

The word Cushi or Kushi (Hebrew: כּוּשִׁי‎ kuši) appears several times in the Hebrew Bible to refer to a dark-skinned person of Northeast African descent, equivalent to Greek Aethiops. The word has later been changed to “Ethiopia/Ethiopian” in non-Hebrew versions of the Bible to match the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible. Cushi is a derivation of Cush (כּוּשׁ Kūš), referring to the ancient Kingdom of Kush. In the Hebrew Bible, Cushites are considered descendants of Noah’s grandson, Cush the son of Ham. In biblical and historical usage this continued, the term “Cushites” (Ethiopid race) referring to individuals of East African origin (Horn of Africa and Sudan).[28][29] The Cushitic-speaking peoples today comprise the Agaw, Oromo, Somali, Afar, and several other tribes, and were considered offspring of Cush in Masudi’s Meadows of Gold from 947 AD.[30] The Beja people, who also speak a Cushitic language, have specific genealogical traditions of descent from Cush.[31][32]

The term Cushite then derives from the ancient peoples of northeastern Africa, whose heritage can be traced most clearly in the languages descended from those of the ancient peoples who inhabited the corridor between present day Southern Egypt and Tanzania.[33][failed verification] In broad terms the peoples now designated as Cushite are the cultural descendants of those peoples. The term Cushite today is an ethnolinguistic designation, languages have a much more stable and traceable identity and heritage than cultural groups. The Cushite peoples are thus those who speak languages or have historically spoken languages of the Cushite cluster in the Afro-Asiatic language family. These cultural groups may be of diverse types and exhibit a variety of unique features but with powerful common cultural, ethnic and linguistic traits, including nomadic cattle pastoralist traditions.

History[edit]

Origin[edit]

Neolithic rock art at the Laas Geel complex depicting a camel. The camel might have first been domesticated in the Horn of Africa and later contributed to the migratory lifestyle of Cushitic nomads.[34][35]

The exact ethnogenesis of Cushitic peoples is still being researched, however, many Cushitic populations are E1b1b and can also be paternally traced back to having ethnic origins in the Nile Valley through haplogroup E-M78 and the Red Sea region of the Horn of Africa through haplogroup E-V1515.[36][37][38][39][40]

Archeological evidence and linguistic evidence gathered from toponyms and ancient Egyptian records suggest that the earliest evidence of Cushitic speech is not found where the language family is most predominant today — namely the Horn of Africa, but in a region of Sudan. Some prehistoric northern Nubian cultures such as the A-Group Culture and C-Group Culture have been regularly linked to early Cushitic populations. Other linguists consider the Horn of Africa to be the original homeland of the proto-Afroasiatic language as it is considered the region the Afroasiatic language family displays the greatest diversity, a sign often viewed to represent a geographic origin.[10][41][42][43] Ancient DNA offers a new source of information about eastern African Holocene prehistory, and an important next direction is to integrate this information rigorously with insights provided by the longer-established disciplines of archaeology and linguistics.[44]

Cushitic populations most likely formed and started migrating out of the Nile Valley in prehistory. Laas Geel, ancient cave paintings in Northern Somalia attest to the first signs of a population believed to be ancestral to the Afro-Asiatic speakers in the Horn of Africa. In an excellent state of preservation, the rock art depicts wild animals and decorated cattle (cows and bulls). They also feature herders, possibly pastoral nomads, who are the creators of the paintings.[45] By the 5th millennium BC, the people who inhabited prehistoric Sudan participated in the Neolithic revolution, the domestication of animals usually numbered among the “Neolithic package” brought on by the advent of agriculture. Nubian rock reliefs depict scenes that seem to be suggestive of the same cattle cult, typical of those seen throughout parts of Northeast Africa and the Nile Valley.[46] Domestic sheep, goats, and cattle of southwest Asian origin were first introduced to northeastern Africa in Sudan around ≈8000 years before present (BP), and spread into eastern Africa beginning ≈5000 BP, ultimately reaching southernmost Africa by ≈2000 BP. How pastoralism — a way of life centered on herding animals — spread into eastern Africa is unclear. Livestock appear in northern Ethiopia and Djibouti relatively late, ≈4500–4000 BP, and are poorly documented elsewhere in the Horn of Africa and in South Sudan.

By the 5th millennium BC, Proto-Cushites who inhabited what is now Sudan likely participated in the Neolithic revolution which allowed for the domestication of animals by sedentary groups who were previously cultivators.[47] Donkeys were probably first domesticated by pastoral people in Nubia the ancestors of the modern donkey being the Nubian and Somali subspecies of African wild ass.[48] Donkeys supplanted the ox as the chief pack animal of that culture and its domestication served to increase the mobility of pastoral cultures, having the advantage over ruminants of not needing time to chew their cud, and were vital in the development of long-distance migrations across Africa.[49] Nubian rock reliefs depict scenes that seem to be suggestive of the same cattle cult, typical of those seen throughout parts of Northeast Africa and the Nile Valley.[46] Puntland and the Somaliland regions of Somalia is home to numerous such archaeological sites and megalithic structures, with similar rock art found at Haadh, Gudmo Biyo Cas, Dhambalin, Dhagah Maroodi and numerous other sites, while ancient edifices are, among others, found at Awbare, Awbube, Amud, Abasa, Sheikh, Aynabo, Aw-Barkhadle, Heis, Maydh, Haylan, Qa’ableh, Qombo’ul and El Ayo.[50] However, many of these old structures have yet to be properly explored, a process which would help shed further light on local history and facilitate their preservation for posterity.[51]

East Africa[edit]

Grinding stones, pestles and axes of the East African Pastoral Neolithic

According to archaeological dating of associated artifacts and skeletal material, the Cushites first settled in the lowlands of Kenya between 5,200 and 3,300 ybp, a phase referred to as the Lowland Savanna Pastoral Neolithic. These herding communities subsequently spread to the highlands of Kenya and Tanzania around 3,300 ybp, which is consequently known as the Highland Savanna Pastoral Neolithic phase.[52][53] The Kalokol Pillar Site is an archaeological site on the western side of Lake Turkana in Kenya. Pillar sites, or namoratunga, such as this one are characterized by columnar basalt pillars, and several of these sites are known to be cemeteries dating to the Pastoral Neolithic c. 5000–4000 BP.[54] Archaeologists have previously argued that pillars at some of these sites are aligned with stars of known calendrical importance to current Cushitic-speaking communities such as the Borana in northern Kenya.[55] The archaeological sites were thought to have served archaeoastronomical purposes, but new radiocarbon dating efforts have called into question these interpretations, given that the sites are now known to be older than previously assumed.[56]

Kalokol Pillar Site in Turkana, Kenya

The southernmost groups of Savanna Pastoral Neolithic herders may have been responsible for the eventual spread of pastoralism to southern Africa: genetic data show a link between a Savanna Pastoral Neolithic individual from Luxmanda, Tanzania, and ancient herders in the western Cape, South Africa.[57]

Azania is a name that has been applied to various parts of southeastern tropical Africa.[58] In the Roman period and perhaps earlier, the toponym referred to a portion of the Southeast Africa coast extending from Kenya,[59] to perhaps as far south as Tanzania. Historians have previously connected Pastoral Neolithic communities with “Azanians” mentioned in historical texts.[60]

The Horn of Africa[edit]

Men from Punt carrying gifts, Tomb of Rekhmire

Shell middens 125,000 years old have been found in Eritrea,[61] indicating the diet of early humans included seafood obtained by beachcombing.

According to linguists, the Horn of Africa could possibly be the original homeland of the proto-Afroasiatic language as it is considered the region the Afroasiatic language family displays the greatest diversity, a sign often viewed to represent a geographic origin. The Horn of Africa is also the place where the haplogroup E1b1b originated from, Christopher Ehret and Shomarka Keita have suggested that the geography of the E1b1b lineage coincides with the distribution of the Afroasiatic languages.[10] Genetic analysis done on the Afroasiatic speaking population further found that a pre-agricultural back-to-Africa migration into the Horn of Africa occurred through Egypt 23,000 years ago and it brought a non-African ancestry dubbed Ethio-Somali in the region.[62]

The earliest evidence of state-building in the Horn of Africa comes from an area recorded in ancient Egyptian sources. The Land of Punt (Egyptian: pwnt; alternate Egyptological readings Pwene(t)[63]) was an ancient kingdom. A trading partner of Egypt, it was known for producing and exporting gold, aromatic resins, blackwood, ebony, ivory, and wild animals. The region is known from ancient Egyptian records of trade expeditions to it.[63] The earliest recorded ancient Egyptian expedition to Punt was organized by Pharaoh Sahure of the Fifth Dynasty (25th century BC). However, gold from Punt is recorded as having been in Egypt as early as the time of Pharaoh Khufu of the Fourth Dynasty.[64]

Subsequently, there were more expeditions to Punt in the Sixth, Eleventh, Twelfth and Eighteenth dynasties of Egypt. In the Twelfth Dynasty, trade with Punt was celebrated in popular literature in the Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor.

It is possible that it corresponds to Opone as later known by the ancient Greeks,[65][66][67] while some biblical scholars have identified it with the biblical land of Put.[68] The kingdom was famed for its incense as shown by inscriptions on the tomb of Hatshepsut:

Said by Amen, the Lord of the Thrones of the Two Land: ‘Come, come in peace my daughter, the graceful, who art in my heart, King Maatkare [ie. Hatshepsut]…I will give thee Punt, the whole of it…I will lead your soldiers by land and by water, on mysterious shores, which join the harbours of incense…They will take incense as much as they like. They will load their ships to the satisfaction of their hearts with trees of green [i.e., fresh] incense, and all the good things of the land.’[69]

At times Punt is referred to as Ta netjer (tꜣ nṯr), the “Land of the God”.[70] The exact location of Punt is still debated by historians. Most scholars today believe Punt was situated to the southeast of Egypt, most likely in the coastal region of modern Djibouti, Somalia, northeast Ethiopia, Eritrea, and the Red Sea littoral of Sudan.[71] It is also possible that the territory covered both the Horn of Africa and Southern Arabia.[72][73] Puntland, the Somali administrative region situated at the extremity of the Horn of Africa, is named in reference to the Land of Punt.[74] Interestingly the term Habesha (also known as ‘Abyssinian people’) was used historically (before Abyssinian Ethiopian adaption) to refer to all the populations in the Horn of Africa by Arab travelers and geographers. The first among these travelers was Al-Ya’qubi, who visited the region in 872 CE. The word is thought by some scholars to be of Egyptian origin, South Arabian expert Eduard Glaser, claimed that the hieroglyphic ḫbstjw, used in reference to “a foreign people from the incense-producing regions” (i.e. Punt) used by Queen Hatshepsut c. 1460 BC, was the first usage of the term or somehow connected. Much of the worlds frankincense, around 82%, is still produced in Somalia, with some frankincense also gathered in adjacent Southern Arabia, Ethiopia and Sudan.[75][76][77]

Ta netjer (tꜣ nṯr), meaning “God’s Land”.[78] This referred to the fact that it was among the regions of the Sun God, that is, the regions located in the direction of the sunrise, to the East of Egypt. These eastern regions’ resources included products used in temples, notably incense. Older literature (and current non-mainstream literature) maintained that the label “God’s Land”, when interpreted as “Holy Land” or “Land of the gods/ancestors”, meant that the ancient Egyptians viewed the Land of Punt as their ancestral homeland. W. M. Flinders Petrie believed that the Dynastic Race came from or through Punt and that “Pan, or Punt, was a district at the south end of the Red Sea, which probably embraced both the African and Arabian shores.”[79] Moreover, E. A. Wallis Budge stated that “Egyptian tradition of the Dynastic Period held that the aboriginal home of the Egyptians was Punt…”.[80] However, the term Ta netjer was not only applied to Punt, located southeast of Egypt, but also to regions of Asia east and northeast of Egypt, such as Lebanon, which was the source of wood for temples.[81]

While the Egyptians “were not particularly well versed in the hazards of sea travel, and the long voyage to Punt, must have seemed something akin to a journey to the moon for present-day explorers…the rewards of [obtaining frankincense, ebony and myrrh] clearly outweighed the risks.”[82][83] Hatshepsut’s 18th dynasty successors, such as Thutmose III and Amenhotep III also continued the Egyptian tradition of trading with Punt.[84] The trade with Punt continued into the start of the 20th dynasty before terminating prior to the end of Egypt’s New Kingdom.[84] Papyrus Harris I, a contemporary Egyptian document that detailed events that occurred in the reign of the early 20th dynasty king Ramesses III, includes an explicit description of an Egyptian expedition’s return from Punt, an ill-defined region in the Horn of Africa:

They arrived safely at the desert-country of Coptos: they moored in peace, carrying the goods they had brought. They [the goods] were loaded, in travelling overland, upon asses and upon men, being reloaded into vessels at the harbour of Coptos. They [the goods and the Puntites] were sent forward downstream, arriving in festivity, bringing tribute into the royal presence.[85]

After the end of the New Kingdom period, Punt became lost “an unreal and fabulous land of myths and legends.”[86] However, Egyptians continued to compose love songs about Punt, “When I hold my love close, and her arms steal around me, I’m like a man translated to Punt, or like someone out in the reedflats, when the world suddenly bursts into flower.”[87]

At some point after the fall of Punt or possibly running concurrently begins evidence of a Semitic-speaking presence in Eritrea and northern Ethiopia as early as 2000 BC.[88][89]

Dʿmt (South Arabian alphabet :

; Unvocalized Ge’ez : ደዐመተ, DʿMT theoretically vocalized as ዳዓማት, Daʿamat[90] or ዳዕማት, Daʿəmat[91]) was a kingdom located in Eritrea and northern Ethiopia (Tigray Region) that existed during the 10th to 5th centuries BC. Few inscriptions by or about this kingdom survive and very little archaeological work has taken place. As a result, it is not known whether Dʿmt ended as a civilization before the Kingdom of Aksum’s early stages, evolved into the Aksumite state, or was one of the smaller states united in the Kingdom of Aksum possibly around the beginning of the 1st century.[92] Some sources consider the Sabaean influence on this ancient state to be minor, limited to a few localities, and disappeared after a few decades or a century, perhaps representing a trading or military colony in some sort of symbiosis or military alliance with the civilization of Dʿmt or some other proto-Aksumite state.[93][94] However other sources hold that D’mt, though having indigenous roots, was under strong South Arabian economic and cultural influence.[95] Other scholars however consider this period the beginning of an ancient Southwestern migration of Semitic-speaking peoples that then assimilated native Cushitic speakers.[96]

The Church of Saint George, Lalibela, 12th century Agaw Zagwe dynasty. The critical role of religion is near ubiquitous among Cushitic populations.

In the classical era, the Macrobians who were a legendary people and kingdom positioned in the Horn of Africa were mentioned by Herodotus. They were reputed for their longevity and wealth, and were said to be the “tallest and handsomest of all men”.[97] The Macrobians were warrior herders and seafarers. According to Herodotus’ account, the Persian Emperor Cambyses II, upon his conquest of Egypt (525 BC), sent ambassadors to Macrobia, bringing luxury gifts for the Macrobian king to entice his submission. The Macrobian ruler, who was elected based on his stature and beauty, replied instead with a challenge for his Persian counterpart in the form of an unstrung bow: if the Persians could manage to draw it, they would have the right to invade his country; but until then, they should thank the gods that the Macrobians never decided to invade their empire.[97][98] The Macrobians were a regional power that were known from east to west and were highly advanced in architecture and extremely known for their wealth were they were noted for its gold, which was so plentiful that the Macrobians shackled their prisoners in golden chains. According to Herodotus, the Macrobians practiced an elaborate form of embalming. The Macrobians preserved the bodies of the dead by first extracting moisture from the corpses, then overlaying the bodies with a type of plaster, and finally decorating the exterior in vivid colors in order to imitate the deceased as realistically as possible. They then placed the body in a hollow crystal pillar, which they kept in their homes for a period of about a year.[99]

After the introduction of Christianity, Judaism and Islam the respective histories of the Cushitic populations diverged, forming various city-states, empires and sultanates.[100]

Sudan[edit]

Nubia or Ta-Seti was an ancient region in northeastern Africa, extending approximately from the Nile Valley (near the first cataract in Upper Egypt) eastward to the shores of the Red Sea, southward to near Khartoum (in what is now Sudan), and westward to the Libyan Desert. Nubia is academically traditionally divided into two regions, the southern portion, which extended north to the southern end of the second cataract of the Nile was known as Upper Nubia; this was called Kush (Cush) under the 18th-dynasty pharaohs of ancient Egypt and was called Aethiopia by the ancient Greeks. Lower Nubia was the northern part of the region, located between the second and the first cataract of Aswān; this was called Wawat.

Lower Nubia is the northernmost part of Nubia, downstream on the Nile from Upper Nubia. Sometimes, it overlapped Upper Egypt stretching to the First and Second Cataracts (the region known to Greco-Roman geographers as Triakontaschoinos), so roughly until Aswan. A great deal of Upper Egypt and northern Lower Nubia were flooded with the construction of the Aswan High Dam and the creation of Lake Nasser. However the intensive archaeological work conducted prior to the flooding means that the history of the area is much better known than that of Upper Nubia. Its history is also known from its long relations with Egypt.

In Upper Egypt and Lower Nubia there was present a series of cultures, the Badarian, Amratian, Gerzean, A-Group, B-Group, and C-Group.

Linguistic evidence (according to Claude Rilly 2008, 2010, 2016 and Julien Copper 2017) indicates that in antiquity, peoples speaking Cushitic languages inhabited Lower Nubia, a region between present day Southern Egypt and Northernmost Sudan (including ancient peoples such as the C-Group culture, the Blemmyes, and the Medjay), and that peoples speaking Nilo-Saharan languages of the Eastern Sudanic branch inhabited Upper Nubia to the south (such as the people of the ancient Kerma culture), before the spread of Eastern Sudanic languages further north into Lower Nubia.[17][101][102][103]

Lower Nubia was occupied by Egypt, when the Egyptians withdrew during the First Intermediate Period Lower Nubia seems to have become part of the Upper Nubian Kingdom of Kerma. The New Kingdom occupied all of Nubia and Lower Nubia was especially closely integrated into Egypt, but with the Second Intermediate Period it became the centre of the independent state of Kush based around Napata. Perhaps around 591 BC the capital of Kush was transferred south to Meroe. It is also uncertain to which language family the ancient Meroitic language is related. Kirsty Rowan suggests that Meroitic, like the Egyptian language, belongs to the Afroasiatic family.[104][105] Claude Rilly on the other hand, proposes that Meroitic, like the Nobiin (or Nubian) language, belongs to the Eastern Sudanic branch of the Nilo-Saharan family.[106][107]

With the fall of the Meroitic Empire in the fourth century AD by the Nobatae [108] and the Axumites the area became home to X-Group, also known as the Ballana culture who were likely the Nobatae introducing the Nobiin languages to Nubia. This evolved into the Christian state of Nobatia by the fifth century. Nobatia was merged with the Upper Nubian state of Makuria, but Lower Nubia became steadily more Arabized and Islamicized and eventually became de facto independent as the state of al-Maris. Most of Lower Nubia was formally annexed by Egypt during the Ottoman conquest of 1517, and it has remained a part of Egypt since then, with only the far south being in Sudan.

Genetic evidence (a study by Dobon et al. 2015) suggests modern Nubians do not cluster with groups of the same linguistic affiliation, but with Sudanese Afro-Asiatic speaking groups (Sudanese Arabs and Cushitic Beja) and Afro-Asiatic Ethiopians. Nubians were reported to be more similar to Egyptians and Ethiopians in their Mitochondrial and Y-DNA lineages but close to Ethiopians in their overall genetic affinities. Also according to the study, “Nubians were influenced by Arabs as a direct result of the penetration of large numbers of Arabs into the Nile Valley over long periods of time following the arrival of Islam around 651 A.D”.[109]

Other studies have linked the ancient population of Sudan and parts of Egypt to the Horn of Africa, though this is not entirely conclusive and must be placed in the context of hypotheses informed by archaeological, linguistic, geographic and other data. In such contexts, the physical anthropological evidence indicates that early Nile Valley populations can be identified as part of an African lineage, but exhibiting local variation. This variation represents the short- and long-term effects of evolutionary forces, such as gene flow, genetic drift, and natural selection, influenced by culture and geography.[110][111][112][113][114]

The Blemmyes were a Beja tribal kingdom that existed from at least 600 BC to the 3rd century AD in Nubia. They were described in Roman histories of the later empire, with the Emperor Diocletian enlisting Nobatae mercenaries from the Western Desert oases to safeguard Aswan, the empire’s southern frontier, from raids by the Blemmyes.[115][116] The Blemmyes occupied a considerable region in what is modern day Sudan. There were several important cities such as Faras, Kalabsha, Ballana and Aniba. All were fortified with walls and towers of a mixture of Egyptian, Hellenic, Roman and Nubian elements. Blemmyes culture was also under the influence of the Meroitic culture. Their religion was centered in the temples of Kalabsha and Philae. The former edifice was a huge local architectural masterpiece, where a solar, lion-like divinity named Mandulis was worshipped. Philae was a place of mass pilgrimage, with temples for Isis, Mandulis, and Anhur. It was where the Roman Emperors Augustus and Trajan made many contributions with new temples, plazas, and monumental works.

Early Cushitic pastoralists are responsible presence of pastoralism among some Khoisan populations in the southern African region.

South Africa[edit]

Ancient South Cushitic speaking pastoralists hailing from East Africa migrated across Southeastern Africa and their presence is today marked by genetic evidence of their ancestry present in the modern ancestries of all sampled San and Khoe, who are affected by the agro-pastoralist migrations millennia ago.[117] The migration of these peoples introduced pastoralism to Eastern and Southern Africa during Savannah Pastoral Neolithic. The skin pigmentation gene, SLC24A5, experienced recent adaptive evolution in the Khoisan populations of far southern Africa, haplotype analysis and demographic models indicate that the allele was introduced into the Khoe-San only within the past 3,000 years by eastern African pastoralists. The strong selection of SLC24A5 is a rare example of strong, ongoing adaptation in very recent human history.[118][119]

Languages[edit]

Afroasiatic languages ca. 500 BC[120]

Main articles: Cushitic languages, Ethiopian Semitic languages, and Omotic languages

Cushitic Languages

Further information: Cushitic peoples § Cushitic-speakers

The Cushitic languages are usually considered to include the following branches:

The Somali language, Oromo and Afar recognized as an official language in Ethiopia.[121] Afar and Somali are recognized as national languages but are not official languages in Djibouti.

Extinct Cushitic languages

Linguistic evidence (according to Claude Rilly 2008, 2010, 2016 and Julien Copper 2017) indicates that in antiquity, Cushitic languages were spoken in Lower Nubia, an ancient region which straddles present day Southern Egypt and Northern Sudan, and that Nilo-Saharan languages of the Eastern Sudanic branch were spoken in Upper Nubia to the south (where the ancient Kerma culture was located), before the spread of Eastern Sudanic languages further north into Lower Nubia.[17][101][102][103]

Julien Cooper (2017) states that in antiquity, Cushitic languages were spoken in Lower Nubia (the northernmost part of modern-day Sudan):

“In antiquity, Afroasiatic languages in Sudan belonged chiefly to the phylum known as Cushitic, spoken on the eastern seaboard of Africa and from Sudan to Kenya, including the Ethiopian Highlands.”[122]

Julien Cooper (2017) also states that Eastern Sudanic speaking populations from southern and west Nubia gradually replaced the earlier Cushitic speaking populations of this region:

“In Lower Nubia there was an Afroasiatic language, likely a branch of Cushitic. By the end of the first millennium CE this region had been encroached upon and replaced by Eastern Sudanic speakers arriving from the south and west, to be identified first with Meroitic and later migrations attributable to Nubian speakers.”[123]

In Handbook of Ancient Nubia, Claude Rilly (2019) states that Cushitic languages once dominated Lower Nubia along with the Ancient Egyptian language. Rilly (2019) states:

“Two Afro-Asiatic languages were present in antiquity in Nubia, namely Ancient Egyptian and Cushitic.”[124]

Rilly (2019) mentions historical records of a powerful Cushitic speaking race which controlled Lower Nubia and some cities in Upper Egypt. Rilly (2019) states:

“The Blemmyes are another Cushitic speaking tribe, or more likely a subdivision of the Medjay/Beja people, which is attested in Napatan and Egyptian texts from the 6th century BC on.”[125]

On page 134:

“From the end of the 4th century until the 6th century AD, they held parts of Lower Nubia and some cities of Upper Egypt.”[126]

He mentions the linguistic relationship between the modern Beja language and the ancient Cushitic Blemmyan language which dominated Lower Nubia and that the Blemmyes can be regarded as a particular tribe of the Medjay:

“The Blemmyan language is so close to modern Beja that it is probably nothing else than an early dialect of the same language. In this case, the Blemmyes can be regarded as a particular tribe of the Medjay.”[127]

Ethiosemitic Languages

Further information: Cushitic peoples § Ethiosemitic-speakers

North Ethiopic
Ge’ez
Tigre
Tigrinya
Dahalik
South Ethiopic
Transversal South Ethiopic
Amharic — working language of the Federal Government of Ethiopia.
Harari–East Gurage
Outer South Ethiopic
West Gurage

Central Semitic languages (liturgical and/or cultural shift)

Nilo-Saharan languages (language shift or substantial Cushitic ancestry)

See also: Nilotic peoples and Nilo-Saharan languages

Further information: Cushitic peoples § Nilo-Saharan speakers

Nubian (related to Northern Cushites)
Samburu (related to the Rendille)
Datooga (related to the Iraqw)

As it relates to Nubians, although Cushitic is believed to be numbered among the earlier languages spoken in parts of Nubia, the classification of the Meroitic language of later periods is uncertain due to the scarcity of data and difficulty in interpreting it. Since the alphabet was deciphered in 1909, it has been proposed that Meroitic is related to the Nubian languages and similar languages of the Nilo-Saharan phylum.[128][129] The competing claim is that Meroitic is a member of the Afroasiatic phylum.[130]

Ethnic groups[edit]

The Beja Bedouins

Photograph taken by 10th Field Company Royal Engineers during the Magdala Campaign of 1867–8. Queen of the Oromo and Son

Ruins of the Sultanate of Adal in Zeila

Cushitic-speakers[edit]

Some examples of these peoples, those ethnic groups who strictly speak Cushitic languages without a language shift to non-Cushitic languages are the Oromo, Somali, Beja, Agaw, Afar, Saho and Sidama, among many others.[14]

The Oromo are an ethnic group inhabiting Ethiopia. They are one of the largest ethnic groups in Ethiopia and represent 34.4% of Ethiopia’s population.[131] Oromos speak the Oromo language as a mother tongue (also called Afaan Oromoo and Oromiffa), which is part of the Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family. The word Oromo is sometimes mistakenly said to have appeared in European literature for the first time in 1893.

The Somalis are an ethnic group inhabiting the Horn of Africa.[132] The overwhelming majority of Somalis speak the Somali language, which is part of the Cushitic branch of the Afroasiatic family. They are predominantly Muslim, mostly Sunni or non-denominational Muslim. Ethnic Somalis number around 12–18 million and are principally concentrated in Somalia (around 9 million),[133] Ethiopia (4.5 million),[134] Kenya (2.4 million), and Djibouti (534,000).[135] A Somali diaspora is also found in parts of the Middle East, African Great Lakes region, Southern Africa, North America, Oceania, and Western Europe.

The Beja (Beja: Oobja; Arabic: البجا‎) are an ethnic group inhabiting Sudan, as well as parts of Eritrea and Egypt, in recent history they have lived primarily in the Eastern Desert. The Beja are traditionally Cushitic pastoral nomads native to northeast Africa numbering around 1,237,000 people.[136] Many Beja people speak the Beja language as a mother tongue, which belongs to the Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic family. Some Beja groups have shifted to primary or exclusive use of Arabic. In Eritrea and southeastern Sudan, many members of the Beni Amer grouping speak Tigre.

The Agaw (Ge’ez: አገው Agäw, modern Agew) are an ethnic group inhabiting Ethiopia and neighboring Eritrea. They speak Agaw languages, which belong to the Cushitic branch of the Afroasiatic language family. The Agaw are perhaps first mentioned in the third-century Monumentum Adulitanum, an Aksumite inscription recorded by Cosmas Indicopleustes in the sixth century. The inscription refers to a people called “Athagaus” (or Athagaous), perhaps from ʿAd Agaw, meaning “sons[137] of Agaw.

The Afar (Afar: Qafár), also known as the Danakil, Adali and Odali, are an ethnic group inhabiting the Horn of Africa. They primarily live in the Afar Region of Ethiopia and in northern Djibouti, although some also inhabit the southern point of Eritrea. Afars speak the Afar language, which is part of the Cushitic branch of the Afroasiatic family. The Afar are traditionally pastoralists, raising goats, sheep, and cattle in the desert.[138] Socially, they are organized into clan families and two main classes: the asaimara (‘reds’) who are the dominant class politically, and the adoimara (‘whites’) who are a working class and are found in the Mabla Mountains.[139]

The Saho sometimes called “Soho”,[140] are an ethnic group inhabiting the Horn of Africa. They are principally concentrated in Eritrea, with some also living in adjacent parts of Ethiopia. They speak Saho as a mother tongue, which belongs to the Cushitic branch of the Afroasiatic family[141] and is closely related to Afar.

The Sidamo are an ethnic group traditionally inhabiting the Sidama Zone of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples Region (SNNPR) in Ethiopia. They speak the Sidamo language, which is a language of the Cushitic of the Afroasiatic language family. Despite their large numbers, they currently lack a separate ethnic regional state.[142]

Ethiosemitic-speakers[edit]

Many Ethiosemitic-language populations were historically Cushitic speakers, primarily of the Agaw branch as well as others.[143] Prominent examples of these include the Amhara, Argobba people, Gurage, Tigrayans, Tigrinya people, Harari people, and Tigre. The Beta Israel historically spoke an Agaw language, subsequently followed by a language shift to Amharic and Tigrinya, and in the early 21st century to modern Hebrew due to acculturation into Israeli society. Ethiosemitic speaking groups generally have a cultural and genetic affinity to Cushitic speakers and are occasionally considered a sub-group of Cushitic peoples.[144]

The historical linguistics of the relationship between Ethiosemitic languages and Cushitic languages is multi-layered and complex, not yet fully understood. Amharic, Argobba and Tigrinya seem to have a Central Cushitic substratum; Tigre contains a North Cushitic [23] substratum while Harari-Gurage languages reveal Highland East Cushitic influences.[145] The Agaw are mentioned in an inscription of the fourth century emperor Ezana of Axum having conquered their lands.[146] Based on this evidence, a number of experts embrace a theory first stated by European scholars Edward Ullendorff and Carlo Conti Rossini that they are the original inhabitants of much of the northern Ethiopian Highlands, and were either forced out of their original settlements or assimilated by Semitic-speaking predecessors of the Tigrayans and Amharas.[147] This theory is further strengthened by the existence of a Cushitic substratum in Ethiopian Semitic languages indicating population assimilation of an ancient migration from Southwest Arabia.[148][149][150] Ethiopian scholars specializing in Ethiopian Studies such as Messay Kebede and Daniel E. Alemu generally disagree with this theory arguing that the migration was one of reciprocal exchange, if it even occurred at all.

Kebede states the following:

“This is not to say that events associated with conquest, conflict and resistance did not occur. No doubt, they must have been frequent. But the crucial difference lies in the propensity to present them, not as the process by which an alien majority imposed its rule but as part of an ongoing struggle of native forces competing for supremacy in the region. The elimination of the alien ruler indigenize Ethiopian history in terms of local actors.”[149][150]

Nilo-Saharan speakers[edit]

While having weaker cultural and ethnolinguistic ties to the Cushitic core, many populations in the Sudan and Southeastern Africa have significant Cushitic ancestry. Examples of these are Nubians, Sudanese Arabs, Kunama, Nara, the Samburu and Maasai.[151][152] Controversially, the Tutsi are thought to have a partial Nilo-Cushitic origin, although this is still being debated in academia.[153][154][155][156][157] Old Nubian had its source in the languages of the Nubian nomads who occupied the Nile between the first and third cataracts of the Nile and the Makorae nomads who occupied the land between the third and fourth cataracts following the collapse of Meroë sometime in the 4th century after being invaded by the Axumites. These Nilotic nomads also gave Nubia its name where before the 4th century, and throughout classical antiquity, Nubia was known as Kush, or, in Classical Greek usage, included under the name Ethiopia (Aithiopia). Early Egyptians referred to Nubia as “Ta-Seti,” or “The Land of the Bow”.[158] Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, a 1st-century CE travelogue written by a Greek merchant based in Alexandria writes about the “Berbers” (not to be confused with Berbers) of ancient North-East Africa, the first Barbara region extended from just south of Berenice Troglodytae in southeastern Egypt to just north of Ptolemais Theron in northeastern Sudan, whilst the second Barbara region was then located just beyond the Bab al-Mandeb up to the “Market and Cape of Spices, an abrupt promontory, at the very end of the Berber coast toward the east” found in northeastern Somalia.

Culture[edit]

Old nomad takes a tea-break in Harar, Ethiopia.

Cushitic people have a wide diversity of cultures that relate to them specifically and as a group but as a whole tends to vary between sedentary agrarianism and nomadic pastoralism. Cushites, have been considerably influenced by Islam and to a somewhat lesser extent by Christianity.

The first century travel catalogue Periplus of the Erythraean Sea makes mention of nomads and settled cities in Barbara which referred to two ancient regions in littoral Northeast Africa. The two areas were inhabited by the Eastern Barbaroi or Baribah (“Berbers”) or barbarians this could also be due to the fact of the ancient city of Berbera as called to by ancient Greek philosophers. These inhabitants were the ancestors of today’s local Cushitic-speaking populations such as Somalis and Bejas. Indeed, the deep history of the nomadic lifestyle is apparent in that humans likely first domesticated dromedaries in Somalia or introduced there shortly after domestication in South Arabia. Somalia has the largest camel population in the world and is home to the ancient Laasgeel cave paintings depicting Somali nomads with their riches in livestock.[159][160][34][35]

Agriculture and Animal Husbandry[edit]

A young Ethiopian woman preparing Coffee at a traditional Coffee Ceremony. She roasts, crushes and brews the coffee on the spot.

Coffee is a major export of Ethiopia and was first discovered and cultivated by Oromos in the region of Kaffa in Ethiopia and were the first to recognize the energizing effect of the coffee plant. Coffee was then primarily consumed in the Islamic world from where it later spread throughout the rest of the world. Coffee was even directly related to religious practices, for example, coffee helped its consumers fast in the day by helping them stay awake at night, during the Muslim celebration of Ramadan.

82% of the world Frankincense grows in Somalia, an industrial heritage of the ancient civilisation of Punt, famed for its incense, centered in modern-day Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalia, and Ethiopia where Frankincense was sold e.g. to the ancient Egyptians. Dabqaad translates to censer in the Somali language and it’s used to burn incense around the house for a fresh fragrance.

Music[edit]

Cushitic music uses a distinct modal system that is pentatonic, with characteristically long intervals between some notes. Tastes in music and lyrics are strongly linked in the Horn of Africa, Sudan and parts of Egypt.[161][162] Traditional singing presents diverse styles of polyphony (heterophony, drone, imitation, and counterpoint). Traditionally, lyricism is associated with the recitation of poetry.

Religion[edit]

The Chapel of the Tablet at the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion allegedly houses the original Ark of the Covenant.

The world according to the Mosaic account (1854 map)

Most inhabitants in the Horn of Africa follow one of the three major Abrahamic faiths. These religions have had a longstanding adherence in the region.

The ancient Axumite Kingdom produced coins and stelae associated with the disc and crescent symbols of the deity Ashtar.[163] The kingdom later became one of the earliest states to adopt Christianity, following the conversion of King Ezana II in the 4th century.

Engraving of the 13th-century Fakr ad-Din Mosque built by Fakr ad-Din, the first Sultan of Mogadishu

Islam was introduced to the northern Somali coast early on from the Arabian peninsula, shortly after the hijra whereupon Zeila’s 7th century two-mihrab Masjid al-Qiblatayn was built and they were granted protection by the Aksumite King Aṣḥama ibn Abjar.[164][165][166] In the late 9th century, Al-Yaqubi wrote that Muslims were living along the northern Somali seaboard.[167] He also mentioned that the Adal kingdom had its capital in the city,[167][100] suggesting that the Adal Sultanate with Zeila as its headquarters dates back to at least the 9th or 10th century. According to I.M. Lewis, the polity was governed by local Somali dynasties, who also ruled over the similarly established Sultanate of Mogadishu in the littoral Benadir region to the south. Adal’s history from this founding period forth would be characterized by a succession of battles with neighbouring Abyssinia.[100] The largest sample by Pew Research Center on Muslim affiliation in the Horn was attained in Ethiopia which found that 68% adhered to Sunnism, 23% were non-denominational Muslims, whilst another 4% adhere to other sects such as Shia, Quranist, Ibadi etc.[21]

Additionally, Judaism has a long presence in the region. The Kebra Negast (“Book of the Glory of Kings”) relates that Israelite tribes arrived in Ethiopia with Menelik I, purported to be the son of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba (Makeda). The legend relates that Menelik as an adult returned to his father in Jerusalem, and then resettled in Ethiopia, and that he took with him the Ark of the Covenant.[168] The Beta Israel today primarily follow the Orit (from Aramaic “Oraita” — “Torah”), which consists of the Five Books of Moses and the books Joshua, Judges and Ruth.

Islam

Christianity

Judaism

Beta Israel

Other Religions

Syncretism
Waaqism (folk religions) and Religion in pre-Islamic Arabia formerly in some Cushitic groups.

Main articles: Waaqism, Waaqeffanna, and Religion in pre-Islamic Arabia

Prior to the arrival of the Abrahamic religions, the majority of Cushitic peoples practiced ‘folk religions’. At the center of this religion was the deity Waaq, who was said to inhabit the sky and who brought forth the seasonal rains. Although not widely practiced today, the remnants and vestiges of this religion are still to be found in the words and customs of the various Cushitic groups like the Oromo, Rendille and Somalis.[169] The Oromos, for instance, believed that Waaq sent protectors to his devoted followers called Ayyaana; these spirits would ward off any harm. This is directly connected to the traditional Somali names Ayaanle (masc) and Ayaan (fem), which means those who possess Ayaan or luck.[170][171] Also in Somalia there are many clans and places called Waaq; such as Ceel Waaq, which means “the well of Waaq” and Caabud Waaq, which means “where Waaq is worshiped”. Some Somalis of the Darod clans still have Waaq names like the Jid Waaq clan, the Ogaden Tagaal Waaq sub-clan and the Majeerteen Siwaaqroon sub-clan. Also there are many Somali language uses of Waaq name, like Barwaaqo, which means “when the land is filled with grass and water”. [(Waaqism/Waaqeffanna)].[172][173]

Genetics[edit]

Uniparental lineages

Cushitic ethnic groups have a diverse set of uniparental lineages. Nevertheless, certain commonalities can be observed.

Paternally, E-M35 (also known as E1b1b1, formerly E3b1) forms an important lineage in many Cushitic populations, other important paternal lineages in Cushitic populations include J-M267 (also known as J1), A-M13 (A1b1b2b, formerly A3b2), and T-M70 (T1a, formerly K2).[174][175][176][177][178][179]

Many Cushitic populations can be paternally traced back to having ethnic origins in the Nile Valley (Egypt and Northern Sudan) through haplogroup E-M78 and the Red Sea region of the Horn of Africa through haplogroup E-V1515.[36][37][38][39][40] This coincides with anthropological and linguistic hypotheses placing the ethnogensis of the Cushitic language family in the aforementioned regions.[180]

Maternally, Cushitic populations are more diverse, yet share certain lineages in common such as various East African-origin Macro-haplogroup L lineages (various L0, L1, L5, L2, L6, L4, L3 lineages) and North African and/or Middle Eastern-origin M1 and Macro-haplogroup N (in particular N subclades N1a, N1b, R0a, HV1b1, I, K1a, U3a, and U6a).[181][182][183]

Autosomal ancestry

Genetic components present in select Cushitic populations

Genetic components present in select Cushitic/HOA populations

Cushitic populations have existed at the cross-roads of Africa and Eurasia since the Stone Age, with the Nile acting as a corridor between sub-Saharan Africa and Levant and North Africa thus Cushitic populations have multiple origins, like most other populations, that have become idiosyncratic of Cushitic populations. Cushitic populations tend to combine in their ancestries both, genetic components indigenous to East Africa, and non-African components of West Asian origin. According to an autosomal DNA study by Hodgson et al. (2014), the Afro-Asiatic languages were likely spread across Africa and the Near East by an ancestral population(s) carrying a newly identified non-African genetic component, which the researchers dub the “Ethio-Somali” or “Semitic-Cushitic” in another study. This Ethio-Somali component is today most common among Cushitic and Ethiosemitic populations in the Horn of Africa and reaches a frequency peak among ethnic Somalis, representing the majority of their ancestry. The Ethio-Somali component is most closely related to the Maghrebi non-African genetic component, and is believed to have diverged from all other non-African ancestries at least 23,000 years ago. On this basis, the researchers suggest that the original Ethio-Somali carrying population(s) probably arrived in the pre-agricultural period from the Near East, having crossed over into northeastern Africa via the Sinai Peninsula. The population then likely split into two branches, with one group heading westward toward the Maghreb and the other moving south into the Horn.[62] Ancient DNA analysis indicates that this foundational ancestry in the Horn region is akin to that of the Neolithic farmers of the southern Levant.[184]

According to Hodgson et al. (2014), both the African ancestry (Ethiopic) and the non-African ancestry (Ethio-Somali) in Cushitic speaking populations is significantly differentiated from all neighboring African and non-African ancestries in East Africa, North Africa, the Levant and Arabia. The genetic ancestry of Cushitic and Semitic speaking populations in the Horn of Africa represents ancestries (Ethiopic and Ethio-Somali) not found outside of Cushitic and Semitic speaking HOA populations in any significance. Therefore, both ancestries are distinct, unique to, and considered the signature autosomal genetic ancestry of Cushitic and Semitic speaking HOA populations. Hodgson et al. states:

“The African Ethiopic ancestry is tightly restricted to HOA populations and likely represents an autochthonous HOA population. The non-African ancestry in the HOA, which is primarily attributed to a novel Ethio-Somali inferred ancestry component, is significantly differentiated from all neighboring non-African ancestries in North Africa, the Levant, and Arabia.”[62]

According to Hodgson et al. (2014), the non-African ancestry (Ethio-Somali) in the Cushitic speaking populations is distinct and unique to Cushitic and Semitic speaking HOA populations. Hodgson et al. states:

“We find that most of the non-African ancestry in the HOA can be assigned to a distinct non-African origin Ethio-Somali ancestry component, which is found at its highest frequencies in Cushitic and Semitic speaking HOA populations.”[62]

When calculated the genetic distance (FST) between Ethiosemitic-speaking and Cushitic-speaking Ethiopians, and populations of the Levant, North Africa, and the Arabian Peninsula using two approaches: (1) the whole genome and (2) only the non-African component — in the whole-genome analysis, Ethiopian Semitic and Cushitic populations appear to be closest to the Yemeni; when only the non-African component is used, they are closer to the Egyptians and populations inhabiting the Levant.[185] However this is due to the fact that the similarity is because of the Ethiopian contribution to the Yemeni gene pool. Pagani et al. (2012) states:

“The Ethiopian similarity with the Yemeni detected throughout the genome could be explained as an Ethiopian contribution to the Yemeni gene pool, consistent with that observed with mtDNA.”[185]

A 2015 study by Dobon et al. identified an ancestral autosomal component of West Eurasian origin that is common to many modern Afroasiatic-speaking populations in Northeast Africa. Known as the Coptic component, it peaks among Egyptian Copts who settled in Sudan over the past two centuries. The Coptic component evolved out of a main Northeast African and Middle Eastern ancestral component that is shared by other Egyptians and also found at high frequencies among Cushites (≈40–60%), with the remaining 40–60% of the ancestry of Cushites being of sub-Saharan East African origin. However, these percentages are not certain since Figure 3 of the study by Dobon et al. only features these percentages in the k=3 model.[109]

According to Dobon et al. (2015), the results were not conclusive and states that there needs to be more studies on the East African samples. Dobon et al. states:

“Our main results add new and interesting features to the North East African genetic complexity, with new populations that define a genetic component in southern Nilo-Saharan speakers that cannot be related to a North-African or other sub-Saharan components. These populations should be included in further population genetics and epidemiological studies to have a representative sample of the genetic diversity of the region of East Africa.”[109]

The scientists involved in the study suggest that this points to a common origin for the general population of Egypt.[109] They also associate the Coptic component with Ancient Egyptian ancestry, without the later Arabian influence that is present among other Egyptians.[109] The Coptic component is roughly equivalent with the Ethio-Somali component.[62]

Notes[edit]

References[edit]

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^ Cooper, Julien (2017). “Conclusion”. Toponymic Strata in Ancient Nubian placenames in the Third and Second Millenium BCE: a view from Egyptian Records. Dotawo: A Journal of Nubian Studies: Vol. 4 , Article 3. pp. 208–209. Retrieved 20 November2019. The toponymic data in Egyptian texts has broadly identified at least three linguistic blocs in the Middle Nile region of the second and first millennium BCE, each of which probably exhibited a great degree of internal variation. In Lower Nubia there was an Afroasiatic language, likely a branch of Cushitic. By the end of the first millennium CE this region had been encroached upon and replaced by Eastern Sudanic speakers arriving from the south and west, to be identified first with Meroitic and later migrations attributable to Nubian speakers.
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^ Rilly, Claude (2019). “Languages of Ancient Nubia”. Handbook of Ancient Nubia. ISBN 9783110420388. Retrieved 20 November 2019. From the end of the 4th century until the 6th century AD, they held parts of Lower Nubia and some cities of Upper Egypt.
^ Rilly, Claude (2019). “Languages of Ancient Nubia”. Handbook of Ancient Nubia. ISBN 9783110420388. Retrieved 20 November 2019. The Blemmyan language is so close to modern Beja that it is probably nothing else than an early dialect of the same language In this case, the Blemmyes can be regarded as a particular tribe of the Medjay.
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^ Lazaridis, Iosif; Nadel, Dani; Rollefson, Gary; Merrett, Deborah C.; Rohland, Nadin; Mallick, Swapan; Fernandes, Daniel; Novak, Mario; Gamarra, Beatriz; Sirak, Kendra; Connell, Sarah; Stewardson, Kristin; Harney, Eadaoin; Fu, Qiaomei; Gonzalez-Fortes, Gloria; Jones, Eppie R.; Roodenberg, Songül Alpaslan; Lengyel, György; Bocquentin, Fanny; Gasparian, Boris; Monge, Janet M.; Gregg, Michael; Eshed, Vered; Mizrahi, Ahuva-Sivan; Meiklejohn, Christopher; Gerritsen, Fokke; Bejenaru, Luminita; Blüher, Matthias; Campbell, Archie; Cavalleri, Gianpiero; Comas, David; Froguel, Philippe; Gilbert, Edmund; Kerr, Shona M.; Kovacs, Peter; Krause, Johannes; McGettigan, Darren; Merrigan, Michael; Merriwether, D. Andrew; O’Reilly, Seamus; Richards, Martin B.; Semino, Ornella; Shamoon-Pour, Michel; Stefanescu, Gheorghe; Stumvoll, Michael; Tönjes, Anke; Torroni, Antonio; Wilson, James F.; Yengo, Loic; Hovhannisyan, Nelli A.; Patterson, Nick; Pinhasi, Ron; Reich, David (25 July 2016). “Genomic insights into the origin of farming in the ancient Near East”. Nature. 536 (7617): 419–424. Bibcode:2016Natur.536..419L. doi:10.1038/nature19310. PMC 5003663. PMID 27459054.
^ Jump up to:a b Pagani, Luca; Kivisild, Toomas; Tarekegn, Ayele; Ekong, Rosemary; Plaster, Chris; Gallego Romero, Irene; Ayub, Qasim; Mehdi, S. Qasim; Thomas, Mark G.; Luiselli, Donata; Bekele, Endashaw; Bradman, Neil; Balding, David J.; Tyler-Smith, Chris (13 July 2012). “Ethiopian Genetic Diversity Reveals Linguistic Stratification and Complex Influences on the Ethiopian Gene Pool”. The American Journal of Human Genetics. 91 (1): 83–96. doi:10.1016/j.ajhg.2012.05.015. PMC 3397267. PMID 22726845.

{{short description|People primarily indigenous to Northeast Africa}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2021}}
{{infobox ethnic group
| group = Cushites (Cushitic people)
| image = Cushitic_languages.SVG<! — — Do not use pictures of individuals — ->
| caption = Areas where Modern [[Cushitic languages]] are currently prevalent (Cushitic People subgroups that no longer speak Cushitic languages are not represented in this map).
| poptime =
| popplace = The [[Horn of Africa]], [[Nile|Nile Valley]] ([[Sudan]] and [[Egypt]]), parts of the [[African Great Lakes]] region, and due to immigration in parts of the [[Arabian Peninsula]], [[Israel]], and the [[Western world]].
| langs = Predominantly various [[Cushitic languages]] ([[Oromo language|Oromo]] and [[Somali language|Somali]] being the largest), some [[Arabic]] ([[Sacred language|liturgical]], co-official, or [[Sudanese Arabic|Sudanese Arabic due to language shift]]),<ref>Jakobsson, Mattias; Hassan, Hisham Y.; Babiker, Hiba; Günther, Torsten; Schlebusch, Carina M.; Hollfelder, Nina (24 August 2017). “Northeast African genomic variation shaped by the continuity of indigenous groups and Eurasian migrations”. PLOS Genetics. 13(8): e1006976. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1006976. ISSN 1553–7404. PMC 5587336. {{PMID|28837655}}.</ref> [[Ethiopian Semitic languages|Ethiosemitic]] languages ([[Amharic language|Amharic]] and [[Tigrinya language|Tigrinya]] primarily (language shift from [[Cushitic languages]] to [[Ethiopian Semitic languages|Ethiosemitic languages]])<ref>Kebede, Messay (2003). “Eurocentrism and Ethiopian Historiography: Deconstructing Semitization”. University of Dayton-Department of Philosophy. International Journal of Ethiopian Studies. Tsehai Publishers. 1: 1–19 — via JSTOR.</ref><ref>Alemu, Daniel E. (2007). “Re-imagining the Horn”. African Renaissance. 4 (1): 56–64 — via Ingenta.</ref><ref>Leslau, Wolf (1945). “The Influence of Cushitic on the Semitic Languages of Ethiopia a Problem of Substratum”. WORD. 1 (1): 59–82. doi:10.1080/00437956.1945.11659246. — https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00437956.1945.11659246</ref><ref>Taddesse Tamrat, Church and State in Ethiopia (1270–1527) (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972), p. 26.</ref> and [[Ge’ez]] for [[Sacred language|liturgical]] reasons), and [[Nilo-Saharan]] languages (e.g. [[Nubian languages|Nubian]] due to [[language shift]]s), [[Modern Hebrew]] & [[Languages of Europe|European]] languages (immigration).
| religions = Majority: [[Islam]] ([[Sunni Islam|Sunni]]), [[Christianity]] ([[Oriental Orthodox Christianity|Oriental Orthodoxy]]-[[Orthodox Tewahedo]]: [[Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church|Ethiopian Orthodoxy]] and [[Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church|Eritrean Orthodoxy]] · [[P’ent’ay|P’ent’ay: Ethiopian-Eritrean Evangelicalism]] · [[Catholic Church|Catholicism]]: [[Eritrean Catholic Church|Eritrean Catholicism]] and [[Ethiopian Catholic Church|Ethiopian Catholicism]]) Minority: [[Syncretism]], [[Judaism]] ([[Haymanot]]-[[Beta Israel]]) Traditional Old Cushitic religion(s): ([[Waaqism]]/[[Waaqeffanna]])
| native_name =
| native_name_lang =
| related-c = [[Afroasiatic languages|other Afro-Asiatic peoples]]<ref>Blench, Roger. Archaeology, Language, and the African Past. Rowman: Altamira, 2006 {{ISBN|9780759104662}}</ref><ref>Diakonoff, Igor. The Earliest Semitic Society: Linguistic Data ‘’Journal of Semitic Studies’’, Vol. 43 Iss. 2 (1998).</ref><ref name=”Shirai, Noriyuki 2010">Shirai, Noriyuki. The Archaeology of the First Farmer-Herders in Egypt: New Insights into the Fayum Epipalaeolithic and Neolithic. Leiden University Press, 2010. {{ISBN|9789087280796}}.</ref><ref name=blench2006>Blench R (2006) Archaeology, Language, and the African Past, Rowman Altamira, {{ISBN|0–7591–0466–2}}, {{ISBN|978–0–7591–0466–2}}, books.google.be/books?id=esFy3Po57A8C</ref><ref name=pmid15576591/><ref name=bender1997>Bender ML (1997), Upside Down Afrasian, Afrikanistische Arbeitspapiere 50, pp. 19–34</ref><ref name=militarev2005>Militarev A (2005) Once more about glottochronology and comparative method: the Omotic-Afrasian case, Аспекты компаративистики — 1 (Aspects of comparative linguistics — 1). FS S. Starostin. Orientalia et Classica II (Moscow), p. 339–408. http://starling.rinet.ru/Texts/fleming.pdf</ref>
| related_groups =
}}
The ‘’’Cushitic peoples’’’ (or ‘’’Cushites’’’) are a grouping of people who are primarily [[Indigenous people of Africa|indigenous]] to [[Northeast Africa]] ([[Nile|Nile Valley]] and [[Horn of Africa]]) and speak or have historically spoken [[Cushitic languages]] of the [[Afroasiatic languages|Afroasiatic language family]]. Peoples of substantial Cushitic ancestry and native speakers of Cushitic languages are primarily found in the [[Horn of Africa]] ([[Djibouti]], [[Eritrea]], [[Ethiopia]] and [[Somalia]]), as well as the [[Nile|Nile Valley]] ([[Sudan]] and [[Egypt]]), and parts of the [[African Great Lakes]] region ([[Tanzania]] and [[Kenya]]).<ref>{{cite book|last1=Greenberg|first1=Joseph|title=The Languages of Africa|url=https://archive.org/details/languagesofafric00gree|url-access=registration|date=1963|publisher=Indiana University|location=Bloomington|pages=[https://archive.org/details/languagesofafric00gree/page/48 48–49]}}</ref><ref name=”plantuse”>{{Cite book|last1=Stevens|first1=Chris J.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=32-TDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA239|title=Archaeology of African Plant Use|last2=Nixon|first2=Sam|last3=Murray|first3=Mary Anne|last4=Fuller|first4=Dorian Q.|date=July 2016|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978–1–315–43400–1|page=239|language=en}}</ref> Some examples of ethnic groups who strictly speak [[Cushitic languages]] and have not undergone a [[language shift]] are the [[Oromo people|Oromo]], [[Somali people|Somali]], [[Beja people|Beja]], [[Agaw]], [[Afar people|Afar]], [[Saho people|Saho]] and [[Sidama people|Sidama]], among many others who still retain speaking a Cushitic language or communities that currently have adopted a different language.<ref name=”plantuse”/>
In some cases, non-Cushitic language speaking ethnic groups with substantial Cushitic ancestry and who have had a [[language shift]] towards speaking [[Ethiosemitic]], [[Central Semitic languages|Central Semitic]], [[Nilo-Saharan languages|Nilo-Saharan]] and [[Omotic languages|Omotic]] languages as their [[First language|native]], [[Heritage language|heritage]], or [[Ethnic language|ancestral]] language, as well as those who adopt a different langue through immigration in the diaspora are considered Cushitic peoples. Non-Cushitic language speaking ethnic groups with substantial Cushitic ancestry and cultural affinity who have had a [[language shift]] towards speaking [[Ethiosemitic]] (such as the [[Amhara people|Amhara]], [[Gurage people|Gurage]], [[Tigrayans|Tigrayan]], [[Tigre people|Tigre]], [[Tigrinya people|Tigrinya]], [[Harari people|Harari]], etc. ethnic groups), [[Central Semitic languages|Central Semitic]] ([[Sudanese Arabs]] and [[Beta Israel]] ethnic groups), [[Nilo-Saharan languages|Nilo-Saharan]], and [[Omotic languages|Omotic]] languages as their [[First language|native]], [[Heritage language|heritage]], or [[Ethnic language|ancestral]] language, as well as those who adopted a different langue through immigration in the diaspora are considered Cushitic peoples.
Linguistic evidence indicates that Cushitic languages were spoken in [[Lower Nubia]], an ancient region which straddles present day Southern [[Egypt]] and Northern [[Sudan]], before the arrival of North Eastern Sudanic languages from Upper Nubia.{{sfnp|Cooper|2017}} Many historical populations of [[Lower Nubia|northern Nubia]] such as the [[Medjay]] and the [[Blemmyes]] spoke Cushitic languages related to the modern [[Beja language]].{{sfnp|Rilly|2019|pp=132–133}} Less certain are hypotheses which propose that Cushitic languages were spoken by the people of the [[C-Group culture]] in northern Nubia,{{sfnp|Cooper|2017}} or the people of the [[Kerma culture]] in southern Nubia (other, more recent, research suggests a Nilo-Saharan linguistic affinity for the Kerma culture<ref name=”Rilly2010">{{cite journal | vauthors = Rilly C | title = Recent Research on Meroitic, the Ancient Language of Sudan | date = 2010 |url = http://www.ityopis.org/Issues-1_files/ITYOPIS-I-Rilly.pdf}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |doi=10.31338/uw.9788323533269.pp.211–226 |chapter=Enemy brothers. Kinship and relationship between Meroites and Nubians (Noba) |title=Between the Cataracts. Proceedings of the 11th International Conference for Nubian Studies Warsaw University 27 August-2 September 2006. Part 1. Main Papers |year=2008 |last1=Rilly |first1=Claude |isbn=9788323533269 |url=https://www.academia.edu/36487671}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Cooper |first1=Julien |title=Toponymic Strata in Ancient Nubia Until the Common Era |journal=Dotawo: A Journal of Nubian Studies |date=25 October 2017 |volume=4 |issue=1 |doi=10.5070/d64110028 |doi-access=free }}</ref>). Historical linguistic analysis indicates that the languages spoken in the [[Savanna Pastoral Neolithic]] culture of the [[East African Rift|Rift Valley]] and surrounding areas, may have been languages of the [[South Cushitic]] branch.{{sfnp|Ambrose|1984|p=234}}
Cushitic populations constitute the majority of the population in the [[Horn of Africa]]; an area that is believed to be the location of dispersal of Cushitic speakers across most of [[East Africa]]. The Cushitic peoples primarily adhere to [[Islam]] (Pew: 68% to 77% [[Sunni Islam|Sunni]]<ref name=”pewforum”/>) and [[Christianity]] (mostly [[Oriental Orthodoxy]]) with a small minority still practicing [[Ethnic religion|traditional beliefs]] and [[Judaism]] (mostly [[Haymanot|Haymanot Judaism]]). The [[Somali language]] is the main and dominant Cushitic language recognized as an [[official language]] in [[Somalia]],<ref>{{Cite web|title=Africa :: Somalia — The World Factbook — Central Intelligence Agency|url=https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/somalia/|access-date=2020-11-10|website=www.cia.gov}}</ref> while the [[Oromo language|Oromo]], [[Afar language|Afar]], and [[Somali language|Somali]] languages along with two other non-Cushitic Afro-Asiatic languages of [[Amharic]] and [[Tigrinya language|Tigrinya]] (both of which are [[Ethiopian Semitic languages|Ethio-Semitic]] languages with a [[Central Cushitic]] [[Stratum (linguistics)|substratum]]<ref name=”:0" />) are recognized as co-official [[working language]]s of [[Ethiopia]];<ref>{{cite web|title=ETHIOPIA TO ADD 4 MORE OFFICIAL LANGUAGES TO FOSTER UNITY|url=http://venturesafrica.com/ethiopia-to-add-4-more-official-languages-to-foster-unity/|access-date=2 February 2021|website=Ventures Africa|publisher=Ventures}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Ethiopia is adding four more official languages to Amharic as political instability mounts|url=https://www.nazret.com/2020/03/07/ethiopia-is-adding-four-more-official-languages-to-amharic-as-political-instability-mounts/|access-date=2 February 2021|website=Nazret|publisher=Nazret}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last1=Shaban|first1=Abdurahman|title=One to five: Ethiopia gets four new federal working languages|agency=Africa News|url=https://www.africanews.com/2020/03/04/one-to-five-ethiopia-gets-four-new-federal-working-languages//}}</ref> (Tigrinya is also a major language spoken in [[Eritrea]]). In [[Djibouti]], Afar and Somali are recognized as [[national language]]s while the [[official language]]s of the state are [[Arabic]] ([[Central Semitic languages|Central Semitic]] Afro-Asiatic) and [[French language|French]] ([[Romance languages|Romance]] [[Indo-European languages|Indo-European]]) which are not Cushitic languages.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Djibouti — The World Factbook|url=https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/djibouti/|access-date=2021-02-27|website=www.cia.gov}}</ref>
==Ethnonym==
[[File:An Afar nomad.jpg|thumb|upright|Afar man in traditional nomadic attire]]
[[File:Halimaahmed4.jpg|thumb|240x240px|A Somali woman|alt=]]
The word ‘’’Cushi’’’ or ‘’’Kushi’’’ ({{lang-he|כּוּשִׁי}} ‘’kuši’’) appears several times in the [[Hebrew Bible]] to refer to a [[color terminology for race|dark-skinned]] person of [[Northeast Africa|Northeast African descent]], equivalent to Greek [[Aethiopia|Aethiops]]. The word has later been changed to “Ethiopia/Ethiopian” in non-Hebrew versions of the Bible to match the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible.
Cushi is a derivation of ‘’Cush’’ (כּוּשׁ ‘’Kūš’’), referring to the ancient [[Kingdom of Kush]]. In the [[Hebrew Bible]], Cushites are considered descendants of [[Noah]]’s grandson, [[Biblical Cush|Cush]] the son of [[Ham, son of Noah|Ham]]. In biblical and historical usage this continued, the term “Cushites” ([[Ethiopid race]]) referring to individuals of [[East Africa]]n origin ([[Horn of Africa]] and [[Sudan (region)|Sudan]]).<ref name = “Goulborne 2001”>{{cite book|last1=Goulbourne|first1=Harry|title=Race and Ethnicity: Solidarities and communities|date=2001|publisher=Routledge|location=New York|isbn=978–0–415–22501–4|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WIg_9GI9a8gC&q=hebrew%20cushi&pg=PA123|chapter=Who is a Cushi?}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Yzmi5_408K4C&q=hebrew+cushi&pg=PA75|title=Who's Who in the Jewish Bible|last=Mandel|first=David|date=2010–01–01|publisher=Jewish Publication Society|isbn=978–0–8276–1029–3|language=en}}</ref> The Cushitic-speaking peoples today comprise the [[Agaw]], [[Oromo people|Oromo]], [[Somalis|Somali]], [[Afar people|Afar]], and several other tribes, and were considered offspring of Cush in [[Al-Masudi|Masudi’s]] ‘’Meadows of Gold’’ from 947 AD.<ref>[[Masudi]]’s ‘’[[The Meadows of Gold]]’’ (947 AD); [[Wahb ibn Munabbih]] (738) included among Cush’s offspring “the [[Dazaga language|”Qaran”]], the [[Zaghawa people|Zaghawa]], the [[Habesha]], the [[Copts|Qibt]], and the [[Berber people|Barbar]]”.</ref> The [[Beja people]], who also speak a Cushitic language, have specific genealogical traditions of descent from Cush.<ref>Andrew Paul (1954). ‘’A History of the Beja Tribes of the Sudan’’, p. 20</ref><ref>’’The Peopling of Ancient Egypt and the Deciphering of Meroitic Script’’, [[UNESCO]], p. 54.</ref>
The term Cushite then derives from the ancient peoples of northeastern Africa, whose heritage can be traced most clearly in the languages descended from those of the ancient peoples who inhabited the corridor between present day Southern Egypt and Tanzania.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Lewis|first1=M.I.|title=The Cushitic-Speaking Peoples: A Jigsaw Puzzle for Social Anthropologists|date=1979|publisher=London School of Economics|isbn=978–0520045743|page=138|url=http://luomo.dipscr.uniroma1.it/sites/default/files/volume/Lewis%2C%20M.%20I.%2C%20The%20Cushitic.%20Speaking%20Peoples.%20A%20Jigsaw%20Puzzle%20for%20Social%20Anthropologists_0.pdf|access-date=5 December 2019}}</ref>{{failed verification|date=March 2020|reason=Source does not mention the term “Cushite”, nor southern Egypt or Tanzania, etc.}} In broad terms the peoples now designated as Cushite are the cultural descendants of those peoples. The term Cushite today is an [[Ethnolinguistics|ethnolinguistic]] designation, languages have a much more stable and traceable identity and heritage than cultural groups. The Cushite peoples are thus those who speak languages or have historically spoken languages of the Cushite cluster in the [[Afroasiatic languages|Afro-Asiatic language family]]. These cultural groups may be of diverse types and exhibit a variety of unique features but with powerful common cultural, ethnic and linguistic traits, including nomadic cattle pastoralist traditions.
==History==
===Origin===
[[File:LaasGeel.jpg|thumb|Neolithic [[rock art]] at the [[Laas Geel]] complex depicting a [[camel]]. The camel might have first been domesticated in the [[Horn of Africa]] and later contributed to the migratory lifestyle of Cushitic nomads.<ref name=”Bulliet 183">{{cite book|title= The Camel and the Wheel|first= Richard |last= Bulliet |series= Morningside Book Series |publisher= Columbia University Press |date= 20 May 1990 |orig-year= 1975 |page= 183 |isbn= 978–0–231–07235–9|quote= As has already been mentioned, this type of utilization [camels pulling wagons] goes back to the earliest known period of camel domestication in the third millennium B.C.}}</ref><ref name=”Near Eastern Archaeology: A Reader”>{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=khR0apPid8gC&pg=PA120 |title= Near Eastern Archaeology: A Reader |access-date= 2016–01–08 |url-status= live |archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20160205091647/https://books.google.com/books?id=khR0apPid8gC&pg=PA120&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false |archivedate= 2016–02–05 |isbn= 9781575060835 |last1= Richard |first1= Suzanne |year= 2003 }}</ref>]]
The exact ethnogenesis of Cushitic peoples is still being researched, however, many Cushitic populations are [[Haplogroup E-M215 (Y-DNA)|E1b1b]] and can also be paternally traced back to having ethnic origins in the [[Nile|Nile Valley]] through haplogroup [[haplogroup E-V68|E-M78]] and the [[Red Sea]] region of the [[Horn of Africa]] through haplogroup [[Haplogroup E-Z827#E-V1515|E-V1515]]<! — — E-V1515 is equal to E-CTS10880, see ISOGG E Tree — ->.<ref name=”Green1">{{Cite journal|last1=D’Atanasio|first1=Eugenia|last2=Trombetta|first2=Beniamino|last3=Bonito|first3=Maria|last4=Finocchio|first4=Andrea|last5=Di Vito|first5=Genny|last6=Seghizzi|first6=Mara|last7=Romano|first7=Rita|last8=Russo|first8=Gianluca|last9=Paganotti|first9=Giacomo Maria|date=2018–02–12|title=The peopling of the last Green Sahara revealed by high-coverage resequencing of trans-Saharan patrilineages|journal=Genome Biology|volume=19|issue=1|pages=20|doi=10.1186/s13059–018–1393–5|issn=1474–760X|pmc=5809971|pmid=29433568}}</ref><ref name=”Trombetta1">{{Cite journal|last1=Scozzari|first1=Rosaria|last2=Novelletto|first2=Andrea|last3=Coppa|first3=Alfredo|last4=Efremov|first4=Georgi D.|last5=Kozlov|first5=Andrey I.|last6=Brdicka|first6=Radim|last7=Assum|first7=Guenter|last8=Zagradisnik|first8=Boris|last9=Vona|first9=Giuseppe|date=2007–06–01|title=Tracing Past Human Male Movements in Northern/Eastern Africa and Western Eurasia: New Clues from Y-Chromosomal Haplogroups E-M78 and J-M12|journal=Molecular Biology and Evolution|volume=24|issue=6|pages=1300–1311|doi=10.1093/molbev/msm049|pmid=17351267|issn=0737–4038|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref name=”Cruciani1">{{Cite journal|last1=Cruciani|first1=Fulvio|last2=Scozzari|first2=Rosaria|last3=Novelletto|first3=Andrea|last4=Valesini|first4=Guido|last5=Sellitto|first5=Daniele|last6=Akar|first6=Nejat|last7=Moral|first7=Pedro|last8=Dugoujon|first8=Jean-Michel|last9=Russo|first9=Gianluca|date=2015–07–01|title=Phylogeographic Refinement and Large Scale Genotyping of Human Y Chromosome Haplogroup E Provide New Insights into the Dispersal of Early Pastoralists in the African Continent|journal=Genome Biology and Evolution|volume=7|issue=7|pages=1940–1950|doi=10.1093/gbe/evv118|pmid=26108492|pmc=4524485}}</ref><ref name=”yfullCTS10880">{{Cite web|url=https://www.yfull.com/tree/E-CTS10880/|title=E-CTS10880 YTree|website=www.yfull.com|access-date=2019-01-01}}</ref><ref name=”ISOGGHapgrpE17">{{Cite web|url=https://isogg.org/tree/2017/ISOGG_HapgrpE17.html|title=ISOGG 2017 Y-DNA Haplogroup E|last=ISOGG|first=Copyright 2016 by|website=isogg.org|access-date=2019–01–01}}</ref>
Archeological evidence and linguistic evidence gathered from toponyms and ancient Egyptian records suggest that the earliest evidence of Cushitic speech is not found where the language family is most predominant today — namely the Horn of Africa, but in a region of Sudan. Some prehistoric northern Nubian cultures such as the [[A-Group Culture]] and [[C-Group Culture]] have been regularly linked to early Cushitic populations. Other linguists consider the Horn of Africa to be the [[Afroasiatic Urheimat|original homeland]] of the proto-Afroasiatic language as it is considered the region the Afroasiatic language family displays the greatest diversity, a sign often viewed to represent a geographic origin.<ref name=pmid15576591>{{cite journal |last1=Ehret |first1=Christopher |last2=Keita |first2=S. O. Y. |last3=Newman |first3=Paul |title=The Origins of Afroasiatic |journal=Science |date=3 December 2004 |volume=306 |issue=5702 |pages=1680.3–1680 |doi=10.1126/science.306.5702.1680c |pmid=15576591 |s2cid=8057990 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Reconstructing Proto-Afroasiatic (Proto-Afrasian): Vowels, Tone, Consonants, and Vocabulary|vauthors=Ehret C|publisher=University of California Press|year=1995|isbn=978–0–520–09799–5}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0K0p8wCNKTQC|title=The Civilizations of Africa: A History to 1800|vauthors=Ehret C|publisher=James Currey Publishers|year=2002|isbn=978–0–85255–475–3}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Examining the farming/language dispersal hypothesis|vauthors=Ehret C|publisher=McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research|year=2002|veditors=Bellwood P, Renfrew C|location=Cambridge|chapter=Language Family Expansions: Broadening our Understandings of Cause from an African Perspective}}</ref> Ancient DNA offers a new source of information about eastern African Holocene prehistory, and an important next direction is to integrate this information rigorously with insights provided by the longer-established disciplines of archaeology and linguistics.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Prendergast |first1=Mary E. |last2=Lipson |first2=Mark |last3=Sawchuk |first3=Elizabeth A. |last4=Olalde |first4=Iñigo |last5=Ogola |first5=Christine A. |last6=Rohland |first6=Nadin |last7=Sirak |first7=Kendra A. |last8=Adamski |first8=Nicole |last9=Bernardos |first9=Rebecca |last10=Broomandkhoshbacht |first10=Nasreen |last11=Callan |first11=Kimberly |last12=Culleton |first12=Brendan J. |last13=Eccles |first13=Laurie |last14=Harper |first14=Thomas K. |last15=Lawson |first15=Ann Marie |last16=Mah |first16=Matthew |last17=Oppenheimer |first17=Jonas |last18=Stewardson |first18=Kristin |last19=Zalzala |first19=Fatma |last20=Ambrose |first20=Stanley H. |last21=Ayodo |first21=George |last22=Gates |first22=Henry Louis |last23=Gidna |first23=Agness O. |last24=Katongo |first24=Maggie |last25=Kwekason |first25=Amandus |last26=Mabulla |first26=Audax Z. P. |last27=Mudenda |first27=George S. |last28=Ndiema |first28=Emmanuel K. |last29=Nelson |first29=Charles |last30=Robertshaw |first30=Peter |last31=Kennett |first31=Douglas J. |last32=Manthi |first32=Fredrick K. |last33=Reich |first33=David |title=Ancient DNA reveals a multistep spread of the first herders into sub-Saharan Africa |journal=Science |date=5 July 2019 |volume=365 |issue=6448 |pages=eaaw6275 |doi=10.1126/science.aaw6275 |pmid=31147405 |pmc=6827346 |bibcode=2019Sci…365.6275P }}</ref>
Cushitic populations most likely formed and started migrating out of the Nile Valley in [[prehistory]]. [[Laas Geel]], ancient cave paintings in Northern Somalia attest to the first signs of a population believed to be ancestral to the Afro-Asiatic speakers in the [[Horn of Africa]]. In an excellent state of preservation, the rock art depicts wild animals and decorated cattle (cows and bulls). They also feature herders, possibly pastoral nomads, who are the creators of the paintings.<ref name=”Bakano”>{{cite news|last=Bakano |first=Otto |url=https://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jMNd90UAafsRNEDPyelL7Hee1ydw?docId=CNG.82196a5b15ef45a2d4e744675740cd6a.6e1 |title=Grotto galleries show early Somali life |agency=AFP |date=24 April 2011 |access-date=11 May 2013 |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110430102432/http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jMNd90UAafsRNEDPyelL7Hee1ydw?docId=CNG.82196a5b15ef45a2d4e744675740cd6a.6e1 |archivedate=30 April 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref> By the 5th millennium BC, the people who inhabited prehistoric Sudan participated in the [[Neolithic revolution]], the domestication of animals usually numbered among the “Neolithic package” brought on by the advent of agriculture. Nubian [[rock reliefs]] depict scenes that seem to be suggestive of the same [[Sabu-Jaddi|cattle cult]], typical of those seen throughout parts of Northeast Africa and the Nile Valley.<ref name=”Dr. Stuart Tyson Smith”>{{cite web|url=http://www.anth.ucsb.edu/faculty/stsmith/research/nubia_history.html|title=Dr. Stuart Tyson Smith|work=ucsb.edu}}</ref> Domestic sheep, goats, and cattle of southwest Asian origin were first introduced to northeastern Africa in Sudan around ≈8000 years before present (BP), and spread into eastern Africa beginning ≈5000 BP, ultimately reaching southernmost Africa by ≈2000 BP. How pastoralism — a way of life centered on herding animals — spread into eastern Africa is unclear. Livestock appear in northern Ethiopia and Djibouti relatively late, ≈4500–4000 BP, and are poorly documented elsewhere in the Horn of Africa and in South Sudan.
By the 5th millennium BC, Proto-Cushites who inhabited what is now [[Sudan]] likely participated in the [[Neolithic revolution]] which allowed for the domestication of animals by sedentary groups who were previously cultivators.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dftPHu1o2s8C|title=From Hunters to Farmers: The Causes and Consequences of Food Production in Africa|last1=Clark|first1=John Desmond|last2=Brandt|first2=Steven A.|date=1984–01–01|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978–0–520–04574–3|language=en}}</ref> Donkeys were probably first domesticated by pastoral people in [[Nubia]] the ancestors of the modern [[donkey]] being the [[Nubian Wild Ass|Nubian]] and [[Somali Wild Ass|Somali]] subspecies of [[African wild ass]].<ref>J. Clutton-Brook A Natural History of Domesticated Mammals 1999.</ref> Donkeys supplanted the [[ox]] as the chief pack animal of that culture and its domestication served to increase the mobility of pastoral cultures, having the advantage over ruminants of not needing time to [[chewing the cud|chew their cud]], and were vital in the development of long-distance migrations across Africa.<ref>Olsen, Sandra L. (1995) “Horses through time Boulder”, Colorado: Roberts Rinehart Publishers for Carnegie Museum of Natural History.</ref> Nubian [[rock reliefs]] depict scenes that seem to be suggestive of the same [[Sabu-Jaddi|cattle cult]], typical of those seen throughout parts of Northeast Africa and the Nile Valley.<ref name=”Dr. Stuart Tyson Smith”/> Puntland and the Somaliland regions of [[Somalia]] is home to numerous such [[archaeological site]]s and [[megalith]]ic structures, with similar rock art found at Haadh, Gudmo Biyo Cas, Dhambalin, Dhagah Maroodi and numerous other sites, while ancient edifices are, among others, found at [[Awbare]], [[Awbube]], [[Amud]], [[Abasa, Somalia|Abasa]], [[Sheikh, Somaliland|Sheikh]], [[Aynabo]], Aw-Barkhadle, [[Heis (town)|Heis]], [[Maydh]], [[Haylan]], [[Qa’ableh]], [[Qombo’ul]] and [[El Ayo]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Mire|first=Sada|date=2015–04–14|title=Mapping the Archaeology of Somalia: Religion, Art, Script, Time, Urbanism, Trade and Empire|journal=African Archaeological Review|language=en|volume=32|issue=1|pages=111–136|doi=10.1007/s10437–015–9184–9|issn=0263–0338|doi-access=free}}</ref> However, many of these old structures have yet to be properly explored, a process which would help shed further light on local history and facilitate their preservation for posterity.<ref name=”Hodd”>Michael Hodd, ‘’East African Handbook’’, (Trade & Travel Publications: 1994), p.640.</ref>
===East Africa===
{{see also|Savanna Pastoral Neolithic|Kalokol Pillar Site|Bantu expansion|Elmenteitan|Azania}}
[[File:Elmenteitan grinding stone and pestles.jpg|thumb|left|Grinding stones, pestles and axes of the East African Pastoral Neolithic]]
According to archaeological dating of associated artifacts and skeletal material, the Cushites first settled in the lowlands of Kenya between 5,200 and 3,300 ybp, a phase referred to as the ‘’Lowland Savanna Pastoral Neolithic’’. These herding communities subsequently spread to the highlands of Kenya and [[Tanzania]] around 3,300 ybp, which is consequently known as the ‘’Highland Savanna Pastoral Neolithic’’ phase.<ref name=Ambrose>{{cite book|last1=Ambrose|first1=Stanley H.|title=From Hunters to Farmers: The Causes and Consequences of Food Production in Africa — “The Introduction of Pastoral Adaptations to the Highlands of East Africa”|date=1984|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978–0520045743|pages=220|url=https://www.google.com/books?id=dftPHu1o2s8C|access-date=4 December 2014}}</ref><ref name=”Ehret140">{{cite book|last1=Christopher Ehret, Merrick Posnansky (ed.)|title=The Archaeological and Linguistic Reconstruction of African History|date=1982|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978–0520045934|page=140|url=https://www.google.com/books?id=kJMFMpoHuVgC&source=gbs_navlinks_s|access-date=4 December 2014}}</ref> The [[Kalokol Pillar Site]] is an archaeological site on the western side of [[Lake Turkana]] in [[Kenya]]. Pillar sites, or ‘’namoratunga’’, such as this one are characterized by columnar basalt pillars, and several of these sites are known to be cemeteries dating to the [[Pastoral Neolithic]] c. 5000–4000 BP.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Grillo |first1=Katherine M. |last2=Hildebrand |first2=Elisabeth A. |title=The context of early megalithic architecture in eastern Africa: the Turkana Basin c. 5000–4000 BP |journal=Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa |date=June 2013 |volume=48 |issue=2 |pages=193–217 |doi=10.1080/0067270X.2013.789188 |s2cid=162193899 }}</ref> Archaeologists have previously argued that pillars at some of these sites are aligned with stars of known calendrical importance to current Cushitic-speaking communities such as the [[Borana Oromo people|Borana]] in northern Kenya.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Lynch |first1=B. M. |last2=Robbins |first2=L. H. |s2cid=31531630 |title=Namoratunga: The First Archeoastronomical Evidence in Sub-Saharan Africa |journal=Science |date=1978 |volume=200 |issue=4343 |pages=766–768 |jstor=1746628 |doi=10.1126/science.200.4343.766 |pmid=17743241 |bibcode=1978Sci…200..766L }}</ref> The archaeological sites were thought to have served [[Archaeoastronomy|archaeoastronomical]] purposes, but new radiocarbon dating efforts have called into question these interpretations, given that the sites are now known to be older than previously assumed.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hildebrand |first1=Elisabeth A. |last2=Shea |first2=John J. |last3=Grillo |first3=Katherine M. |title=Four middle Holocene pillar sites in West Turkana, Kenya |journal=Journal of Field Archaeology |date=18 July 2013 |volume=36 |issue=3 |pages=181–200 |doi=10.1179/009346911X12991472411088 |s2cid=54739651 }}</ref>
[[File:Namoratunga in Turkana, Kenya.jpg|thumb|Kalokol Pillar Site in Turkana, Kenya]]
The southernmost groups of Savanna Pastoral Neolithic herders may have been responsible for the eventual spread of [[pastoralism]] to southern Africa: genetic data show a link between a Savanna Pastoral Neolithic individual from [[Luxmanda]], Tanzania, and ancient herders in the [[western Cape]], South Africa.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Skoglund |first1=Pontus |last2=Thompson |first2=Jessica C. |last3=Prendergast |first3=Mary E. |last4=Mittnik |first4=Alissa |last5=Sirak |first5=Kendra |last6=Hajdinjak |first6=Mateja |last7=Salie |first7=Tasneem |last8=Rohland |first8=Nadin |last9=Mallick |first9=Swapan |last10=Peltzer |first10=Alexander |last11=Heinze |first11=Anja |last12=Olalde |first12=Iñigo |last13=Ferry |first13=Matthew |last14=Harney |first14=Eadaoin |last15=Michel |first15=Megan |last16=Stewardson |first16=Kristin |last17=Cerezo-Román |first17=Jessica I. |last18=Chiumia |first18=Chrissy |last19=Crowther |first19=Alison |last20=Gomani-Chindebvu |first20=Elizabeth |last21=Gidna |first21=Agness O. |last22=Grillo |first22=Katherine M. |last23=Helenius |first23=I. Taneli |last24=Hellenthal |first24=Garrett |last25=Helm |first25=Richard |last26=Horton |first26=Mark |last27=López |first27=Saioa |last28=Mabulla |first28=Audax Z. P. |last29=Parkington |first29=John |last30=Shipton |first30=Ceri |last31=Thomas |first31=Mark G. |last32=Tibesasa |first32=Ruth |last33=Welling |first33=Menno |last34=Hayes |first34=Vanessa M. |last35=Kennett |first35=Douglas J. |last36=Ramesar |first36=Raj |last37=Meyer |first37=Matthias |last38=Pääbo |first38=Svante |last39=Patterson |first39=Nick |last40=Morris |first40=Alan G. |last41=Boivin |first41=Nicole |last42=Pinhasi |first42=Ron |last43=Krause |first43=Johannes |last44=Reich |first44=David |title=Reconstructing Prehistoric African Population Structure |journal=Cell |date=21 September 2017 |volume=171 |issue=1 |pages=59–71.e21 |doi=10.1016/j.cell.2017.08.049 |pmid=28938123 |pmc=5679310 }}</ref>
[[Azania]] is a name that has been applied to various parts of southeastern tropical [[Africa]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Collins |first1=Alan S. |last2=Pisarevsky |first2=Sergei A. |title=Amalgamating eastern Gondwana: The evolution of the Circum-Indian Orogens |journal=Earth-Science Reviews |date=August 2005 |volume=71 |issue=3–4 |pages=229–270 |doi=10.1016/j.earscirev.2005.02.004 |bibcode=2005ESRv…71..229C }}</ref> In the [[Roman Empire|Roman]] period and perhaps earlier, the toponym referred to a portion of the Southeast Africa coast extending from [[Kenya]],<ref>Richard Pankhurst, ‘’An Introduction to the Economic History of Ethiopia’’, (Lalibela House: 1961), p.21</ref> to perhaps as far south as [[Tanzania]]. Historians have previously connected Pastoral Neolithic communities with “Azanians” mentioned in historical texts.<ref>Collins, Robert O., and James McDonald Burns. A History of Sub-Saharan Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2007.{{page needed|date=December 2019}}</ref>
===The Horn of Africa===
{{see also|History of Somalia|History of Ethiopia|History of Eritrea|Abyssinian people}}
[[File:Men_from_Punt_Carrying_Gifts,_Tomb_of_Rekhmire_MET_30.4.152_EGDP013029.jpg|thumb|Men from Punt carrying gifts, Tomb of Rekhmire]]
Shell [[middens]] 125,000 years old have been found in Eritrea,<ref name=”pmid10811218">{{cite journal |vauthors=Walter RC, Buffler RT, Bruggemann JH, etal |title=Early human occupation of the Red Sea coast of Eritrea during the last interglacial |journal=Nature |volume=405 |issue=6782 |pages=65–9 |date=May 2000 |pmid=10811218 |doi=10.1038/35011048 |bibcode=2000Natur.405…65W |s2cid=4417823 }}</ref> indicating the diet of early humans included seafood obtained by [[beachcombing]].
According to linguists, the Horn of Africa could possibly be the [[Afroasiatic Urheimat|original homeland]] of the proto-Afroasiatic language as it is considered the region the Afroasiatic language family displays the greatest diversity, a sign often viewed to represent a geographic origin. The Horn of Africa is also the place where the haplogroup [[Haplogroup E-M215 (Y-DNA)|E1b1b]] originated from, [[Christopher Ehret]] and Shomarka Keita have suggested that the geography of the E1b1b lineage coincides with the distribution of the Afroasiatic languages.<ref name=pmid15576591/> Genetic analysis done on the Afroasiatic speaking population further found that a pre-agricultural back-to-Africa migration into the Horn of Africa occurred through Egypt 23,000 years ago and it brought a non-African ancestry dubbed Ethio-Somali in the region.<ref name=pmid24921250>{{cite journal |last1=Hodgson |first1=Jason A. |last2=Mulligan |first2=Connie J. |last3=Al-Meeri |first3=Ali |last4=Raaum |first4=Ryan L. |last5=Williams |first5=Scott M. |title=Early Back-to-Africa Migration into the Horn of Africa |journal=PLOS Genetics |date=12 June 2014 |volume=10 |issue=6 |pages=e1004393 |doi=10.1371/journal.pgen.1004393 |pmid=24921250 |pmc=4055572 }}</ref>
The earliest evidence of state-building in the Horn of Africa comes from an area recorded in ancient Egyptian sources. The ‘’’Land of Punt’’’ ([[Egyptian language|Egyptian]]: ‘’[[wikt:pwnt#Egyptian|pwnt]]’’; alternate [[Egyptian language#Egyptological pronunciation|Egyptological reading]]s ‘’’Pwene’’’(‘’’t’’’)<ref name=”Shaw & Nicholson, p.231">Ian Shaw & Paul Nicholson, ‘’The Dictionary of Ancient Egypt’’, British Museum Press, London. 1995, p.231.</ref>) was an ancient kingdom. A trading partner of Egypt, it was known for producing and exporting [[gold]], aromatic [[resin]]s, [[Dalbergia melanoxylon|blackwood]], [[ebony]], [[ivory trade|ivory]], and wild animals. The region is known from ancient Egyptian records of trade expeditions to it.<ref name=”Shaw & Nicholson, p.231"/> The earliest recorded ancient Egyptian expedition to Punt was organized by [[Pharaoh]] [[Sahure]] of the [[Fifth Dynasty of Egypt|Fifth Dynasty]] (25th century BC). However, gold from Punt is recorded as having been in Egypt as early as the time of Pharaoh [[Khufu]] of the [[Fourth Dynasty of Egypt|Fourth Dynasty]].<ref>{{harvnb|Breasted|1906–07|p=161|Ref=none}}, vol. 1.</ref>
Subsequently, there were more expeditions to Punt in the [[Sixth Dynasty of Egypt|Sixth]], [[Eleventh Dynasty of Egypt|Eleventh]], [[Twelfth Dynasty of Egypt|Twelfth]] and [[Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt|Eighteenth]] dynasties of Egypt. In the Twelfth Dynasty, trade with Punt was celebrated in popular literature in the ‘’[[Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor]]’’.
It is possible that it corresponds to [[Opone]] as later known by the ancient Greeks,<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.worldhistory.org/punt/|title=Punt|newspaper=Ancient History Encyclopedia|access-date=2017–11–27}}</ref><ref name=”:1">{{Cite book|title=Pharmacographia|first1=Friedrich August|last1=Flückiger|first2=Daniel|last2=Hanbury|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9781108069304|date=2014–03–20|page=136|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iTTeAgAAQBAJ&q=opone+punt&pg=PA136}}</ref><ref name=”:2">{{Cite book|title=In Search of Myths & Heroes: Exploring Four Epic Legends of the World|first=Michael|last=Wood|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=9780520247246|date=2005|page=[https://archive.org/details/insearchofmythsh00mich/page/155 155]|url=https://archive.org/details/insearchofmythsh00mich|url-access=registration|quote=opone punt.}}</ref> while some [[Biblical criticism|biblical scholars]] have identified it with the biblical land of [[Phut|Put]].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Sadler, Jr. |encyclopedia=[[New Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible]] |first=Rodney |editor=[[Katharine Sakenfeld]] |publisher=Abingdon Press |volume=4 |location=Nashville |pages=691–92|title=Put |year=2009 }}</ref> The kingdom was famed for its incense as shown by inscriptions on the tomb of [[Hatshepsut]]: {{quote|Said by Amen, the Lord of the Thrones of the Two Land: ‘Come, come in peace my daughter, the graceful, who art in my heart, King Maatkare [ie. Hatshepsut]…I will give thee Punt, the whole of it…I will lead your soldiers by land and by water, on mysterious shores, which join the harbours of incense…They will take incense as much as they like. They will load their ships to the satisfaction of their hearts with trees of green [i.e., fresh] incense, and all the good things of the land.’<ref>E. Naville, The Life and Monuments of the Queen in T.M. Davis (ed.), ‘’the tomb of Hatshopsitu’’, London: 1906. pp.28–29</ref>}}
At times Punt is referred to as ‘’Ta netjer’’ (‘’[[wikt:tꜣ-nṯr#Egyptian|tꜣ nṯr]]’’), the “Land of the God”.<ref>Breasted, John Henry (1906–1907), Ancient Records of Egypt: Historical Documents from the Earliest Times to the Persian Conquest, collected, edited, and translated, with Commentary, p.433, vol.1</ref> The exact [[Land of Punt#Location|location]] of Punt is still debated by historians. Most scholars today believe Punt was situated to the southeast of Egypt, most likely in the coastal region of modern [[Djibouti]], [[Somalia]], northeast [[Ethiopia]], [[Eritrea]], and the [[Red Sea]] littoral of [[Sudan]].<ref>Simson Najovits, ‘’Egypt, trunk of the tree, Volume 2'’, (Algora Publishing: 2004), p.258.</ref> It is also possible that the territory covered both the [[Horn of Africa]] and [[Southern Arabia]].<ref name=”Meeks”>Dimitri Meeks — Chapter 4 — “Locating Punt” from the book ‘’Mysterious Lands’’”, by David B. O’Connor and Stephen Quirke.</ref><ref>Where Is Punt? Nova. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/ancient/egypt-punt.html</ref> [[Puntland]], the Somali administrative region situated at the extremity of the Horn of Africa, is named in reference to the Land of Punt.<ref>Puntland profile, BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-14114727</ref> Interestingly the term [[Abyssinian people|Habesha]] (also known as ‘[[Abyssinian people]]’) was used historically (before Abyssinian Ethiopian adaption) to refer to all the populations in the [[Horn of Africa]] by Arab travelers and geographers. The first among these travelers was Al-Ya’qubi, who visited the region in 872 CE. The word is thought by some scholars to be of Egyptian origin, South Arabian expert Eduard Glaser, claimed that the hieroglyphic ‘’ḫbstjw’’, used in reference to “a foreign people from the incense-producing regions” (i.e. [[Land of Punt|Punt]]) used by Queen [[Hatshepsut]] c. 1460 BC, was the first usage of the term or somehow connected. Much of the worlds frankincense, around 82%, is still produced in [[Somalia]], with some frankincense also gathered in adjacent [[Southern Arabia]], [[Ethiopia]] and [[Sudan]].<ref name=HABESHA>Uhlig, Siegbert, ed. ‘’[[Encyclopaedia Aethiopica]]’’: D-Ha. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2005. p. 948.</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=War-Torn Societies Project International, Somali Programme |title=Rebuilding Somalia: Issues and possibilities for Puntland |date=2001 |publisher=HAAN |location=London |isbn=978–1874209041 |page=[https://archive.org/details/rebuildingsomali00wart/page/124 124] |url=https://archive.org/details/rebuildingsomali00wart/page/124 }}</ref><ref name=”AP-20161225">{{cite news|last1=Patinkin|first1=Jason|title=World’s last wild frankincense forests are under threat|url=https://finance.yahoo.com/news/worlds-last-wild-frankincense-forests-084122152.html|access-date=25 December 2016|work=Yahoo Finance|agency=Associated Press|date=25 December 2016}}</ref>
‘’Ta netjer’’ (‘’[[wikt:tꜣ-nṯr#Egyptian|tꜣ nṯr]]’’), meaning “God’s Land”.<ref>{{harvnb|Breasted|1906–07|p=658|Ref=none}}, vol. II.</ref> This referred to the fact that it was among the regions of the [[Solar deity|Sun God]], that is, the regions located in the direction of the sunrise, to the East of Egypt. These eastern regions’ resources included products used in temples, notably incense. Older literature (and current non-mainstream literature) maintained that the label “God’s Land”, when interpreted as “Holy Land” or “Land of the gods/ancestors”, meant that the ancient Egyptians viewed the Land of Punt as their ancestral homeland. W. M. [[Flinders Petrie]] believed that the [[Dynastic Race Theory|Dynastic Race]] came from or through Punt and that “Pan, or Punt, was a district at the south end of the Red Sea, which probably embraced both the African and Arabian shores.”<ref>[https://archive.org/stream/historyofegypt01petr#page/n33/mode/2up ‘A history of Egypt’ Vol. I, p. 13] Moreover, ‘’The Making of Egypt’’ (1939) states that the Land of Punt was “sacred to the Egyptians as the source of their race.”{{citation needed|date=December 2016}}</ref> Moreover, [[E. A. Wallis Budge]] stated that “Egyptian tradition of the Dynastic Period held that the aboriginal home of the Egyptians was Punt…”.<ref>Short History of the Egyptian People, by E. A. Wallis Budge. Budge stated that “Egyptian tradition of the Dynastic Period held that the aboriginal home of the Egyptians was Punt…”</ref> However, the term Ta netjer was not only applied to Punt, located southeast of Egypt, but also to regions of [[Asia]] east and northeast of Egypt, such as [[Lebanon]], which was the source of wood for temples.<ref>{{harvnb|Breasted|1906–07|p=451,773,820,888|Ref=none}}, vol. II.</ref>
While the Egyptians “were not particularly well versed in the hazards of sea travel, and the long voyage to Punt, must have seemed something akin to a journey to the moon for present-day explorers…the rewards of [obtaining frankincense, ebony and myrrh] clearly outweighed the risks.”<ref name=p145>Joyce Tyldesley, Hatchepsut: The Female Pharaoh, Penguin Books, 1996 hardback, p.145</ref><ref>Tyldesley, Hatchepsut, p.148</ref> Hatshepsut’s 18th dynasty successors, such as [[Thutmose III]] and [[Amenhotep III]] also continued the Egyptian tradition of trading with Punt.<ref name=145–146>Tyldesley, Hatchepsut, pp.145–146</ref> The trade with Punt continued into the start of the 20th dynasty before terminating prior to the end of Egypt’s [[New Kingdom]].<ref name=145–146/> [[Papyrus Harris I]], a contemporary Egyptian document that detailed events that occurred in the reign of the early 20th dynasty king [[Ramesses III]], includes an explicit description of an Egyptian expedition’s return from [[Land of Punt|Punt]], an ill-defined region in the Horn of Africa:
{{quote|They arrived safely at the desert-country of [[Coptos]]: they moored in peace, carrying the goods they had brought. They [the goods] were loaded, in travelling overland, upon [[Donkey|asses]] and upon men, being reloaded into vessels at the harbour of Coptos. They [the goods and the Puntites] were sent forward downstream, arriving in festivity, bringing tribute into the royal presence.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Kitchen | first1 = K. A. | year = 1971 | title = Punt and how to get there | journal = Orientalia | volume = 40 | pages = 184–207 [190] }}</ref>}}
After the end of the New Kingdom period, Punt became lost “an unreal and fabulous land of myths and legends.”<ref>Tyldesley, ‘’Hatchepsut’’, p.146</ref> However, Egyptians continued to compose love songs about Punt, “When I hold my love close, and her arms steal around me, I’m like a man translated to Punt, or like someone out in the reedflats, when the world suddenly bursts into flower.”<ref>{{Cite book|title=Mysterious Lands|last=O’Connor|first=David B|publisher=Routledge|year=2003|isbn=978–1844720040|pages=[https://archive.org/details/mysteriouslands0000unse/page/88 88]|url=https://archive.org/details/mysteriouslands0000unse/page/88}}</ref>
At some point after the fall of Punt or possibly running concurrently begins evidence of a Semitic-speaking presence in Eritrea and northern Ethiopia as early as 2000 BC.<ref name=”Tihama”>Nadia Durrani, ‘’The Tihamah Coastal Plain of South-West Arabia in its Regional context c. 6000 BC — AD 600 (Society for Arabian Studies Monographs №4) ‘’. Oxford: Archaeopress, 2005, p. 121.</ref><ref>Herausgegeben von Uhlig, Siegbert. ‘’Encyclopaedia Aethiopica’’, “Ge’ez”. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2005, pp. 732.</ref>
‘’’Dʿmt’’’ ([[South Arabian alphabet]] : [[Image:Himjar dal.PNG|10px]] [[Image:Himjar ajin.PNG|10px]] [[Image:Himjar mim.PNG|10px]] [[Image:Himjar-ta2.svg|10px]] ; Unvocalized [[Ge’ez]] : ደዐመተ, ‘’DʿMT’’ theoretically vocalized as ዳዓማት, ‘’Daʿamat’’<ref>L’Arabie préislamique et son environnement historique et culturel: actes du Colloque de Strasbourg, 24–27 juin 1987; page 264</ref> or ዳዕማት, Daʿəmat<ref>[[Encyclopaedia Aethiopica]]: A-C; page 174</ref>) was a [[monarchy|kingdom]] located in [[Eritrea]] and northern [[Ethiopia]] ([[Tigray Region]]) that existed during the 10th to 5th centuries BC. Few inscriptions by or about this kingdom survive and very little archaeological work has taken place. As a result, it is not known whether Dʿmt ended as a civilization before the [[Kingdom of Aksum]]’s early stages, evolved into the Aksumite state, or was one of the smaller states united in the Kingdom of Aksum possibly around the beginning of the 1st century.<ref>Uhlig, Siegbert (ed.), ‘’Encyclopaedia Aethiopica: D-Ha’’. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2005. p. 185.</ref> Some sources consider the [[Sabaeans|Sabaean]] influence on this ancient state to be minor, limited to a few localities, and disappeared after a few decades or a century, perhaps representing a trading or military colony in some sort of symbiosis or military alliance with the civilization of Dʿmt or some other proto-Aksumite state.<ref>Munro-Hay, ‘’Aksum’’, p. 57.</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Phillipson | year = 2009 | title = The First Millennium BC in the Highlands of Northern Ethiopia and South–Central Eritrea: A Reassessment of Cultural and Political Development | journal = African Archaeological Review | volume = 26 | issue = 4| pages = 257–274 | doi = 10.1007/s10437–009–9064–2 | s2cid = 154117777 }}</ref> However other sources hold that D’mt, though having indigenous roots, was under strong South Arabian economic and cultural influence.<ref>The Pre-Aksumite and Aksumite Settlement of NE Tigrai, Ethiopia — Journal of Field Archaeology, 33:2, p.153</ref> Other scholars however consider this period the beginning of an ancient Southwestern migration of Semitic-speaking peoples that then assimilated native Cushitic speakers.<ref name=”Kitchen2009">{{cite journal|last1=Kitchen|first1=A.|last2=Ehret|first2=C.|last3=Assefa|first3=S.|last4=Mulligan|first4=C. J.|title=Bayesian phylogenetic analysis of Semitic languages identifies an Early Bronze Age origin of Semitic in the Near East|journal=Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences|date=29 April 2009|volume=276|issue=1668|pages=2703–2710|doi=10.1098/rspb.2009.0408|pmid=19403539|pmc=2839953}}</ref>
[[File:Lalibela, san giorgio, esterno 24.jpg|thumb|upright|The [[Church of Saint George, Lalibela]], 12th century [[Agaw people|Agaw]] [[Zagwe dynasty]].
The critical role of religion is near ubiquitous among Cushitic populations.]]
In the [[Classical antiquity|classical era]], the [[Macrobians]] who were a legendary people and kingdom positioned in the [[Horn of Africa]] were mentioned by [[Herodotus]]. They were reputed for their longevity and wealth, and were said to be the “tallest and handsomest of all men”.<ref name=”Wheeler pg 526">[https://archive.org/stream/geographyofherod00whee/geographyofherod00whee_djvu.txt The Geography of Herodotus: Illustrated from Modern Researches and Discoveries] by James Talboys Wheeler, pg 1xvi, 315, 526</ref> The Macrobians were warrior herders and seafarers. According to Herodotus’ account, the [[Persian Emperor]] [[Cambyses II]], upon his [[History of Achaemenid Egypt|conquest of Egypt]] (525 BC), sent ambassadors to Macrobia, bringing luxury gifts for the Macrobian king to entice his submission. The Macrobian ruler, who was elected based on his stature and beauty, replied instead with a challenge for his Persian counterpart in the form of an unstrung bow: if the Persians could manage to draw it, they would have the right to invade his country; but until then, they should thank the gods that the Macrobians never decided to invade their empire.<ref name=”Wheeler pg 526"/><ref name=”Kitto2">John Kitto, James Taylor, ‘’The popular cyclopædia of Biblical literature: condensed from the larger work’’, (Gould and Lincoln: 1856), p.302.</ref> The Macrobians were a regional power that were known from east to west and were highly advanced in architecture and extremely known for their wealth were they were noted for its gold, which was so plentiful that the Macrobians shackled their prisoners in golden chains. According to Herodotus, the Macrobians practiced an elaborate form of [[embalming]]. The Macrobians preserved the bodies of the dead by first extracting moisture from the corpses, then overlaying the bodies with a type of plaster, and finally decorating the exterior in vivid colors in order to imitate the deceased as realistically as possible. They then placed the body in a hollow crystal pillar, which they kept in their homes for a period of about a year.<ref name=”Soagb”>Society of Arts (Great Britain), ‘’Journal of the Society of Arts’’, Volume 26, (The Society: 1878), pp.912–913.</ref>
After the introduction of [[Christianity]], [[Judaism]] and [[Islam]] the respective histories of the Cushitic populations diverged, forming various city-states, empires and sultanates.<ref name=”Lewispohoa”>{{cite book|last=Lewis|first=I.M.|title=Peoples of the Horn of Africa: Somali, Afar and Saho|year=1955|publisher=International African Institute|pages=140|url=https://www.google.com/books?id=Cd0mAQAAMAAJ}}</ref>
===Sudan===
Nubia or Ta-Seti was an ancient region in northeastern Africa, extending approximately from the Nile Valley (near the first cataract in Upper Egypt) eastward to the shores of the Red Sea, southward to near Khartoum (in what is now Sudan), and westward to the Libyan Desert. Nubia is academically traditionally divided into two regions, the southern portion, which extended north to the southern end of the second cataract of the Nile was known as [[Upper Nubia]]; this was called Kush (Cush) under the 18th-dynasty pharaohs of ancient Egypt and was called Aethiopia by the ancient Greeks. [[Lower Nubia]] was the northern part of the region, located between the second and the first cataract of Aswān; this was called Wawat.
Lower Nubia is the northernmost part of [[Nubia]], downstream on the [[Nile]] from [[Upper Nubia]]. Sometimes, it overlapped [[Upper Egypt]] stretching to the [[First Cataract|First]] and [[Second Cataract]]s (the region known to [[Greco-Roman]] geographers as [[Triakontaschoinos]]), so roughly until [[Aswan]]. A great deal of Upper Egypt and northern Lower Nubia were flooded with the construction of the [[Aswan High Dam]] and the creation of [[Lake Nasser]]. However the intensive archaeological work conducted prior to the flooding means that the history of the area is much better known than that of Upper Nubia. Its history is also known from its long relations with [[Egypt]].
In Upper Egypt and Lower Nubia there was present a series of cultures, the [[Badarian]], [[Amratian]], [[Gerzean]], [[A-Group]], [[B-Group]], and [[C-Group]].
Linguistic evidence (according to Claude Rilly 2008, 2010, 2016 and Julien Copper 2017) indicates that in antiquity, peoples speaking [[Cushitic languages]] inhabited [[Lower Nubia]], a region between present day Southern [[Egypt]] and Northernmost [[Sudan]] (including ancient peoples such as the C-Group culture, the Blemmyes, and the Medjay), and that peoples speaking Nilo-Saharan languages of the [[Eastern Sudanic]] branch inhabited [[Upper Nubia]] to the south (such as the people of the ancient Kerma culture), before the spread of Eastern Sudanic languages further north into Lower Nubia.<ref name=”Rilly2010"/><ref name=”Rilly200162">{{cite journal | vauthors = Rilly C | title = The Wadi Howar Diaspora and its role in the spread of East Sudanic languages from the fourth to the first millenia BCE | journal = Faits de Langues | volume = 47 | pages = 151–163 | date = January 2016 | doi = 10.1163/19589514–047–01–900000010 }}</ref><ref name=”Rilly2008">{{cite book |doi=10.31338/uw.9788323533269.pp.211–226 |chapter=Enemy brothers. Kinship and relationship between Meroites and Nubians (Noba) |title=Between the Cataracts. Proceedings of the 11th International Conference for Nubian Studies Warsaw University 27 August-2 September 2006. Part 1. Main Papers |year=2008 |last1=Rilly |first1=Claude |isbn=9788323533269 |chapter-url=https://www.academia.edu/36487671}}</ref><ref name=”Cooper”>{{cite journal |last1=Cooper |first1=Julien |title=Toponymic Strata in Ancient Nubia Until the Common Era |journal=Dotawo: A Journal of Nubian Studies |date=25 October 2017 |volume=4 |issue=1 |doi=10.5070/D64110028 |doi-access=free }}</ref>
Lower Nubia was occupied by Egypt, when the Egyptians withdrew during the [[First Intermediate Period]] Lower Nubia seems to have become part of the Upper Nubian [[Kingdom of Kerma]]. The [[New Kingdom]] occupied all of Nubia and Lower Nubia was especially closely integrated into Egypt, but with the [[Second Intermediate Period]] it became the centre of the independent state of [[Kingdom of Kush|Kush]] based around [[Napata]]. Perhaps around 591 BC the capital of Kush was transferred south to [[Meroe]]. It is also uncertain to which language family the ancient [[Meroitic language]] is related. Kirsty Rowan suggests that Meroitic, like the [[Egyptian language]], belongs to the Afroasiatic family.<ref>Rowan, Kirsty (2011). “Meroitic Consonant and Vowel Patterning”. ‘’Lingua Aegytia’’, 19.</ref><ref>Rowan, Kirsty (2006), [http://www.soas.ac.uk/linguistics/research/workingpapers/volume-14/file37822.pdf “Meroitic — An Afroasiatic Language?”] ‘’{{abbr|SOAS|School of Oriental and African Studies}} Working Papers in Linguistics’’ 14:169–206.</ref> Claude Rilly on the other hand, proposes that Meroitic, like the [[Nobiin]] (or Nubian) language, belongs to the Eastern Sudanic branch of the Nilo-Saharan family.<ref>{{cite book | authors = Rilly, Claude & de Voogt, Alex | year = 2012 | title = The Meroitic Language and Writing System | location = Cambridge, UK | publisher = Cambridge University Press | isbn = 978–1107008663 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | author = Rilly, Claude | year = 2004 | url = http://www.ddl.ish-lyon.cnrs.fr/projets/clhass/PageWeb/ressources/Isolats/Meroitic%20Rilly%202004.pdf | title = The Linguistic Position of Meroitic | journal = Sudan Electronic Journal of Archaeology and Anthropology | access-date = 2 November 2019 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150923213222/http://www.ddl.ish-lyon.cnrs.fr/projets/clhass/PageWeb/ressources/Isolats/Meroitic%20Rilly%202004.pdf | archive-date = 23 September 2015 | url-status = dead }}</ref>
With the fall of the Meroitic Empire in the fourth century AD by the [[Nobatae]]<ref>{{cite journal |last1=riley |first1=claude |title=The Wadi Howar Diaspora and its role in the spread of East Sudanic languages from the fourth to the first millenia BCE |page=157 |url=https://brill.com/view/journals/fdl/47/1/article-p151.xml?language=en |access-date=4 February 2021}}</ref> and the [[Axumites]] the area became home to [[X-Group]], also known as the [[Ballana culture]] who were likely the [[Nobatae]] introducing the Nobiin languages to Nubia. This evolved into the [[Christians|Christian]] state of [[Nobatia]] by the fifth century. Nobatia was merged with the Upper Nubian state of [[Makuria]], but Lower Nubia became steadily more [[Arabized]] and [[Islam]]icized and eventually became de facto independent as the state of [[al-Maris (region)|al-Maris]]. Most of Lower Nubia was formally annexed by Egypt during the Ottoman conquest of 1517, and it has remained a part of Egypt since then, with only the far south being in [[Sudan]].
Genetic evidence (a study by Dobon et al. 2015) suggests modern Nubians do not cluster with groups of the same linguistic affiliation, but with Sudanese Afro-Asiatic speaking groups (Sudanese Arabs and Cushitic Beja) and Afro-Asiatic Ethiopians. Nubians were reported to be more similar to Egyptians and Ethiopians in their Mitochondrial and Y-DNA lineages but close to Ethiopians in their overall genetic affinities. Also according to the study, “Nubians were influenced by Arabs as a direct result of the penetration of large numbers of Arabs into the Nile Valley over long periods of time following the arrival of Islam around 651 A.D”.<ref name=pmid26017457>{{cite journal |last1=Dobon |first1=Begoña |last2=Hassan |first2=Hisham Y. |last3=Laayouni |first3=Hafid |last4=Luisi |first4=Pierre |last5=Ricaño-Ponce |first5=Isis |last6=Zhernakova |first6=Alexandra |last7=Wijmenga |first7=Cisca |last8=Tahir |first8=Hanan |last9=Comas |first9=David |last10=Netea |first10=Mihai G. |last11=Bertranpetit |first11=Jaume |title=The genetics of East African populations: a Nilo-Saharan component in the African genetic landscape |journal=Scientific Reports |date=28 May 2015 |volume=5 |pages=9996 |doi=10.1038/srep09996 |pmid=26017457 |pmc=4446898 |bibcode=2015NatSR…5E9996D }}</ref>
Other studies have linked the ancient population of Sudan and parts of Egypt to the Horn of Africa, though this is not entirely conclusive and must be placed in the context of hypotheses informed by archaeological, linguistic, geographic and other data. In such contexts, the physical anthropological evidence indicates that early Nile Valley populations can be identified as part of an African lineage, but exhibiting local variation. This variation represents the short- and long-term effects of evolutionary forces, such as gene flow, genetic drift, and natural selection, influenced by culture and geography.<ref>Nancy C. Lovell, “ Egyptians, physical anthropology of,” in Encyclopedia of the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt, ed. Kathryn A. Bard and Steven Blake Shubert, ( London and New York: Routledge, 1999). pp 328–332</ref><ref name=”S.O.Y. Keita (2005)”>{{cite journal |last1=Keita |first1=S. O. Y. |title=Early Nile Valley Farmers From El-Badari |journal=Journal of Black Studies |date=26 July 2016 |volume=36 |issue=2 |pages=191–208 |doi=10.1177/0021934704265912 |s2cid=144482802 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Keita |first1=S. O Y. |last2=Boyce |first2=A. J. |title=Temporal Variation in Phenetic Affinity of Early Upper Egyptian Male Cranial Series |journal=Human Biology |date=April 2008 |volume=80 |issue=2 |pages=141–159 |doi=10.3378/1534–6617(2008)80[141:TVIPAO]2.0.CO;2 |pmid=18720900 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Terrazas Mata |first1=Alejandro |last2=Serrano Sánchez |first2=Carlos |title=The late peopling of Africa according to craniometric data: a comparison of genetic and linguistic models |journal=Human Evolution |date=2013 |volume=28 |issue=1–2 |pages=33–44 |oclc=855266155 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Irish |first1=Joel D. |title=Dental morphological affinities of Late Pleistocene through recent sub-Saharan and north African peoples |journal=Bulletins et Mémoires de la Société d’anthropologie de Paris |date=1998 |volume=10 |issue=3 |pages=237–272 |doi=10.3406/bmsap.1998.2517 }}</ref>
The [[Blemmyes]] were a [[Beja people|Beja]] tribal [[Chiefdom|kingdom]] that existed from at least 600 BC to the 3rd century AD in [[Nubia]]. They were described in [[Ancient Rome|Roman]] histories of the later empire, with the Emperor [[Diocletian]] enlisting [[Nobatia|Nobatae]] mercenaries from the [[Libyan Desert|Western Desert]] oases to safeguard [[Aswan]], the empire’s southern frontier, from raids by the Blemmyes.<ref>{{cite web|title=African Kingdoms 2500 BC to AD 350|url=http://www.historyfiles.co.uk/KingListsAfrica/AfricaKush.htm|work=2014|publisher=The History Files|access-date=19 April 2014}}</ref><ref>[http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/199803/nomads.and.pharaohs.htm History of Blemmyes and nomads in southern Egypt and Nubia] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101011152201/http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/199803/nomads.and.pharaohs.htm |date=11 October 2010 }}, ‘’Saudi Aramco World’’, May/June 1998.</ref> The Blemmyes occupied a considerable region in what is modern day [[Sudan]]. There were several important cities such as [[Faras]], [[Kalabsha]], [[Ballana]] and Aniba. All were fortified with walls and towers of a mixture of Egyptian, Hellenic, Roman and Nubian elements.
Blemmyes culture was also under the influence of the [[Meroë|Meroitic]] culture. Their religion was centered in the temples of [[Kalabsha]] and [[Philae]]. The former edifice was a huge local architectural masterpiece, where a solar, lion-like divinity named [[Mandulis]] was worshipped. Philae was a place of mass pilgrimage, with temples for [[Isis]], [[Mandulis]], and [[Anhur]]. It was where the [[Roman Emperors]] [[Augustus]] and [[Trajan]] made many contributions with new temples, plazas, and monumental works.
[[Image:Sameul Daniell — Kora-Khokhoi preparing to move — 1805.jpg|thumb|Early Cushitic pastoralists are responsible presence of pastoralism among some Khoisan populations in the southern African region.]]
===South Africa===
Ancient [[South Cushitic]] speaking pastoralists hailing from East Africa migrated across Southeastern Africa and their presence is today marked by genetic evidence of their ancestry present in the modern ancestries of all sampled San and Khoe, who are affected by the agro-pastoralist migrations millennia ago.<ref name=”Ambrose220">{{cite book|last1=Ambrose|first1=Stanley H.|title=From Hunters to Farmers: The Causes and Consequences of Food Production in Africa — “The Introduction of Pastoral Adaptations to the Highlands of East Africa”|date=1984|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978–0520045743|pages=220|url=https://www.google.com/books?id=dftPHu1o2s8C|access-date=4 December 2014}}</ref> The migration of these peoples introduced [[pastoralism]] to Eastern and Southern Africa during [[Savannah Pastoral Neolithic]]. The skin pigmentation gene, SLC24A5, experienced recent adaptive evolution in the [[Khoisan]] populations of far southern Africa, haplotype analysis and demographic models indicate that the allele was introduced into the Khoe-San only within the past 3,000 years by eastern African pastoralists. The strong selection of SLC24A5 is a rare example of strong, ongoing adaptation in very recent human history.<ref>Pontus Skoglund et al. [https://www.cell.com/cell/pdf/S0092-8674(17)31008-5.pdf “Reconstructing Prehistoric African Population Structure”], ‘’Cell’’, 2017</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://meeting.physanth.org/program/2017/session33/henn-2017-rapid-evolution-of-lighter-skin-pigmentation-in-southern-africa.html|title=Rapid Evolution of Lighter Skin Pigmentation in Southern Africa|first1=Brenna M.|last1=Henn|first2=Meng|last2=Lin|first3=Alicia R.|last3=Martin|first4=Rebecca|last4=Siford|date=3 March 2017|via=meeting.physanth.org}}</ref>
== Languages ==
[[File:Afro-Asiatic language.png|thumb|upright=1.25|Afroasiatic languages ca. 500 BC<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Miller | first1 = Catherine | first2 = Madiha | last2 = Doss | name-list-style = vanc |date=1996–12–31 | title = Nubien, berbère et beja: notes sur trois langues vernaculaires non-arabes de l’Égypte contemporaine | trans-title = Nubian, Berber and beja: notes on three non-Arabic vernacular languages of contemporary Egypt | url = http://ema.revues.org/1960#article-1960 | journal = Égypte/Monde Arabe | language = French | issue = 27–28 | pages = 411–431 | doi = 10.4000/ema.1960 |issn=1110–5097| doi-access = free }}</ref>]]
{{main|Cushitic languages|Ethiopian Semitic languages|Omotic languages}}
‘’’Cushitic Languages’’’
{{Further|Cushitic peoples#Cushitic-speakers }}The Cushitic languages are usually considered to include the following branches:
* North Cushitic ([[Beja language|Beja]])
* Central Cushitic ([[Agaw languages]])
* East Cushitic
** [[Lowland East Cushitic languages|Lowland East Cushitic]]
** [[Highland East Cushitic languages|Highland East Cushitic]]
** [[Yaaku language|Yaaku]]-[[Dullay languages|Dullay]]
** [[Dahalo language|Dahalo]]
* [[South Cushitic languages|South Cushitic]]
The [[Somali language]], [[Oromo language|Oromo]] and Afar recognized as an official language in [[Ethiopia]].<ref name=”africanews.com”>{{cite news |last1=Shaban |first1=Abdurahman |title=One to five: Ethiopia gets four new federal working languages |url=https://www.africanews.com/2020/03/04/one-to-five-ethiopia-gets-four-new-federal-working-languages// |agency=Africa News}}</ref> [[Afar language|Afar]] and Somali are recognized as [[national language]]s but are not official languages in Djibouti.
‘’’Extinct Cushitic languages’’’
Linguistic evidence (according to Claude Rilly 2008, 2010, 2016 and Julien Copper 2017) indicates that in antiquity, [[Cushitic languages]] were spoken in Lower Nubia, an ancient region which straddles present day Southern [[Egypt]] and Northern [[Sudan]], and that Nilo-Saharan languages of the [[Eastern Sudanic]] branch were spoken in Upper Nubia to the south (where the ancient Kerma culture was located), before the spread of Eastern Sudanic languages further north into Lower Nubia.<ref name=”Rilly2010" /><ref name=”Rilly200162"/><ref name=”Rilly2008" /><ref name=”Cooper”/>
Julien Cooper (2017) states that in antiquity, Cushitic languages were spoken in Lower Nubia (the northernmost part of modern-day [[Sudan]]):
<blockquote>”In antiquity, Afroasiatic languages in Sudan belonged chiefly to the phylum known as Cushitic, spoken on the eastern seaboard of Africa and from Sudan to Kenya, including the Ethiopian Highlands.”<ref>{{cite book |last1=Cooper |first1=Julien|title=Toponymic Strata in Ancient Nubian placenames in the Third and Second Millennium BCE: a view from Egyptian Records. Dotawo: A Journal of Nubian Studies: Vol. 4 , Article 3|chapter-url=https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:7d8a387b-f850-4d56-8105-f84a30bf121a/download_file?file_format=pdf&safe_filename=Cooper%252C%2BToponymic%2BStrata%2Bin%2BAncient%2BNubian%2BPlacenames%252C%2BDotawo%2B4.pdf&type_of_work=Journal+article|access-date=2019-11-20 |year=2017|pages=208–209 |chapter=Conclusion|quote=”In antiquity, Afroasiatic languages in Sudan belonged chiefly to the phylum known as Cushitic, spoken on the eastern seaboard of Africa and from Sudan to Kenya, including the Ethiopian Highlands.”}}</ref></blockquote>
Julien Cooper (2017) also states that [[Eastern Sudanic languages|Eastern Sudanic]] speaking populations from southern and west Nubia gradually replaced the earlier Cushitic speaking populations of this region:
<blockquote>”In Lower Nubia there was an Afroasiatic language, likely a branch of Cushitic. By the end of the first millennium CE this region had been encroached upon and replaced by Eastern Sudanic speakers arriving from the south and west, to be identified first with Meroitic and later migrations attributable to Nubian speakers.”<ref>{{cite book |last1=Cooper |first1=Julien|title=Toponymic Strata in Ancient Nubian placenames in the Third and Second Millenium BCE: a view from Egyptian Records. Dotawo: A Journal of Nubian Studies: Vol. 4 , Article 3|chapter-url=https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:7d8a387b-f850-4d56-8105-f84a30bf121a/download_file?file_format=pdf&safe_filename=Cooper%252C%2BToponymic%2BStrata%2Bin%2BAncient%2BNubian%2BPlacenames%252C%2BDotawo%2B4.pdf&type_of_work=Journal+article|access-date=2019-11-20 |year=2017|pages=208–209 |chapter=Conclusion|quote=”The toponymic data in Egyptian texts has broadly identified at least three linguistic blocs in the Middle Nile region of the second and first millennium BCE, each of which probably exhibited a great degree of internal variation. In Lower Nubia there was an Afroasiatic language, likely a branch of Cushitic. By the end of the first millennium CE this region had been encroached upon and replaced by Eastern Sudanic speakers arriving from the south and west, to be identified first with Meroitic and later migrations attributable to Nubian speakers.”}}</ref></blockquote>
In Handbook of Ancient Nubia, Claude Rilly (2019) states that Cushitic languages once dominated [[Lower Nubia]] along with the [[Egyptian language|Ancient Egyptian]] language. Rilly (2019) states:
<blockquote>”Two Afro-Asiatic languages were present in antiquity in Nubia, namely Ancient Egyptian and Cushitic.”<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rilly |first1=Claude|title=Handbook of Ancient Nubia|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mXWcDwAAQBAJ&q=%22nubia%22+cushitic&pg=PA134|access-date=2019-11-20 |year=2019|chapter=Languages of Ancient Nubia|isbn=9783110420388|quote=”Two Afro-Asiatic languages were present in antiquity in Nubia, namely Ancient Egyptian and Cushitic.”}}</ref></blockquote>
Rilly (2019) mentions historical records of a powerful Cushitic speaking race which controlled [[Lower Nubia]] and some cities in [[Upper Egypt]]. Rilly (2019) states:
<blockquote>”The Blemmyes are another Cushitic speaking tribe, or more likely a subdivision of the Medjay/Beja people, which is attested in Napatan and Egyptian texts from the 6th century BC on.”<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rilly |first1=Claude|title=Handbook of Ancient Nubia|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mXWcDwAAQBAJ&q=%22nubia%22+cushitic&pg=PA134|access-date=2019-11-20 |year=2019|chapter=Languages of Ancient Nubia|isbn=9783110420388|quote=”The Blemmyes are another Cushitic speaking tribe, or more likely a subdivision of the Medjay/Beja people, which is attested in Napatan and Egyptian texts from the 6th century BC on.”}}</ref></blockquote>
On page 134:
<blockquote>”From the end of the 4th century until the 6th century AD, they held parts of Lower Nubia and some cities of Upper Egypt.”<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rilly |first1=Claude|title=Handbook of Ancient Nubia|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mXWcDwAAQBAJ&q=%22nubia%22+cushitic&pg=PA134|access-date=2019-11-20 |year=2019|chapter=Languages of Ancient Nubia|isbn=9783110420388|quote=”From the end of the 4th century until the 6th century AD, they held parts of Lower Nubia and some cities of Upper Egypt.”}}</ref></blockquote>
He mentions the linguistic relationship between the modern [[Beja language]] and the ancient Cushitic Blemmyan language which dominated [[Lower Nubia]] and that the Blemmyes can be regarded as a particular tribe of the Medjay:
<blockquote>”The Blemmyan language is so close to modern Beja that it is probably nothing else than an early dialect of the same language. In this case, the Blemmyes can be regarded as a particular tribe of the Medjay.”<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rilly |first1=Claude|title=Handbook of Ancient Nubia|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mXWcDwAAQBAJ&q=%22nubia%22+cushitic&pg=PA134|access-date=2019-11-20 |year=2019|chapter=Languages of Ancient Nubia|isbn=9783110420388|quote=”The Blemmyan language is so close to modern Beja that it is probably nothing else than an early dialect of the same language In this case, the Blemmyes can be regarded as a particular tribe of the Medjay.”}}</ref></blockquote>
‘’’Ethiosemitic Languages’’’
{{Further|Cushitic peoples#Ethiosemitic-speakers }}
* North Ethiopic
**[[Ge’ez|Ge’ez]]
**Tigre
**Tigrinya
**Dahalik
* South Ethiopic
** Transversal South Ethiopic
*** [[Amharic]] — working language of the Federal Government of Ethiopia.
** Harari–East Gurage
** Outer South Ethiopic
***[[West Gurage languages|West Gurage]]
‘’’[[Central Semitic languages]]’’’ (liturgical and/or cultural shift)
* [[Arabic]]
*[[Modern Hebrew|Modern]] [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]]
‘’’[[Nilo-Saharan languages]]’’’ (language shift or substantial Cushitic ancestry)
{{See also|Nilotic peoples|Nilo-Saharan languages}}{{Further|Cushitic peoples#Nilo-Saharan speakers}}
* [[Nubian languages|Nubian]] (related to Northern Cushites)
* [[Samburu language|Samburu]] (related to the Rendille)
* [[Datooga language|Datooga]] (related to the Iraqw)
As it relates to Nubians, although Cushitic is believed to be numbered among the earlier languages spoken in parts of Nubia, the classification of the [[Meroitic language]] of later periods is uncertain due to the scarcity of data and difficulty in interpreting it. Since the alphabet was deciphered in 1909, it has been proposed that Meroitic is related to the [[Nubian languages]] and similar languages of the Nilo-Saharan phylum.<ref name=”RillyVoogt2012">{{cite book|last1=Rilly|first1=Claude |last2=de Voogt|first2=Alex |title=The Meroitic Language and Writing System|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mHdD_YojtaMC&pg=PA67|year=2012|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978–1–107–00866–3|page=6}}</ref><ref name=”Rilly2016">{{cite journal | vauthors = Rilly C | title = Meroitic | journal = UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology | date = June 2016 |url = https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3128r3sw }}</ref> The competing claim is that Meroitic is a member of the Afroasiatic phylum.<ref>{{Cite journal|title=Meroitic — an Afroasiatic language?|author=Kirsty Rowan|citeseerx = 10.1.1.691.9638}}</ref>
==Ethnic groups==
{{see also|Beja people|Oromo people|Somali people|Afar people|Sidama|Saho people|Agaw people|Iraqw people|Rendille people|Gedeo people|Hadiya people|Kambaata people|Page 12=Tigre people|page 13=Tigrayans{{!}}Tigray-Tigrinya (Tigrayans)|page 14=Amhara people|page 15=Beta Israel|page 16=Gurage people|page 17=Harari people|page 18=Abyssinian people{{!}}Habesha|Habesha peoples|Barbara (region)|Horn of Africa}}
[[File:Bedscha.jpg|thumb|The Beja Bedouins]]
[[File:1867–68 Ethiopia. Queen of the “Oromos” and Son-The National Archives UK — CO 1069–5–49.jpg|thumb|upright|Photograph taken by 10th Field Company Royal Engineers during the [[British Expedition to Abyssinia|Magdala Campaign]] of 1867–8. Queen of the [[Oromo people|’’’Oromo’’’]] and Son]]
[[File:Zayla.jpg|thumb|Ruins of the [[Sultanate of Adal]] in [[Zeila]]]]
=== Cushitic-speakers ===
Some examples of these peoples, those ethnic groups who strictly speak [[Cushitic languages]] without a [[language shift]] to non-Cushitic languages are the [[Oromo people|Oromo]], [[Somali people|Somali]], [[Beja people|Beja]], [[Agaw]], [[Afar people|Afar]], [[Saho people|Saho]] and [[Sidama people|Sidama]], among many others.<ref name=”plantuse” />
The [[Oromo people|Oromo]] are an ethnic group inhabiting [[Ethiopia]]. They are one of the largest ethnic groups in Ethiopia and represent 34.4% of Ethiopia’s population.<ref name=”ciaoromo”>[https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/et.html Ethiopia: People & Society] {{webarchive|url=http://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/20110223164407/https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/et.html |date=23 February 2011 }}, CIA Factbook (2016)</ref> Oromos speak the [[Oromo language]] as a mother tongue (also called ‘’Afaan Oromoo’’ and ‘’Oromiffa’’), which is part of the [[Cushitic languages|Cushitic]] branch of the [[Afro-Asiatic language family]]. The word ‘’Oromo’’ is sometimes
mistakenly said to have appeared in European literature for the first time in 1893.
The [[Somalis]] are an ethnic group inhabiting the [[Horn of Africa]].<ref name=”2009factbook”>{{cite web|url=https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/so.html|title=Somalia|access-date=2009-05-31|date=2009-05-14|work=[[The World Factbook]]|publisher=[[Central Intelligence Agency]]}}</ref> The overwhelming majority of Somalis speak the [[Somali language]], which is part of the [[Cushitic languages|Cushitic]] branch of the [[Afroasiatic languages|Afroasiatic]] family. They are predominantly Muslim, mostly [[Sunni Islam|Sunni]] or [[non-denominational Muslim]]. Ethnic Somalis number around 12–18 million and are principally concentrated in [[Somalia]] (around 9 million),<ref name=”UNFPA Somali Population Survey 2017">{{Cite web|url=https://population.un.org/wpp/DataQuery/|title=World Population Prospects — Population Division — United Nations|website=population.un.org|access-date=2019–01–31}}</ref> [[Ethiopia]] (4.5 million),<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://www.csa.gov.et/ehioinfo-internal | title=Recent Survey Releases | access-date=7 December 2018 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180606103106/http://www.csa.gov.et/ehioinfo-internal | archive-date=6 June 2018 | url-status=dead }}</ref> [[Kenya]] (2.4 million), and [[Djibouti]] (534,000).<ref name=”Ethnologue”>[http://www.ethnologue.com/country/DJ/status Djibouti] — Ethnologue.com {{subscription required}}</ref> A [[Somali diaspora]] is also found in parts of the [[Middle East]], [[African Great Lakes]] region, [[Southern Africa]], [[North America]], [[Oceania]], and [[Western Europe]].
The [[Beja people|Beja]] ([[Beja language|Beja]]: Oobja; {{lang-ar|البجا}}) are an ethnic group inhabiting [[Sudan]], as well as parts of [[Eritrea]] and [[Egypt]], in recent history they have lived primarily in the [[Eastern Desert]]. The Beja are traditionally Cushitic [[pastoral nomads]] native to northeast Africa numbering around 1,237,000 people.<ref name=”Ethnologuebej”>{{cite web|title=Bedawiyet|url=https://www.ethnologue.com/language/bej|publisher=Ethnologue|access-date=14 October 2016}}{{subscription required}}</ref> Many Beja people speak the [[Beja language]] as a mother tongue, which belongs to the [[Cushitic languages|Cushitic]] branch of the [[Afroasiatic languages|Afro-Asiatic]] family. Some Beja groups have shifted to primary or exclusive use of Arabic. In Eritrea and southeastern Sudan, many members of the Beni Amer grouping speak [[Tigre language|Tigre]].
The [[Agaw]] ({{lang-gez|አገው}} ‘’Agäw’’, modern ‘’Agew’’) are an ethnic group inhabiting [[Ethiopia]] and neighboring [[Eritrea]]. They speak [[Agaw languages]], which belong to the [[Cushitic languages|Cushitic]] branch of the [[Afroasiatic languages|Afroasiatic language family]].
The Agaw are perhaps first mentioned in the third-century ‘’[[Monumentum Adulitanum]]’’, an Aksumite inscription recorded by [[Cosmas Indicopleustes]] in the sixth century. The inscription refers to a people called “Athagaus” (or Athagaous), perhaps from ʿAd Agaw, meaning “sons<ref>Uhlig, Siegbert, ed. ‘’Encyclopaedia Aethiopica: A-C’’. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2003. p. 117</ref> of Agaw.
The [[Afar people|Afar]] ({{lang-aa|Qafár}}), also known as the ‘’Danakil’’, ‘’Adali’’ and ‘’Odali’’, are an ethnic group inhabiting the [[Horn of Africa]]. They primarily live in the [[Afar Region]] of [[Ethiopia]] and in northern [[Djibouti]], although some also inhabit the southern point of [[Eritrea]]. Afars speak the [[Afar language]], which is part of the [[Cushitic language|Cushitic]] branch of the [[Afroasiatic languages|Afroasiatic]] family.
The Afar are traditionally pastoralists, raising [[goat]]s, [[sheep]], and [[cattle]] in the desert.<ref name=”Phillips”>Matt Phillips, Jean-Bernard Carillet, ‘’Lonely Planet Ethiopia and Eritrea’’, (Lonely Planet: 2006), p. 301.</ref>
Socially, they are organized into [[clan]] families and two main classes: the ‘’asaimara’’ (‘reds’) who are the dominant class politically, and the ‘’adoimara’’ (‘whites’) who are a working class and are found in the [[Mabla Mountains]].<ref name=”Uhlig2003">{{cite book|last=Uhlig|first=Siegbert|title=Encyclopaedia Aethiopica: A-C|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nobesFx6E7oC&pg=PA103|access-date=30 May 2011|year=2003|publisher=Otto Harrassowitz Verlag|isbn=978–3–447–04746–3|pages=103–}}</ref>
The [[Saho people|Saho]] sometimes called “Soho”,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa4010/is_200103/ai_n8950806|title=FindArticles.com — CBSi|via=Find Articles|access-date=18 January 2017}}</ref> are an ethnic group inhabiting the Horn of Africa. They are principally concentrated in [[Eritrea]], with some also living in adjacent parts of [[Ethiopia]]. They speak [[Saho language|Saho]] as a mother tongue, which belongs to the [[Cushitic languages|Cushitic]] branch of the [[Afroasiatic languages|Afroasiatic]] family<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jwjX_yVT7AoC&q=saho+people+cushitic&pg=PA162|title=The Saho of Eritrea: Ethnic Identity and National Consciousness|last=Mohammad|first=Abdulkader Saleh|date=2013–01–01|publisher=LIT Verlag Münster|isbn=9783643903327|pages=162}}</ref> and is closely related to [[Afar language|Afar]].
The [[Sidama people|Sidamo]] are an ethnic group traditionally inhabiting the [[Sidama Zone]] of the [[Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples Region]] (SNNPR) in [[Ethiopia]]. They speak the [[Sidamo language]], which is a language of the [[Cushitic languages|Cushitic]] of the [[Afroasiatic languages|Afroasiatic language family]]. Despite their large numbers, they currently lack a separate ethnic regional state.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Allen|first1=Lovaise|title=The Politics of Ethnicity in Ethiopia|publisher=BRILL|page=154|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3dmM4Cs5KM0C&q=sidama+largest+without+regional+state&pg=PA154|access-date=8 December 2016|isbn=978–9004207295|date=2011–06–22}}</ref>
=== Ethiosemitic-speakers ===
Many [[Ethiopian Semitic languages|Ethiosemitic]]-language populations were historically Cushitic speakers, primarily of the [[Agaw languages|Agaw branch]] as well as others.<ref>{{Cite book|title=New data and new methods in Afroasiatic linguistics : Robert Hetzron in memoriam|last=Robert.|first=Zaborski, Andrzej. Hetzron|date=2001|publisher=Harrassowitz|oclc=608018646}}</ref> Prominent examples of these include the [[Amhara people|Amhara]], [[Argobba people]], [[Gurage people|Gurage]], [[Tigrayans]], [[Tigrinya people]], [[Harari people]], and [[Tigre people|Tigre]]. The [[Beta Israel]] historically spoke an Agaw language, subsequently followed by a [[language shift]] to [[Amharic]] and [[Tigrinya language|Tigrinya]], and in the early 21st century to modern [[Modern Hebrew|Hebrew]] due to [[acculturation]] into [[Israel|Israeli society]]. Ethiosemitic speaking groups generally have a cultural and genetic affinity to Cushitic speakers and are occasionally considered a sub-group of Cushitic peoples.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Messing|first=Simon D.|date=1994|title=’’The Beta Israel (Falasha) in Ethiopia, From Earliest Times to the Twentieth Century’’ (review)|journal=Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies|volume=12|issue=2|pages=145–146|doi=10.1353/sho.1994.0019|s2cid=170441703|issn=1534–5165}}</ref>
The historical linguistics of the relationship between Ethiosemitic languages and Cushitic languages is multi-layered and complex, not yet fully understood. [[Amharic]], [[Argobba language|Argobba]] and [[Tigrinya]] seem to have a [[Central Cushitic]] substratum; [[Tigre language|Tigre]] contains a [[North Cushitic]]<ref name=”:0">Robert Hetzron, “The Semitic Languages”, 2013</ref> substratum while Harari-Gurage languages reveal [[Highland East Cushitic languages|Highland East Cushitic]] influences.<ref>Wolf Leslau, “Sidamo is the substratum language of the Gurage speaking region. Sidamo influenced the Gurage cluster in the phonology, morphology, syntax, and mainly in the vocabulary.” “Gurage Studies: Collected Articles”, 1992</ref>
The Agaw are mentioned in an inscription of the fourth century emperor [[Ezana of Axum]] having conquered their lands.<ref name=”Encyclopaedia”>Uhlig, Siegbert, ed. ‘’Encyclopaedia: A-C’’. p. 142.</ref> Based on this evidence, a number of experts embrace a theory first stated by European scholars [[Edward Ullendorff]] and [[Carlo Conti Rossini]] that they are the original inhabitants of much of the northern [[Ethiopian Highlands]], and were either forced out of their original settlements or assimilated by [[Semitic languages|Semitic-speaking]] predecessors of the [[Tigrayans]] and [[Amharas]].<ref>Taddesse Tamrat, ‘’Church and State in Ethiopia (1270–1527)’’ (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1972), p. 26.</ref> This theory is further strengthened by the existence of a Cushitic substratum in Ethiopian Semitic languages indicating population assimilation of an ancient migration from Southwest Arabia.<ref name=”helloworld”>{{cite journal|last1=Leslau|first1=Wolf|year=1945|title=The Influence of Cushitic on the Semitic Languages of Ethiopia a Problem of Substratum|journal=WORD|volume=1|issue=1|pages=59–82|doi=10.1080/00437956.1945.11659246|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref name=”Kebede 2003 1–19">{{Cite journal|last=Kebede|first=Messay|date=2003|title=Eurocentrism and Ethiopian Historiography: Deconstructing Semitization|department=University of Dayton-Department of Philosophy|journal=International Journal of Ethiopian Studies|publisher=Tsehai Publishers|volume=1|pages=1–19|via=JSTOR}}</ref><ref name=”Alemu 2007 56–64">{{Cite journal|last=Alemu|first=Daniel E.|date=2007|title=Re-imagining the Horn|journal=African Renaissance|volume=4|issue=1|pages=56–64|via=Ingenta}}</ref> Ethiopian scholars specializing in [[Ethiopian Studies]] such as Messay Kebede and Daniel E. Alemu generally disagree with this theory arguing that the migration was one of reciprocal exchange, if it even occurred at all.
Kebede states the following:
<blockquote>”This is not to say that events associated with conquest, conflict and resistance did not occur. No doubt, they must have been frequent. But the crucial difference lies in the propensity to present them, not as the process by which an alien majority imposed its rule but as part of an ongoing struggle of native forces competing for supremacy in the region. The elimination of the alien ruler indigenize Ethiopian history in terms of local actors.”<ref name=”Kebede 2003 1–19"/><ref name=”Alemu 2007 56–64"/></blockquote>
=== Nilo-Saharan speakers ===
While having weaker cultural and ethnolinguistic ties to the Cushitic core, many populations in the [[Sudan]] and [[African Great Lakes|Southeastern Africa]] have significant Cushitic ancestry. Examples of these are [[Nubians]], [[Sudanese Arabs]], [[Kunama people|Kunama]], [[Nara people|Nara]], the [[Samburu people|Samburu]] and [[Maasai people|Maasai]].<ref name=”Sudan1">{{Cite journal|last1=Jakobsson|first1=Mattias|last2=Hassan|first2=Hisham Y.|last3=Babiker|first3=Hiba|last4=Günther|first4=Torsten|last5=Schlebusch|first5=Carina M.|last6=Hollfelder|first6=Nina|date=2017–08–24|title=Northeast African genomic variation shaped by the continuity of indigenous groups and Eurasian migrations|journal=PLOS Genetics|volume=13|issue=8|pages=e1006976|doi=10.1371/journal.pgen.1006976|issn=1553–7404|pmc=5587336|pmid=28837655}}</ref><ref name=”Tishkoff1">{{Cite journal|last1=Tishkoff|first1=Sarah A.|last2=Reed|first2=Floyd A.|last3=Friedlaender|first3=Françoise R.|last4=Ehret|first4=Christopher|last5=Ranciaro|first5=Alessia|last6=Froment|first6=Alain|last7=Hirbo|first7=Jibril B.|last8=Awomoyi|first8=Agnes A.|last9=Bodo|first9=Jean-Marie|date=2009–05–22|title=The Genetic Structure and History of Africans and African Americans|journal=Science|volume=324|issue=5930|pages=1035–1044|doi=10.1126/science.1172257|issn=0036–8075|pmc=2947357|pmid=19407144|bibcode=2009Sci…324.1035T}}</ref> Controversially, the [[Tutsi]] are thought to have a partial Nilo-Cushitic origin, although this is still being debated in academia.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Alpers|first1=Edward A.|last2=McCall|first2=Daniel F.|last3=Bennett|first3=Norman R.|last4=Butler|first4=Jeffrey|date=1970|title=Eastern African History|journal=African Historical Studies|volume=3|issue=2|pages=460|doi=10.2307/216238|issn=0001–9992|jstor=216238}}</ref><ref>{{Citation|last=Kayitesi|first=Berthe|title=Our World of Contradictions: Antisemitism, Antitutsism, and Never Again.|date=2010|url=https://isgap.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/Yale-Papers-Complete-071315-Reprinted.pdf#page=425|publisher=The Yale Papers: Antisemitism in Comparative Perspective|access-date=2018–12–09}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Miles|first=William F. S.|s2cid=72870690|date=2000|title=Hamites and Hebrews: Problems in “Judaizing” the Rwandan genocide|journal=Journal of Genocide Research|volume=2|issue=1|pages=107–115|doi=10.1080/146235200112436|issn=1462–3528}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Van Schaack|first=Beth|date=2008–07–01|title=Engendering Genocide: The Akayesu Case Before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda|location=Rochester, NY|ssrn=1154259}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Blench|first=Roger|date=2018–12–09|title=Was there an interchange between Cushitic pastoralists and Khoisan speakers in the prehistory of Southern Africa and how can this be detected?|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/237631539}}</ref> Old Nubian had its source in the languages of the [[Nubians|Nubian]] nomads who occupied the [[Nile]] between the first and third [[cataracts of the Nile]] and the Makorae nomads who occupied the land between the third and fourth cataracts following the collapse of [[Meroë]] sometime in the 4th century after being invaded by the [[Axumites]]. These Nilotic nomads also gave Nubia its name where before the 4th century, and throughout [[classical antiquity]], Nubia was known as ‘’[[Kingdom of Kush|Kush]]’’, or, in [[Classical Greece|Classical Greek]] usage, included under the name ‘’[[Ancient Ethiopia|Ethiopia]]’’ (‘’[[Aithiopia]]’’). Early Egyptians referred to Nubia as “Ta-Seti,” or “The Land of the Bow”.<ref>{{cite book|last=Hatke|first=George|title=Aksum and Nubia: Warfare, Commerce, and Political Fictions in Ancient Northeast Africa|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Oy7N_d6HoYIC&pg=PA161|year=2013|publisher=NYU Press|isbn=978–0–8147–6283–7|page=161}}</ref> ‘’[[Periplus of the Erythraean Sea]]’’, a 1st-century CE travelogue written by a Greek merchant based in [[Alexandria]] writes about the “Berbers” (not to be confused with [[Berbers]]) of ancient North-East Africa, the first [[Barbara (region)|Barbara]] region extended from just south of [[Berenice Troglodytica|Berenice Troglodytae]] in southeastern [[Egypt]] to just north of [[Ptolemais Theron]] in northeastern [[Sudan]], whilst the second Barbara region was then located just beyond the [[Bab-el-Mandeb|Bab al-Mandeb]] up to the “[[Aromata|Market and Cape of Spices]], an abrupt promontory, at the very end of the Berber coast toward the east” found in northeastern [[Somalia]].
==Culture==
[[File:Old man in Harar.jpg|thumb|upright|Old [[Somali people|nomad]] takes a tea-break in [[Harar]], Ethiopia.]]
Cushitic people have a wide diversity of cultures that relate to them specifically and as a group but as a whole tends to vary between sedentary agrarianism and nomadic pastoralism. Cushites, have been considerably influenced by [[Islam]] and to a somewhat lesser extent by [[Christianity]].
The first century travel catalogue [[Periplus of the Erythraean Sea]] makes mention of nomads and settled cities in ‘’[[Barbara (region)|Barbara]]’’ which referred to two ancient regions in littoral [[Northeast Africa]]. The two areas were inhabited by the Eastern ‘’Barbaroi’’ or ‘’Baribah’’ (“Berbers”) or barbarians this could also be due to the fact of the ancient city of [[Berbera]] as called to by ancient Greek philosophers. These inhabitants were the ancestors of today’s local Cushitic-speaking populations such as [[Somalis]] and [[Beja people|Bejas]]. Indeed, the deep history of the [[Nomadic pastoralism|nomadic]] lifestyle is apparent in that humans likely first domesticated dromedaries in Somalia or introduced there shortly after domestication in South Arabia. Somalia has the largest camel population in the world and is home to the ancient [[Laas Geel|Laasgeel]] cave paintings depicting Somali nomads with their riches in [[livestock]].<ref name=”mukasa81">{{cite book | publisher = International Livestock Centre for Africa | volume = 5 | last = Mukasa-Mugerwa | first = E. | title = The Camel (Camelus Dromedarius): A Bibliographical Review | location = Ethiopia | series = International Livestock Centre for Africa Monograph | year = 1981 |pages=1, 3, 20–21, 65, 67–68}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title= Smithsonian Timelines of the Ancient World|first= Chris|last= Scarre|date= 15 September 1993|isbn= 978–1–56458–305–5|page= 176|quote= Both the dromedary (the seven-humped camel of Arabia) and the Bactrian camel (the two-humped camel of Central Asia) had been domesticated since before 2000 BC.|publisher= D. Kindersley|location= London}}</ref><ref name=”Bulliet 183"/><ref name=”Near Eastern Archaeology: A Reader”/>
===Agriculture and Animal Husbandry===
[[File:Ethcofcerm.jpg|thumb|upright|A young [[People of Ethiopia|Ethiopian]] woman preparing [[Coffee]] at a traditional [[Coffee ceremony|Coffee Ceremony]]. She roasts, crushes and brews the coffee on the spot.]]
[[Coffee]] is a major export of Ethiopia and was first discovered and cultivated by [[Oromo people|Oromos]] in the region of Kaffa in Ethiopia and were the first to recognize the energizing effect of the coffee plant. Coffee was then primarily consumed in the Islamic world from where it later spread throughout the rest of the world. Coffee was even directly related to religious practices, for example, coffee helped its consumers fast in the day by helping them stay awake at night, during the Muslim celebration of Ramadan.
82% of the world [[Frankincense]] grows in Somalia, an industrial heritage of the ancient civilisation of [[Land of Punt|Punt]], famed for its incense, centered in modern-day Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalia, and Ethiopia where Frankincense was sold e.g. to the ancient Egyptians. [[Dabqaad]] translates to [[censer]] in the Somali language and it’s used to burn [[incense]] around the house for a fresh fragrance.
===Music===
{{See also|Music of Ethiopia|Music of Eritrea|Music of Somalia}}
Cushitic music uses a distinct [[Musical mode|modal system]] that is [[Pentatonic scale|pentatonic]], with characteristically long intervals between some notes. Tastes in music and lyrics are strongly linked in the Horn of Africa, Sudan and parts of Egypt.<ref name=”Abdullahi”>{{cite book |last=Abdullahi |first=Mohamed Diriye |title=Culture and Customs of Somalia |year=2001 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |isbn=978–0–313–31333–2 |page=[https://archive.org/details/culturecustomsof00diri/page/170 170] |url=https://archive.org/details/culturecustomsof00diri |url-access=registration |quote=Somali music, a unique kind of music that might be mistaken at first for music from nearby countries such as Ethiopia, the Sudan, or even Arabia, can be recognized by its own tunes and styles.}}</ref><ref name=”Tekle”>{{cite book |last=Tekle |first=Amare |title=Eritrea and Ethiopia: from conflict to cooperation |year=1994 |publisher=The Red Sea Press |isbn=978–0–932415–97–4 |page=197 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xbQTEF0rd7wC&pg=PA197 |quote=Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia and Sudan have significant similarities emanating not only from culture, religion, traditions, history and aspirations … They appreciate similar foods and spices, beverages and sweets, fabrics and tapestry, lyrics and music, and jewellery and fragrances.}}</ref> Traditional singing presents diverse styles of [[polyphony]] ([[heterophony]], [[drone (music)|drone]], [[imitation]], and [[counterpoint]]). Traditionally, lyricism is associated with the recitation of poetry.
=== Religion ===
[[File:Ark of the Covenant church in Axum Ethiopia.jpg|thumb|left|The Chapel of the Tablet at the [[Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion]] allegedly houses the original [[Ark of the Covenant]].]]
[[File:Noahsworld map.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|The world according to the Mosaic account (1854 map)]]
Most inhabitants in the Horn of Africa follow one of the three major [[Abrahamic religions|Abrahamic]] faiths. These religions have had a longstanding adherence in the region.
The ancient Axumite Kingdom produced coins and stelae associated with the disc and crescent symbols of the deity [[Astar (god)|Ashtar]].<ref>{{cite book|author1=Roland Anthony Oliver|author2=Brian M. Fagan|title=Africa in the Iron Age: C.500 BC-1400 AD|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C5qYNSRjqacC|year=1975|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978–0–521–09900–4|page=43}}</ref> The kingdom later became one of the earliest states to adopt [[Christianity]], following the conversion of King [[Ezana of Axum|Ezana II]] in the 4th century.
[[File:Fakr Ud Din Mosque.jpg|thumb|left|Engraving of the 13th-century [[Fakr ad-Din Mosque]] built by Fakr ad-Din, the first [[Sultan of Mogadishu]]]]
Islam was introduced to the northern Somali coast early on from the [[Arabian peninsula]], shortly after the [[Hijra (Islam)|hijra]] whereupon [[Zeila]]’s 7th century two-[[mihrab]] [[Masjid al-Qiblatayn (Somalia)|Masjid al-Qiblatayn]] was built and they were granted protection by the Aksumite King [[Aṣḥama ibn Abjar]].<ref>{{cite web|url=@field(DOCID+so0014)”>http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+so0014) |title=A Country Study: Somalia from The Library of Congress |publisher=Lcweb2.loc.gov |access-date=25 July 2013}}</ref><ref name=”Btgpb”>{{cite book|last=Briggs|first=Phillip|title=Somaliland|year=2012|publisher=Bradt Travel Guides|isbn=978–1841623719|page=7|url=https://www.google.com/books?id=M6NI2FejIuwC}}</ref><ref name=”Aymar”>{{cite web|last=Fauvelle-Aymar|first=François-Xavier|title=Le port de Zeyla et son arrière-pays au Moyen Âge: Investigations archéologiques et retour aux sources écrites|url=https://www.academia.edu/1202629|publisher=Livre Islam|access-date=23 January 2014}}</ref> In the late 9th century, [[Al-Yaqubi]] wrote that [[Muslim]]s were living along the northern Somali seaboard.<ref name=”Encyamer”>{{cite book|title=Encyclopedia Americana, Volume 25|year=1965|publisher=Americana Corporation|pages=255|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OP5LAAAAMAAJ}}</ref> He also mentioned that the Adal kingdom had its capital in the city,<ref name=”Encyamer”/><ref name=”Lewispohoa”/> suggesting that the Adal Sultanate with Zeila as its headquarters dates back to at least the 9th or 10th century. According to I.M. Lewis, the polity was governed by local [[Somali people|Somali]] [[dynasty|dynasties]], who also ruled over the similarly established [[Sultanate of Mogadishu]] in the littoral [[Benadir]] region to the south. Adal’s history from this founding period forth would be characterized by a succession of battles with neighbouring [[Ethiopian Empire|Abyssinia]].<ref name=”Lewispohoa”/> The largest sample by [[Pew Research Center]] on Muslim affiliation in the Horn was attained in Ethiopia which found that 68% adhered to [[Sunnism]], 23% were [[non-denominational Muslim]]s, whilst another 4% adhere to other sects such as [[Shia Islam|Shia]], [[Quranist]], [[Ibadi Islam|Ibadi]] etc.<ref name=”pewforum”>{{Cite web|url=https://www.pewforum.org/2012/08/09/the-worlds-muslims-unity-and-diversity-1-religious-affiliation/|title=Religious Identity Among Muslims|work=Pew Research Center|date=9 August 2012}}</ref>
Additionally, [[Judaism]] has a long presence in the region. The ‘’[[Kebra Negast]]’’ (“Book of the Glory of Kings”) relates that Israelite tribes arrived in Ethiopia with [[Menelik I]], purported to be the son of King [[Solomon]] and the [[Queen of Sheba]] (Makeda). The legend relates that Menelik as an adult returned to his father in [[Jerusalem]], and then resettled in Ethiopia, and that he took with him the [[Ark of the Covenant]].<ref>’’Budge, [http://www.sacred-texts.com/chr/kn/ ‘’Queen of Sheba’’], ‘’Kebra Negast, chap. 61.</ref> The [[Beta Israel]] today primarily follow the Orit (from Aramaic “Oraita” — “[[Torah]]”), which consists of the [[Torah|Five Books of Moses]] and the books [[Book of Joshua|Joshua]], [[Book of Judges|Judges]] and [[Book of Ruth|Ruth]].
‘’’ [[Islam]] ‘’’
* [[Sunni Islam|Sunni]]
*[[Non-denominational Muslim]]
‘’’[[Christianity]] ‘’’
* [[Oriental Orthodox Christianity|Oriental Orthodoxy]]-[[Orthodox Tewahedo]] ([[Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church|Ethiopian Orthodoxy]] and [[Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church|Eritrean Orthodoxy]])
* [[P’ent’ay (Ethiopian Evangelicalism)|P’ent’ay: Ethiopian-Eritrean Evangelicalism]] ([[Evangelicalism]] — [[Protestantism]])
* [[Catholic Church|Catholicism]] ([[Eritrean Catholic Church|Eritrean Catholicism]] and [[Ethiopian Catholic Church|Ethiopian Catholicism]])
‘’’ [[Judaism]] ‘’’
* [[Beta Israel]]
‘’’ Other Religions ‘’’
* [[Syncretism]]
* Waaqism (folk religions) and [[Religion in pre-Islamic Arabia]] formerly in some Cushitic groups.
{{Main|Waaqism|Waaqeffanna|Religion in pre-Islamic Arabia}}
Prior to the arrival of the Abrahamic religions, the majority of Cushitic peoples practiced ‘[[folk religion]]s’. At the center of this religion was the deity ‘’Waaq’’, who was said to inhabit the sky and who brought forth the seasonal rains. Although not widely practiced today, the remnants and vestiges of this religion are still to be found in the words and customs of the various Cushitic groups like the Oromo, [[Rendille people|Rendille]] and Somalis.<ref name=”Shoup”>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SPBfnT_E1mgC&pg=PA249|title=Ethnic Groups of Africa and the Middle East: An Encyclopedia|last=John A.|first=Shoup|publisher=ABC-CLIO|year=2011|isbn=978–1598843620|pages=249–250}}</ref> The Oromos, for instance, believed that Waaq sent protectors to his devoted followers called ‘’Ayyaana’’; these spirits would ward off any harm. This is directly connected to the traditional Somali names ‘’Ayaanle’’ (masc) and ‘’Ayaan (fem)’’, which means those who possess ‘’Ayaan’’ or ‘’luck’’.<ref>African Religions: Beliefs and Practices through History edited by Douglas Thomas, Temilola Alanamu. p.248</ref><ref>Culture and Customs of Somalia By Mohamed Diriye Abdullahi. p.65</ref> Also in [[Somalia]] there are many clans and places called Waaq; such as [[El Wak, Somalia|Ceel Waaq]], which means “the well of Waaq” and [[Abudwak|Caabud Waaq]], which means “where Waaq is worshiped”. Some Somalis of the [[Darod]] clans still have Waaq names like the [[Jidwaq (clan)|Jid Waaq]] clan, the [[Ogaden (clan)|Ogaden]] Tagaal Waaq sub-clan and the [[Majeerteen]] Siwaaqroon sub-clan. Also there are many [[Somali language]] uses of Waaq name, like [[Barwaaqo]], which means “when the land is filled with grass and water”. [([[Waaqism]]/[[Waaqeffanna]])].<ref>Mohamed Diriye Abdullahi, Culture and Customs of Somalia, (Greenwood Publishing Group: 2001), p.65.</ref><ref>Saints and Somalis: Popular Islam in a Clan-based Society, I.M Lewis, p.137</ref>
== Genetics ==
‘’’Uniparental lineages’’’
<! — — Do not list too many single ethnic results, keep it focused on what they have in common — ->
Cushitic ethnic groups have a diverse set of uniparental lineages. Nevertheless, certain commonalities can be observed.
Paternally, [[E-M35]] (also known as E1b1b1, formerly E3b1) forms an important lineage in many Cushitic populations, other important paternal lineages in Cushitic populations include [[Haplogroup J-M267|J-M267]] (also known as J1), [[Haplogroup A (Y-DNA)|A-M13]] (A1b1b2b, formerly A3b2), and [[Haplogroup T-M184|T-M70]] (T1a, formerly K2).<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Underhill|first1=P. A.|last2=Shen|first2=P.|last3=Lin|first3=A. A.|last4=Jin|first4=L.|last5=Passarino|first5=G.|last6=Yang|first6=W. H.|last7=Kauffman|first7=E.|last8=Bonné-Tamir|first8=B.|last9=Bertranpetit|first9=J.|date=November 2000|title=Y chromosome sequence variation and the history of human populations|journal=Nature Genetics|volume=26|issue=3|pages=358–361|doi=10.1038/81685|issn=1061–4036|pmid=11062480|s2cid=12893406}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Morling|first1=Niels|last2=Hernandez|first2=Alexis|last3=Børsting|first3=Claus|last4=Hallenberg|first4=Charlotte|last5=Sanchez|first5=Juan J.|date=July 2005|title=High frequencies of Y chromosome lineages characterized by E3b1, DYS19–11, DYS392–12 in Somali males|journal=European Journal of Human Genetics|volume=13|issue=7|pages=856–866|doi=10.1038/sj.ejhg.5201390|pmid=15756297|issn=1476–5438|doi-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Cruciani|first1=Fulvio|last2=Santolamazza|first2=Piero|last3=Shen|first3=Peidong|last4=Macaulay|first4=Vincent|last5=Moral|first5=Pedro|last6=Olckers|first6=Antonel|last7=Modiano|first7=David|last8=Holmes|first8=Susan|last9=Destro-Bisol|first9=Giovanni|date=May 2002|title=A back migration from Asia to sub-Saharan Africa is supported by high-resolution analysis of human Y-chromosome haplotypes|journal=American Journal of Human Genetics|volume=70|issue=5|pages=1197–1214|doi=10.1086/340257|issn=0002–9297|pmc=447595|pmid=11910562}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Semino|first1=Ornella|last2=Santachiara-Benerecetti|first2=A. Silvana|last3=Falaschi|first3=Francesco|last4=Cavalli-Sforza|first4=L. Luca|last5=Underhill|first5=Peter A.|date=January 2002|title=Ethiopians and Khoisan share the deepest clades of the human Y-chromosome phylogeny|journal=American Journal of Human Genetics|volume=70|issue=1|pages=265–268|doi=10.1086/338306|issn=0002–9297|pmc=384897|pmid=11719903}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Moran|first1=Colin N.|last2=Scott|first2=Robert A.|last3=Adams|first3=Susan M.|last4=Warrington|first4=Samantha J.|last5=Jobling|first5=Mark A.|last6=Wilson|first6=Richard H.|last7=Goodwin|first7=William H.|last8=Georgiades|first8=Evelina|last9=Wolde|first9=Bezabhe|date=2004–10–20|title=Y chromosome haplogroups of elite Ethiopian endurance runners|journal=Human Genetics|volume=115|issue=6|pages=492–497|doi=10.1007/s00439–004–1202-y|pmid=15503146|s2cid=13960753|issn=0340–6717}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Shen|first1=Peidong|last2=Lavi|first2=Tal|last3=Kivisild|first3=Toomas|last4=Chou|first4=Vivian|last5=Sengun|first5=Deniz|last6=Gefel|first6=Dov|last7=Shpirer|first7=Issac|last8=Woolf|first8=Eilon|last9=Hillel|first9=Jossi|s2cid=1571356|date=2004|title=Reconstruction of patrilineages and matrilineages of Samaritans and other Israeli populations from Y-Chromosome and mitochondrial DNA sequence Variation|journal=Human Mutation|volume=24|issue=3|pages=248–260|doi=10.1002/humu.20077|pmid=15300852|issn=1059–7794}}</ref>
Many Cushitic populations can be paternally traced back to having ethnic origins in the [[Nile|Nile Valley]] ([[Egypt]] and [[Sudan|Northern Sudan]]) through haplogroup [[haplogroup E-V68|E-M78]] and the [[Red Sea]] region of the Horn of Africa through haplogroup [[Haplogroup E-Z827#E-V1515|E-V1515]]<! — — E-V1515 is equal to E-CTS10880, see ISOGG E Tree — ->.<ref name=”Green1" /><ref name=”Trombetta1" /><ref name=”Cruciani1" /><ref name=”yfullCTS10880" /><ref name=”ISOGGHapgrpE17" /> This coincides with anthropological and linguistic hypotheses placing the ethnogensis of the Cushitic language family in the aforementioned regions.<ref name=”Ehret2008">{{Citation|last=Ehret|first=Christopher|chapter=Reconstructing Ancient Kinship in Africa|pages=200–231|publisher=Blackwell Publishing Ltd.|isbn=9781444302714|doi=10.1002/9781444302714.ch12|title=Early Human Kinship|year=2008}}</ref>
Maternally, Cushitic populations are more diverse, yet share certain lineages in common such as various East African-origin [[Macro-haplogroup L (mtDNA)|Macro-haplogroup L]] lineages (various [[Haplogroup L0 (mtDNA)|L0]], [[Haplogroup L1 (mtDNA)|L1]], [[Haplogroup L5 (mtDNA)|L5]], [[Haplogroup L2 (mtDNA)|L2]], [[Haplogroup L6 (mtDNA)|L6]], [[Haplogroup L4 (mtDNA)|L4]], [[Haplogroup L3 (mtDNA)|L3]] lineages) and [[North Africa]]n and/or [[Middle East]]ern-origin [[Haplogroup M (mtDNA)|M1]] and [[Haplogroup N (mtDNA)|Macro-haplogroup N]] (in particular N subclades N1a, N1b, R0a, HV1b1, I, K1a, U3a, and U6a).<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Kivisild|first1=Toomas|last2=Reidla|first2=Maere|last3=Metspalu|first3=Ene|last4=Rosa|first4=Alexandra|last5=Brehm|first5=Antonio|last6=Pennarun|first6=Erwan|last7=Parik|first7=Jüri|last8=Geberhiwot|first8=Tarekegn|last9=Usanga|first9=Esien|date=November 2004|title=Ethiopian Mitochondrial DNA Heritage: Tracking Gene Flow Across and Around the Gate of Tears|journal=American Journal of Human Genetics|volume=75|issue=5|pages=752–770|issn=0002–9297|pmc=1182106|pmid=15457403|doi=10.1086/425161}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Mikkelsen|first1=Martin|last2=Fendt|first2=Liane|last3=Röck|first3=Alexander W.|last4=Zimmermann|first4=Bettina|last5=Rockenbauer|first5=Eszter|last6=Hansen|first6=Anders J.|last7=Parson|first7=Walther|last8=Morling|first8=Niels|date=July 2012|title=Forensic and phylogeographic characterisation of mtDNA lineages from Somalia|journal=International Journal of Legal Medicine|volume=126|issue=4|pages=573–579|doi=10.1007/s00414–012–0694–6|issn=1437–1596|pmid=22527188|s2cid=22566302}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Kenyan crossroads : migration and gene flow in six ethnic groups from eastern Africa |last=Loredana |first=Castrì|oclc=756782632}}{{page needed|date=December 2019}}</ref>
‘’’Autosomal ancestry’’’
[[File:Ethio-Somali component.png|thumb|upright=2.5|Genetic components present in select Cushitic populations]]
[[File:Northeast_African_genomic_variation_ADMIXTURE_plot.PNG|thumb|upright=2.5|Genetic components present in select Cushitic/HOA populations]]
Cushitic populations have existed at the cross-roads of Africa and Eurasia since the Stone Age, with the Nile acting as a corridor between sub-Saharan Africa and Levant and North Africa thus Cushitic populations have multiple origins, like most other populations, that have become idiosyncratic of Cushitic populations. Cushitic populations tend to combine in their ancestries both, genetic components indigenous to East Africa, and non-African components of [[West Asia]]n origin. According to an [[Autosome|autosomal DNA]] study by Hodgson et al. (2014), the Afro-Asiatic languages were likely spread across Africa and the Near East by an ancestral population(s) carrying a newly identified non-African genetic component, which the researchers dub the “Ethio-Somali” or “Semitic-Cushitic” in another study. This Ethio-Somali component is today most common among Cushitic and Ethiosemitic populations in the Horn of Africa and reaches a frequency peak among ethnic Somalis, representing the majority of their ancestry. The Ethio-Somali component is most closely related to the Maghrebi non-African genetic component, and is believed to have diverged from all other non-African ancestries at least 23,000 years ago. On this basis, the researchers suggest that the original Ethio-Somali carrying population(s) probably arrived in the pre-agricultural period from the Near East, having crossed over into northeastern Africa via the [[Sinai Peninsula]]. The population then likely split into two branches, with one group heading westward toward the [[Maghreb]] and the other moving south into the Horn.<ref name=pmid24921250/> Ancient DNA analysis indicates that this foundational ancestry in the Horn region is akin to that of the Neolithic farmers of the southern [[Levant]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Lazaridis |first1=Iosif |last2=Nadel |first2=Dani |last3=Rollefson |first3=Gary |last4=Merrett |first4=Deborah C. |last5=Rohland |first5=Nadin |last6=Mallick |first6=Swapan |last7=Fernandes |first7=Daniel |last8=Novak |first8=Mario |last9=Gamarra |first9=Beatriz |last10=Sirak |first10=Kendra |last11=Connell |first11=Sarah |last12=Stewardson |first12=Kristin |last13=Harney |first13=Eadaoin |last14=Fu |first14=Qiaomei |last15=Gonzalez-Fortes |first15=Gloria |last16=Jones |first16=Eppie R. |last17=Roodenberg |first17=Songül Alpaslan |last18=Lengyel |first18=György |last19=Bocquentin |first19=Fanny |last20=Gasparian |first20=Boris |last21=Monge |first21=Janet M. |last22=Gregg |first22=Michael |last23=Eshed |first23=Vered |last24=Mizrahi |first24=Ahuva-Sivan |last25=Meiklejohn |first25=Christopher |last26=Gerritsen |first26=Fokke |last27=Bejenaru |first27=Luminita |last28=Blüher |first28=Matthias |last29=Campbell |first29=Archie |last30=Cavalleri |first30=Gianpiero |last31=Comas |first31=David |last32=Froguel |first32=Philippe |last33=Gilbert |first33=Edmund |last34=Kerr |first34=Shona M. |last35=Kovacs |first35=Peter |last36=Krause |first36=Johannes |last37=McGettigan |first37=Darren |last38=Merrigan |first38=Michael |last39=Merriwether |first39=D. Andrew |last40=O’Reilly |first40=Seamus |last41=Richards |first41=Martin B. |last42=Semino |first42=Ornella |last43=Shamoon-Pour |first43=Michel |last44=Stefanescu |first44=Gheorghe |last45=Stumvoll |first45=Michael |last46=Tönjes |first46=Anke |last47=Torroni |first47=Antonio |last48=Wilson |first48=James F. |last49=Yengo |first49=Loic |last50=Hovhannisyan |first50=Nelli A. |last51=Patterson |first51=Nick |last52=Pinhasi |first52=Ron |last53=Reich |first53=David |title=Genomic insights into the origin of farming in the ancient Near East |journal=Nature |date=25 July 2016 |volume=536 |issue=7617 |pages=419–424 |doi=10.1038/nature19310 |pmid=27459054 |pmc=5003663 |bibcode=2016Natur.536..419L }}</ref>
According to Hodgson et al. (2014), both the African ancestry (Ethiopic) and the non-African ancestry (Ethio-Somali) in Cushitic speaking populations is significantly differentiated from all neighboring African and non-African ancestries in East Africa, North Africa, the Levant and Arabia. The genetic ancestry of Cushitic and Semitic speaking populations in the Horn of Africa represents ancestries (Ethiopic and Ethio-Somali) not found outside of Cushitic and Semitic speaking HOA populations in any significance. Therefore, both ancestries are distinct, unique to, and considered the signature autosomal genetic ancestry of Cushitic and Semitic speaking HOA populations.
Hodgson et al. states:
<blockquote>”The African Ethiopic ancestry is tightly restricted to HOA populations and likely represents an autochthonous HOA population. The non-African ancestry in the HOA, which is primarily attributed to a novel Ethio-Somali inferred ancestry component, is significantly differentiated from all neighboring non-African ancestries in North Africa, the Levant, and Arabia.”<ref name=pmid24921250/></blockquote>
According to Hodgson et al. (2014), the non-African ancestry (Ethio-Somali) in the Cushitic speaking populations is distinct and unique to Cushitic and Semitic speaking HOA populations. Hodgson et al. states:
<blockquote>”We find that most of the non-African ancestry in the HOA can be assigned to a distinct non-African origin Ethio-Somali ancestry component, which is found at its highest frequencies in Cushitic and Semitic speaking HOA populations.”<ref name=pmid24921250/></blockquote>
When calculated the genetic distance (FST) between Ethiosemitic-speaking and Cushitic-speaking Ethiopians, and populations of the Levant, North Africa, and the Arabian Peninsula using two approaches: (1) the whole genome and (2) only the non-African component — in the whole-genome analysis, Ethiopian Semitic and Cushitic populations appear to be closest to the Yemeni; when only the non-African component is used, they are closer to the Egyptians and populations inhabiting the Levant.<ref name=”Pagani et al 2012">{{cite journal |last1=Pagani |first1=Luca |last2=Kivisild |first2=Toomas |last3=Tarekegn |first3=Ayele |last4=Ekong |first4=Rosemary |last5=Plaster |first5=Chris |last6=Gallego Romero |first6=Irene |last7=Ayub |first7=Qasim |last8=Mehdi |first8=S. Qasim |last9=Thomas |first9=Mark G. |last10=Luiselli |first10=Donata |last11=Bekele |first11=Endashaw |last12=Bradman |first12=Neil |last13=Balding |first13=David J. |last14=Tyler-Smith |first14=Chris |title=Ethiopian Genetic Diversity Reveals Linguistic Stratification and Complex Influences on the Ethiopian Gene Pool |journal=The American Journal of Human Genetics |date=13 July 2012 |volume=91 |issue=1 |pages=83–96 |doi=10.1016/j.ajhg.2012.05.015 |pmid=22726845 |pmc=3397267 }}</ref> However this is due to the fact that the similarity is because of the Ethiopian contribution to the Yemeni gene pool. Pagani et al. (2012) states:
<blockquote>”The Ethiopian similarity with the Yemeni detected throughout the genome could be explained as an Ethiopian contribution to the Yemeni gene pool, consistent with that observed with mtDNA.”<ref name=”Pagani et al 2012"/></blockquote>
A 2015 study by Dobon et al. identified an ancestral autosomal component of West Eurasian origin that is common to many modern Afroasiatic-speaking populations in Northeast Africa. Known as the ‘’Coptic’’ component, it peaks among Egyptian Copts who settled in Sudan over the past two centuries. The Coptic component evolved out of a main Northeast African and Middle Eastern ancestral component that is shared by other Egyptians and also found at high frequencies among Cushites (≈40–60%), with the remaining 40–60% of the ancestry of Cushites being of sub-Saharan East African origin. However, these percentages are not certain since Figure 3 of the study by Dobon et al. only features these percentages in the k=3 model.<ref name=pmid26017457/>
According to Dobon et al. (2015), the results were not conclusive and states that there needs to be more studies on the East African samples. Dobon et al. states:
<blockquote>”Our main results add new and interesting features to the North East African genetic complexity, with new populations that define a genetic component in southern Nilo-Saharan speakers that cannot be related to a North-African or other sub-Saharan components. These populations should be included in further population genetics and epidemiological studies to have a representative sample of the genetic diversity of the region of East Africa.”<ref name=pmid26017457/></blockquote>
The scientists involved in the study suggest that this points to a common origin for the general population of Egypt.<ref name=pmid26017457/> They also associate the Coptic component with Ancient Egyptian ancestry, without the later Arabian influence that is present among other Egyptians.<ref name=pmid26017457/> The Coptic component is roughly equivalent with the Ethio-Somali component.<ref name=pmid24921250/>
{{See also|Nilotic_peoples#Genetics}}
==See also==
* [[Horn of Africa]]
* [[Somali people]]
* [[Oromo people]]
* [[Afar people]]
*[[Tigrayans]] / [[Tigrinya people]]
*[[Tigre people]]
* [[Sidama people]]
*[[Saho people]] / [[Irob people]]
* [[Agaw people]]
*[[Amhara people]]
*[[Beja people]]
*[[Gurage people]]
==Notes==
{{reflist|group=Note}}
==References==
{{Reflist}}
[[Category:Cushitic-speaking peoples]]
[[Category:Semitic-speaking peoples]]
[[Category:Afroasiatic peoples]]
[[Category:Nilotic peoples]]
[[Category:Horn of Africa]]
[[Category:Indigenous peoples of Africa]]
[[Category:Sub-Saharan people]]
[[Category:North African people]]
[[Category:East Africa]]
[[Category:Indigenous peoples of East Africa]]Nilotic Peoples

Nilotic Peoples

The Nilotic peoples are peoples indigenous to the Nile Valley who speak Nilotic languages. They inhabit South Sudan, Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, DR Congo, Rwanda and Tanzania.[1] Among these are the Burun speaking peoples, Karo peoples, Luo peoples, Ateker peoples, Kalenjin peoples, Datooga, Dinka, Nuer, Atwot, Lotuko and the Maa-speaking peoples.

The Nilotes constitute the majority of the population in South Sudan, an area that is believed to be their original point of dispersal. After the Bantu peoples, they constitute the second-most numerous group of peoples inhabiting the African Great Lakes region around the Eastern Great Rift.[2] They make up a notable part of the population of southwestern Ethiopia as well.

The Nilotic peoples primarily adhere to Christianity and traditional faiths, including the Dinka religion.

Name[edit]

The terms Nilotic and Nilote were previously used as racial sub-classifications, based on anthropological observations of the supposed distinct body morphology of many Nilotic speakers. Twentieth-century social scientists have largely discarded such efforts to classify peoples according to physical characteristics, in favor of using linguistic studies to distinguish among peoples. They formed ethnicities and cultures based on a shared language.[3] Since the late 20th century, however, social and physical scientists are making use of data from population genetics.[4][verification needed]

Nilotic and Nilote are now mainly used to refer to the various disparate peoples who speak languages in the same Nilotic language family. Etymologically, the terms Nilotic and Nilote (singular nilot) derive from the Nile Valley; specifically, the Upper Nile and its tributaries, where most Sudanese Nilo-Saharan-speaking people live.[5]

Ethnic/linguistic divisions[edit]

Languages[edit]

Areas where Nilotic languages are spoken.

Main article: Nilotic languages

Further information: Paranilotic languages

Linguistically, Nilotic people are divided into three sub-groups:

Eastern Nilotic — Spoken by Nilotic populations in southwestern Ethiopia, eastern South Sudan, northeastern Uganda, western Kenya and northern Tanzania. Includes languages like Turkana and Maasai.
Bari
Teso–Lotuko–Maa
Southern Nilotic — Spoken by Nilotic populations in western Kenya, northern Tanzania and eastern Uganda. Includes Kalenjin and Datog.
Kalenjin
Omotik-Datooga
Western Nilotic — Spoken by Nilotic populations in South Sudan, Sudan, northeastern Congo (DRC), northern Uganda, southwestern Kenya, northern Tanzania and southwestern Ethiopia. Includes the Dinka-Nuer languages, Luo languages and the Burun languages
Dinka–Nuer-Atwot
Luo languages
Burun languages

Ethnic groups[edit]

See also: Kunama people

Maasai men in Ngorongoro, Tanzania.

Nilotic people constitute the bulk of the population of South Sudan. The largest of the Sudanese Nilotic peoples are the Dinka, who have as many as twenty-five ethnic subdivisions. The next largest group are the Nuer, followed by the Shilluk.[6]

The Nilotic people in Uganda include the Luo peoples(Acholi, Lango, Alur, Adhola and Kumam), Ateker peoples (Iteso, Karamojong and Lango, who despite speaking Luo, have cultural Atekere origins) Sebei and Kakwa

In East Africa, the Nilotes are often subdivided into three general groups:

The Plain Nilotes: they speak Maa languages and include the Maasai, Samburu and Turkana [2]
The River Lake Nilotes: the Joluo (Kenyan Luo), who are part of the larger Luo group[2]
The Highland Nilotes: subdivided into two groups, the Kalenjin and the Datog
Kalenjin: Elgeyo, Kipsigis, Marakwet, Nandi, Pokot, Sabaot, Terik and Tugen [Keiyo][2]
Datog: represented mainly by the Barabaig and small clusters of other Datog speakers[7]

History[edit]

Origins[edit]

Further information: History of South Sudan, History of Uganda, History of Kenya, and History of Tanzania

Nubian head from the New Kingdom Period of Ancient Egypt (circa 1295 –1070 B.C.)

A Proto-Nilotic unity, separate from an earlier undifferentiated Eastern Sudanic unity, is assumed to have emerged by the 3rd millennium BC. The development of the Proto-Nilotes as a group may have been connected with their domestication of livestock. The Eastern Sudanic unity must have been considerably earlier still, perhaps around the 5th millennium BC (while the proposed Nilo-Saharan unity would date to the Upper Paleolithic about 15kya). The original locus of the early Nilotic speakers was presumably east of the Nile in what is now South Sudan. The Proto-Nilotes of the 3rd millennium BC were pastoralists, while their neighbors, the Proto-Central Sudanic peoples, were mostly agriculturalists.[8] Nilotic people practised a mixed economy of cattle pastoralism, fishing and seed cultivation.[9] Some of the earliest archaeological findings on record, that describe a similar culture to this from the same region, are found at Kadero, 48 kilometres north of Khartoum in Sudan, and date to 3000 BC. Kadero contains the remains of a cattle pastoralist culture as well as a cemetery with skeletal remains featuring Sub-Saharan African phenotypes. It also contains evidence of other animal domestication, artistry, long-distance trade, seed cultivation and fish consumption.[10][11][12][13] Genetic and linguistic studies have demonstrated that Nubian people in Northern Sudan and Southern Egypt are an admixed group that started off as a population closely related to Nilotic people.[14][15] This population later received significant gene flow from Middle Eastern and other East African populations.[14] Nubians are considered to be descendants of the early inhabitants of the Nile valley who later formed the Kingdom of Kush which included Kerma and Meroe and the medieval christian kingdoms of Makuria, Nobatia and Alodia.[16] These studies suggest that populations closely related to Nilotic people long inhabited the Nile valley as far as Southern Egypt in antiquity.

Early Expansion[edit]

See also: Elmenteitan

Politician John Garang (Dinka) amongst Nilotic supporters in South Sudan.

Language evidence indicates an initial southward expansion out of the Nilotic nursery into far southern Sudan beginning in the second millennium B.C., the Southern Nilotic communities that participated in this expansion would eventually reach western Kenya between 1000 and 500 B.C.[17] Their arrival occurred shortly before the introduction of iron to East Africa.[18]

Expansion out of the Sudd[edit]

Linguistic evidence shows that over time Nilotic speakers, such as the Dinka, Shilluk, and Luo, took over. These groups spread from the Sudd marshlands, where archaeological evidence shows that a culture based on transhumant cattle raising had been present since 3000 BCE, and the Nilotic culture in that area may thus be continuous to that date.[19]

The Nilotic expansion from the Sudd Marshes into the rest of South Sudan seems to have begun in the 14th century. This coincides with the collapse of the Christian Nubian kingdoms of Makuria and Alodia and the penetration of Arab traders into central Sudan. From the Arabs, the South Sudanese may have obtained new breeds of humpless cattle.[19] Archaeologist Roland Oliver notes that the period also shows an Iron Age beginning among the Nilotic. These factors may explain how the Nilotic speakers expanded to dominate the region.

Shilluk[edit]

The kingdoms of the Funj, Cøllø (pronounced “Chollo”), Tegali, and Fur c.1800

By the sixteenth century, the most powerful group among the Nilotic speakers were the Cøllø (called Shilluk by Arabs and Europeans), who spread east to the banks of the white Nile under the legendary leadership of Nyikang,[20] who is said to have ruled Läg Cøllø c.1490 to c.1517.[21] The Cøllø gained control of the west bank of the river as far north as Kosti in Sudan. There they established an economy based on cattle raising, cereal farming, and fishing, with small villages located along the length of the river.[22] The Cøllø developed an intensive system of agriculture, and the Cøllø lands in the 17th century had a population density similar to that of the Egyptian Nile lands.[23]

One theory is that it was pressure from the Cøllø that drove the Funj people north, who would establish the Sultanate of Sennar. The Dinka remained in the Sudd area, maintaining their transhumance economy.[24]

While the Dinka were protected and isolated from their neighbours, the Cøllø were more involved in international affairs. The Cøllø controlled the west bank of the White Nile, but the other side was controlled by the Funj Sultanate, and there were regular conflict between the two. The Cøllø had the ability to quickly raid outside areas by war canoe, and had control of the waters of the Nile. The Funj had a standing army of armoured cavalry, and this force allowed them to dominated the plains of the sahel.

Cøllø traditions tell of Rädh Odak Ocollo who ruled c. 1630 and led them in a three decade war with Sennar over control of the White Nile trade routes. The Cøllø allied with the Sultanate of Darfur and the Kingdom of Takali against the Funj, but the capitulation of Takali ended the war in the Funj’s favour. In the later 17th century the Cøllø and Funj allied against the Dinka who rose to power in the border area between the Funj and Cøllø. The Cøllø political structure gradually centralized under the a king or reth. The most important is Rädh Tugø (son of Rädh Dhøköödhø) who ruled c. 1690 to 1710 and established the Cøllø capital of Fashoda. The same period saw the gradual collapse of the Funj sultanate, leaving the Cøllø in complete control of the White Nile and its trade routes. The Cøllø military power was based on control of the river.[25]

Southern Nilotic settlement in East Africa[edit]

Starting in the mid-19th century, European anthropologists and later Kenyan historians have been interested in the origins of human migration from various parts of Africa into East Africa. One of the more notable broad based theories emanating from these studies being the Bantu expansion. The main tools of study have been linguistics, archaeology and oral traditions.

Oral traditions[edit]

The significance of tracing individual clan histories in order to get an idea of Kalenjin groups formation has been shown by scholars such as B.E. Kipkorir (1978). He argued that the Tugen first settled in small clan groups, fleeing from war, famine and disease, and that they arrived from western, eastern and northern sections. There is even a section among the Tugen that claims to have come from Mount Kenya.[26]

The Nandi account on the Settlement of Nandi displays a similar manner of occupation of the Nandi territory. The Kalenjin clans that moved into and occupied the Nandi area, thus becoming the Nandi tribe, came from a wide array of Kalenjin speaking areas.[27]

It thus appears that there were spatial core areas to which people moved and concentrated over the centuries, and in the process evolved into the individual Kalenjin communities known today by adopting migrants and assimilating original inhabitants.[28]

For various reasons, slow and multi-generational migrations of Nilotic Luo Peoples occurred from South Sudan into Uganda and western Kenya from at least 1000 AD continuing up until the early 20th century.[29] Oral history and genealogical evidence have been used to estimate timelines of Luo expansion into and within Kenya and Tanzania. Four major waves of migrations into the former Nyanza province in Kenya are discernible starting with the People of Jok (Joka Jok) which is estimated to have began around 1490–1517.[30] Joka Jok were the first and largest wave of migrants into northern Nyanza. These migrants settled at a place called Ramogi Hill then expanded around Northern Nyanza. The People of Owiny’ (Jok’Owiny) and the People of Omolo (Jok’Omolo) followed soon after (1598–1625).[31] A miscellaneous group composed of the Suba, Sakwa, Asembo, Uyoma and Kano then followed. The Suba originally were Bantu speaking people who assimilated into Luo culture. They fled from the Buganda Kingdom in Uganda after the civil strife that followed the murder of the 24th Kabaka of Buganda in the mid 18th century and settled in South Nyanza, especially at Rusinga and Mfangano islands.[32] Luo speakers crossed Winam Gulf of Lake Victoria from Northern Nyanza into South Nyanza starting in the early 17th century.[31]

Post-colonial traditions[edit]

Mount Elgon, referred by Kalenjin as Tulwop Kony,a common Kalenjin point of origin

A number of historical narratives from the various Kalenjin sub-tribes point to Tulwetab/Tulwop Kony (Mount Elgon) as their original point of settlement in Kenya.[33] This point of origin appears as a central theme in most narratives recorded after the colonial period. One of the more famous accounts states that;

… the Kalenjin originated from a country in the north known as Emet ab Burgei, which means, the hot country. The people are said to have traveled southwards passing through Mount Elgon or Tulwet ab Kony in Kalenjin. The Sabaot settled around the slopes of the mountain while the others travelled on in search of better land. The Keiyo and Marakwet settled in Kerio Valley and Cherangani Hills. The Pokot settled on the northern side of Mount Elgon and later spread to areas north of Lake Baringo. At Lake Baringo, the Tugen separated from the Nandi and the Kipsigis. This was during a famine known as Kemeutab Reresik, which means, famine of the bats. It is said that during this famine a bat brought blades of green grass which was taken as a sign of good omen signifying that famine could be averted through movement to greener pastures. The Tugen moved and settled around Tugen Hills while the Kipsigis and the Nandi moved to Rongai area. The Kipsigis and Nandi are said to have lived as a united group for a long time but eventually were forced to separate due to antagonistic environmental factors. Some of these were droughts and invasion of the Maasai from Uasin Gishu.[34]

Geographical barriers protected the southerners from Islam’s advance, enabling them to retain their social and cultural heritage and their political and religious institutions. The Dinka people were especially secure in the Sudd marshlands, which protected them from outside interference, and allowed them to remain secure without a large armed forces. The Shilluk, Azande, and Bari people had more regular conflicts with neighbouring states[35]

Culture and religion[edit]

A Luo village in Kenya

Most Nilotes continue to practice pastoralism, migrating on a seasonal basis with their herds of livestock.[2] Some tribes are also known for a tradition of cattle raiding.[36]

Through lengthy interaction with neighbouring peoples, the Nilotes in East Africa have adopted many customs and practices from Southern Cushitic groups. The latter include the age set system of social organization, circumcision, and vocabulary terms.[2][37]

In terms of religious beliefs, Nilotes primarily adhere to traditional faiths and Christianity. The Dinka religion has a pantheon of deities. The Supreme, Creator God is Nhialic, who is the God of the sky and rain, and the ruler of all the spirits.[38] He is believed to be present in all of creation, and to control the destiny of every human, plant and animal on Earth. Nhialic is also known as Jaak, Juong or Dyokin by other Nilotic groups, such as the Nuer and Shilluk. Dengdit or Deng, is the sky God of rain and fertility, empowered by Nhialic.[39] Deng’s mother is Abuk, the patron Goddess of gardening and all women, represented by a snake.[40] Garang, another deity, is believed or assumed by some Dinka to be a god suppressed by Deng; his spirits can cause most Dinka women, and some men, to scream. The term “Jok” refers to a group of ancestral spirits.

In the Lotuko mythology, the chief God is called Ajok. He is generally seen as kind and benevolent, but can be angered. He once reportedly answered a woman’s prayer for the resurrection of her son. Her husband, however, was angry and killed the child. According to the Lotuko religion, Ajok was annoyed by the man’s actions and swore never to resurrect any Lotuko again. As a result, death was said to have become permanent.

Genetics[edit]

Y DNA[edit]

Nilotic men in Kapoeta, South Sudan.

A Y-chromosome study by Wood et al. (2005) tested various populations in Africa for paternal lineages, including 26 Maasai and 9 Luo from Kenya, and 9 Alur from the Democratic Republic of Congo. The signature Nilotic paternal marker Haplogroup A3b2 was observed in 27% of the Maasai, 22% of the Alur, and 11% of the Luo.[41]

According to Gomes et al. (2010),[42] Haplogroup B is another characteristically Nilotic paternal marker. It was found in 22% of Wood et al.’s Luo samples, 8% of studied Maasai and 50% of studied Nuer.[41] The E1b1b haplogroup has been observed at overall frequencies of around 11% among Nilo-Saharan-speaking groups in the Great Lakes area,[43] with this influence concentrated among the Maasai (50%).[41] This is indicative of substantial historic gene flow from Cushitic-speaking males into these Nilo-Saharan-speaking populations.[43] In addition, 67% of the Alur samples possessed the E2 haplogroup.[41]

A study by Hassan et al. (2008) analysed the Y-DNA of populations in the Sudan region, with various local Nilotic groups included for comparison. The researchers found the signature Nilotic A and B clades to be the most common paternal lineages amongst the Nilo-Saharan speakers, except those inhabiting western Sudan. There, a prominent North African influence was noted. Haplogroup A was observed amongst 62% of Dinka, 53.3% of Shilluk, 46.4% of Nuba, 33.3% of Nuer, 31.3% of Fur and 18.8% of Masalit. Haplogroup B was found in 50% of Nuer, 26.7% of Shilluk, 23% of Dinka, 14.3% of Nuba, 3.1% of Fur and 3.1% of Masalit. The E1b1b clade was also observed in 71.9% of the Masalit, 59.4% of the Fur, 39.3% of the Nuba, 20% of the Shilluk, 16.7% of the Nuer, and 15% of the Dinka.[44] Hassan et al. attributed the atypically high frequencies of the haplogroup in the Masalit to either a recent population bottleneck, which likely altered the community’s original haplogroup diversity, or to geographical proximity to E1b1b’s place of origin in North Africa. The researchers suggest that the clade “might have been brought to Sudan […] after the progressive desertification of the Sahara around 6,000–8,000 years ago”.[44] Henn et al. (2008) similarly observed Afro-Asiatic influence in the Nilotic Datog of northern Tanzania, 43% of whom carried the M293 sub-clade of E1b1b.[45]

mtDNA[edit]

Pokot women trekking through the Kenya outback.

Unlike the paternal DNA of Nilotes, the maternal lineages of Nilotes in general show low-to-negligible amounts of Afro-Asiatic and other extraneous influences. An mtDNA study by Castri et al. (2008) examined the maternal ancestry of various Nilotic populations in Kenya, with Turkana, Samburu, Maasai and Luo individuals sampled. The mtDNA of almost all of the tested Nilotes belonged to various Sub-Saharan macro-haplogroup L sub-clades, including L0, L2, L3, L4 and L5. Low levels of maternal gene flow from North Africa and the Horn of Africa were observed in a few groups, mainly via the presence of mtDNA haplogroup M and haplogroup I lineages in about 12.5% of the Maasai and 7% of the Samburu samples, respectively.[46]

Autosomal DNA[edit]

The autosomal DNA of Nilotic peoples has been examined in a comprehensive study by Tishkoff et al. (2009) on the genetic clusters of various populations in Africa. According to the researchers, Nilotes generally form their own African genetic cluster. The authors also found that certain Nilotic populations in the eastern Great Lakes region, such as the Maasai, showed some additional Afro-Asiatic affinities due to repeated assimilation of Cushitic-speaking peoples over the past 5000 or so years.[4]

Admixture analysis[edit]

Tishkoff et al in 2009 published the largest study done to characterise genetic variation and relationships among populations in Africa. They examined 121 African populations, 4 African American populations and 60 non-African populations. Their results indicated a high degree of mixed ancestry reflecting migration events. In East Africa, all population groups examined had elements of Nilotic, Cushitic and Bantu ancestry amongst others to varying degrees. They also found that by and large, genetic clusters were consistent with linguistic classification with notable exceptions including the Luo of Kenya. Despite being Nilo-Saharan speakers, the Luo cluster with the Niger-Kordofanian speaking populations that surround them. They suggest that this indicates a high degree of admixture occurred during the southward migration of Southern Luo. Kalenjin groups and Maasai groups were found to have less Bantu ancestry but significant Cushitic ancestry.[4]

David Reich, a geneticist known for his studies on ancient DNA carried out a study which found that mutation frequencies in Luo people were much more similar to those of the surrounding Bantu speakers. They suggested that Luo speakers in East Africa may not have always been socially disadvantaged as they migrated into territories already inhabited by Bantu speakers. This is in keeping with oral history which affirms that large groups of Bantu speakers adopted Luo language, culture and customs that were dominant at the time.[47]

Physiology[edit]

Cross country world champion and record holder Lornah Kiplagat, one of many prominent Nilotic distance runners.

Physically, Nilotes are noted for their typically very dark skin color and slender, tall bodies. They often possess exceptionally long limbs, particularly vis-a-vis the distal segments (forearms, calves). This characteristic is thought to be a climatic adaptation to allow their bodies to shed heat more efficiently.

Sudanese Nilotes are regarded as one of the tallest peoples in the world. Roberts and Bainbridge (1963) reported average values of 182.6 cm (5 ft 11.9 in) for height and 58.8 kg (130 lb) for weight in a sample of Sudanese Shilluk.[48] Another sample of Sudanese Dinka had a stature/weight ratio of 181.9 cm/58.0 kg (71.6&nbsp:in/127.9 lbs), with an extremely ectomorphic somatotype of 1.6–3.5–6.2.

In terms of facial features, Hiernaux (1975) observed that the nasal profile most common amongst Nilotic populations is broad, with characteristically high index values ranging from 86.9 to 92.0. He also reported that lower nasal indices are often found amongst Nilotes who inhabit the more southerly Great Lakes region, such as the Maasai, a fact which he attributed to genetic differences.[49]

Additionally, it has been remarked that the Nilotic groups presently inhabiting the African Great Lakes region are sometimes smaller in stature than those residing in the Sudan region. Campbell et al. (2006) recorded measurements of 172.0 cm/53.6 kg (67.7 in/118.2 lbs) in a sample of agricultural Turkana in northern Kenya, and of 174.9 cm/53.0 kg (68.8&nbsp:in/116.8 lbs) in pastoral Turkana.[50] Hiernaux similarly listed a height of 172.7 cm (68 in) for Maasai in southern Kenya, with an extreme trunk/leg length ratio of 47.7.[49]

Many Nilotic groups excel in long and middle-distance running. Some researchers have suggested that this sporting prowess is related to their exceptional running economy, a function of slim body morphology and slender legs.[51] A study by Pitsiladis et al. (2006) surveyed 404 elite Kenyan distance runners; it found that 76% of the international-class respondents identified as part of the Kalenjin ethnic group and that 79% spoke a Nilotic language.[52]

Citations[edit]

^ AHD: Nilotic 2020.
^ Jump up to:a b c d e f Okoth & Ndaloh 2006, pp. 60–62.
^ Kidd 2006.
^ Jump up to:a b c Tishkoff et al. 2009, pp. 1035–44.
^ Encyclopædia Britannica:Nilot.
^ Metz 1991.
^ Oboler 1985, p. 17.
^ Clark 1984, p. 31.
^ Ogot 1967, pp. 40–42.
^ Krzyzaniak 1976, p. 762.
^ Marshall & Hildebrand 2002, pp. 99–143.
^ Gautier 2006.
^ Krzyzaniak 1978, pp. 159–172.
^ Jump up to:a b Hollfelder et al. 2017, pp. e1006976.
^ Rilly 2016.
^ Cooper 2017.
^ Ehret 1998, p. 7.
^ Clark & Brandt 1984, p. 234.
^ Jump up to:a b Robertshaw 1987, pp. 177–189.
^ Forde & James 1999.
^ Mercer 1971, p. 410.
^ EOPAME: Shilluk 2009.
^ Singh 2002, p. 659.
^ EOPAME: Dinka 2009.
^ Gen Hist Africa: vol. V chap 7 1999, pp. 89–103.
^ De Vries 2007, p. 47.
^ Huntingford 1953.
^ De Vries 2007, p. 48.
^ Ogot 1967, pp. 41–43.
^ Ogot 1967, p. 144.
^ Jump up to:a b Ogot 1967, pp. 144–154.
^ Ogot 1967, p. 212.
^ Kipkorir & Welbourn 1973, p. 64.
^ Chesaina 1991, p. 29.
^ Gillies n.d.
^ BBC: cattle vendetta 2012.
^ Collins 2006, pp. 9–10.
^ Lienhardt 1988, p. 29.
^ Lienhardt 1988, p. 104.
^ Lienhardt 1988, p. 90.
^ Jump up to:a b c d Wood et al. 2005, pp. 867–876.
^ Gomes et al. 2010, pp. 603–13.
^ Jump up to:a b Cruciani et al. 2004, pp. 1014–1022.
^ Jump up to:a b Hassan et al. 2008, pp. 316–323.
^ Henn et al. 2008, pp. 10693–10698.
^ Castrì et al. 2008, pp. 189–92.
^ Reich 2018, pp. 215–216.
^ Roberts & Bainbridge 1963, pp. 341–370.
^ Jump up to:a b Hiernaux 1975, pp. 142–143 & 147.
^ Campbell, Leslie & Campbell 2006, pp. 71–82.
^ New Studies In Athletics, vol.2, pp. 15–24.
^ Onywera et al. 2006, p. 415.

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{{redirect|Nilotic|the river|Nile}}
{{short description|Ethnic group}}
{{use dmy dates|date=March 2021}}
{{Infobox ethnic group
| group = Nilotes
| poptime =
| popplace = [[Nile Valley]], [[African Great Lakes]], southwestern [[Ethiopia]]
| langs = [[Nilotic languages]]
| rels = [[Traditional African religion|Traditional faiths]] ([[Dinka religion]], [[Kalenjin folklore]] etc), [[Christianity in Africa|Christianity]]
}}
The ‘’’Nilotic peoples’’’ are peoples [[Indigenous peoples of Africa|indigenous]] to the [[Nile Valley]] who speak [[Nilotic languages]]. They inhabit [[South Sudan]], [[Sudan]], [[Ethiopia]], [[Uganda]], [[Kenya]], [[Democratic Republic of the Congo|DR Congo]], [[Rwanda]] and [[Tanzania]].{{sfn|AHD: Nilotic|2020}} Among these are the [[Burun languages|Burun speaking peoples]], [[Karo people (East Africa)|Karo peoples]], [[Luo peoples]], [[Ateker peoples]], [[Kalenjin people]]s, [[Datooga people|Datooga]], [[Dinka people|Dinka]], [[Nuer people|Nuer]], [[Atwot people|Atwot]], [[Lotuko people|Lotuko]] and the [[Maa languages|Maa-speaking peoples]].
The Nilotes constitute the majority of the population in [[South Sudan]], an area that is believed to be their original point of dispersal. After the [[Bantu peoples]], they constitute the second-most numerous group of peoples inhabiting the [[African Great Lakes]] region around the Eastern Great Rift.{{sfn|Okoth|Ndaloh|2006|pp=60–62}} They make up a notable part of the population of southwestern [[Ethiopia]] as well.
The Nilotic peoples primarily adhere to [[Christianity]] and [[Traditional African religion|traditional faiths]], including the [[Dinka religion]].
==Name==
The terms ‘’Nilotic’’ and ‘’Nilote’’ were previously used as racial sub-classifications, based on anthropological observations of the supposed distinct body morphology of many Nilotic speakers. Twentieth-century social scientists have largely discarded such efforts to classify peoples according to physical characteristics, in favor of using linguistic studies to distinguish among peoples. They formed ethnicities and cultures based on a shared language.{{sfn|Kidd|2006}} Since the late 20th century, however, social and physical scientists are making use of data from population genetics.{{sfn|Tishkoff|Reed|Friedlaender|Ehret|2009|pp=1035–44}}{{vn|date=May 2021}}
Nilotic and Nilote are now mainly used to refer to the various disparate peoples who speak languages in the same Nilotic language family. Etymologically, the terms Nilotic and Nilote (singular nilot) derive from the [[Nile Valley]]; specifically, the [[Upper Nile, Sudan|Upper Nile]] and its tributaries, where most Sudanese Nilo-Saharan-speaking people live.{{sfn|Encyclopædia Britannica:Nilot}}
==Ethnic/linguistic divisions==
===Languages===
[[File:Nilotic languages.png|thumb|Areas where [[Nilotic languages]] are spoken.]]
{{main|Nilotic languages}}
{{further|Paranilotic languages}}
Linguistically, Nilotic people are divided into three sub-groups:
* [[Eastern Nilotic languages|Eastern Nilotic]] — Spoken by Nilotic populations in southwestern Ethiopia, eastern South Sudan, northeastern [[Uganda]], western [[Kenya]] and northern [[Tanzania]]. Includes languages like [[Turkana language|Turkana]] and [[Maasai language|Maasai]].
** [[Bari languages|Bari]]
** [[Teso-Turkana languages|Teso]]–[[Lotuko language|Lotuko]]–[[Maa languages|Maa]]
* [[Southern Nilotic languages|Southern Nilotic]] — Spoken by Nilotic populations in western Kenya, northern Tanzania and eastern Uganda. Includes [[Kalenjin languages|Kalenjin]] and [[Datooga language|Datog]].
** [[Kalenjin languages|Kalenjin]]
** [[Omotik language|Omotik]]-[[Datooga language|Datooga]]
* [[Western Nilotic languages|Western Nilotic]] — Spoken by Nilotic populations in South Sudan, [[Sudan]], northeastern [[Democratic Republic of the Congo|Congo (DRC)]], northern Uganda, southwestern Kenya, northern Tanzania and southwestern Ethiopia. Includes the [[Dinka language|Dinka]]-[[Nuer language|Nuer]] languages, [[Luo languages]] and the [[Burun languages]]
** [[Dinka language|Dinka]]–[[Nuer language|Nuer]]-[[Atwot language|Atwot]]
** [[Luo languages]]
** [[Burun languages]]
===Ethnic groups===
{{see also|Kunama people}}
[[File:Ngorongoro, Tanzania — Maasai people.jpg|thumb|right|[[Maasai people|Maasai]] men in [[Ngorongoro Conservation Area|Ngorongoro]], [[Tanzania]].]]
Nilotic people constitute the bulk of the population of [[South Sudan]]. The largest of the Sudanese Nilotic peoples are the [[Dinka people|Dinka]], who have as many as twenty-five ethnic subdivisions. The next largest group are the [[Nuer people|Nuer]], followed by the [[Shilluk people|Shilluk]].{{sfn|Metz|1991}}
The Nilotic people in Uganda include the [[Luo peoples]]([[Acholi people|Acholi]], [[Langi people|Lango]], [[Alur people|Alur]], [[Adhola people|Adhola]] and [[Kumam people|Kumam]]), [[Ateker peoples]] ([[Teso people|Iteso]], [[Karamojong people|Karamojong]] and [[Langi people|Lango]], who despite speaking Luo, have cultural Atekere origins) [[Sebei people|Sebei]] and [[Kakwa people|Kakwa]]
In East Africa, the Nilotes are often subdivided into three general groups:
* The ‘’Plain Nilotes’’: they speak [[Maa language]]s and include the [[Maasai people|Maasai]], [[Samburu people|Samburu]] and [[Turkana people|Turkana]]{{sfn|Okoth|Ndaloh|2006|pp=60–62}}
* The ‘’River Lake Nilotes’’: the [[Luo people of Kenya and Tanzania|Joluo]] (Kenyan Luo), who are part of the larger Luo group{{sfn|Okoth|Ndaloh|2006|pp=60–62}}
* The ‘’Highland Nilotes’’: subdivided into two groups, the [[Kalenjin people|Kalenjin]] and the [[Datooga people|Datog]]
** Kalenjin: [[Elgeyo people|Elgeyo]], [[Kipsigis people|Kipsigis]], [[Marakwet people|Marakwet]], [[Nandi people|Nandi]], [[Pokot people|Pokot]], [[Sabaot people|Sabaot]], [[Terik people|Terik]] and [[Tugen people|Tugen]] [Keiyo]{{sfn|Okoth|Ndaloh|2006|pp=60–62}}
** Datog: represented mainly by the [[Barabaig people|Barabaig]] and small clusters of other [[Datooga language|Datog]] speakers{{sfn|Oboler|1985|p=17}}
==History==
===Origins===
{{further|History of South Sudan|History of Uganda|History of Kenya|History of Tanzania}}
{{anchor|Origins}}
{{anchor|History}}
[[File:Nubian head inlay MET DT244971.jpg|thumb|left|Nubian head from the New Kingdom Period of Ancient Egypt (circa 1295 –1070 B.C.)]]
A Proto-Nilotic unity, separate from an earlier undifferentiated [[Eastern Sudanic languages|Eastern Sudanic]] unity, is assumed to have emerged by the 3rd millennium BC. The development of the Proto-Nilotes as a group may have been connected with their domestication of [[livestock]]. The Eastern Sudanic unity must have been considerably earlier still, perhaps around the 5th millennium BC (while the proposed [[Nilo-Saharan]] unity would date to the [[Upper Paleolithic]] about 15kya). The original locus of the early Nilotic speakers was presumably east of the Nile in what is now [[South Sudan]]. The Proto-Nilotes of the 3rd millennium BC were [[pastoralists]], while their neighbors, the Proto-[[Central Sudanic]] peoples, were mostly agriculturalists.{{sfn|Clark|1984|p=31}} Nilotic people practised a mixed economy of cattle pastoralism, fishing and seed cultivation.{{sfn|Ogot|1967|pp=40–42}} Some of the earliest archaeological findings on record, that describe a similar culture to this from the same region, are found at Kadero, 48 kilometres north of [[Khartoum]] in [[Sudan]], and date to 3000 BC. Kadero contains the remains of a cattle pastoralist culture as well as a cemetery with skeletal remains featuring Sub-Saharan African phenotypes. It also contains evidence of other animal domestication, artistry, long-distance trade, seed cultivation and fish consumption.{{sfn|Krzyzaniak|1976|p=762}}{{sfn|Marshall|Hildebrand|2002|pp=99–143}}{{sfn|Gautier|2006}}{{sfn|Krzyzaniak|1978|pp=159–172}} Genetic and linguistic studies have demonstrated that [[Nubian people]] in Northern Sudan and Southern Egypt are an admixed group that started off as a population closely related to Nilotic people.{{sfn|Hollfelder|Schlebusch|Günther|Babiker|2017|pp=e1006976}}{{sfn|Rilly|2016}} This population later received significant gene flow from [[Middle eastern people|Middle Eastern]] and other East African populations.{{sfn|Hollfelder|Schlebusch|Günther|Babiker|2017|pp=e1006976}} Nubians are considered to be descendants of the early inhabitants of the Nile valley who later formed the [[Kingdom of Kush]] which included [[Kerma]] and [[Meroe]] and the medieval christian kingdoms of [[Makuria]], [[Nobatia]] and [[Alodia]].{{sfn|Cooper|2017}} These studies suggest that populations closely related to Nilotic people long inhabited the Nile valley as far as Southern Egypt in antiquity.
===Early Expansion===
{{see also|Elmenteitan}}
[[File:John Garang in crowd.jpg|thumb|Politician [[John Garang]] ([[Dinka people|Dinka]]) amongst Nilotic supporters in [[South Sudan]].]]
Language evidence indicates an initial southward expansion out of the Nilotic nursery into far southern Sudan beginning in the second millennium B.C.,
the [[Southern Nilotic]] communities that participated in this expansion would eventually reach western Kenya between 1000 and 500 B.C.{{sfn|Ehret|1998|p=7}} Their arrival occurred shortly before the introduction of iron to East Africa.{{sfn|Clark|Brandt|1984|p=234}}
===Expansion out of the Sudd===
Linguistic evidence shows that over time [[Nilotic languages|Nilotic]] speakers, such as the [[Dinka]], [[Shilluk people|Shilluk]], and [[Luo (family of ethnic groups)|Luo]], took over. These groups spread from the [[Sudd]] marshlands, where archaeological evidence shows that a culture based on [[transhumance|transhumant]] cattle raising had been present since 3000 BCE, and the Nilotic culture in that area may thus be continuous to that date.{{sfn|Robertshaw|1987|pp=177–189}}
The Nilotic expansion from the Sudd Marshes into the rest of South Sudan seems to have begun in the 14th century. This coincides with the collapse of the Christian Nubian kingdoms of [[Makuria]] and [[Alodia]] and the penetration of Arab traders into central Sudan. From the Arabs, the South Sudanese may have obtained new breeds of humpless cattle.{{sfn|Robertshaw|1987|pp=177–189}} Archaeologist [[Roland Oliver]] notes that the period also shows an [[Iron Age]] beginning among the Nilotic. These factors may explain how the Nilotic speakers expanded to dominate the region.
===Shilluk===
[[File:Southern Sudan — 1800.png|right|thumb|300px|The kingdoms of the Funj, Cøllø (pronounced “Chollo”), Tegali, and Fur c.1800]]
By the sixteenth century, the most powerful group among the Nilotic speakers were the Cøllø (called [[Shilluk people|Shilluk]] by Arabs and Europeans), who spread east to the banks of the white Nile under the legendary leadership of [[Shilluk people|Nyikang]],{{sfn|Forde|James|1999}} who is said to have ruled Läg Cøllø c.1490 to c.1517.{{sfn|Mercer|1971|p=410}} The Cøllø gained control of the west bank of the river as far north as [[Kosti, Sudan|Kosti]] in Sudan. There they established an economy based on cattle raising, cereal farming, and fishing, with small villages located along the length of the river.{{sfn|EOPAME: Shilluk|2009}} The Cøllø developed an intensive system of agriculture, and the Cøllø lands in the 17th century had a population density similar to that of the Egyptian Nile lands.{{sfn|Singh|2002|p=659}}
One theory is that it was pressure from the Cøllø that drove the [[Funj people]] north, who would establish the [[Sultanate of Sennar]].
The Dinka remained in the Sudd area, maintaining their [[transhumance]] economy.{{sfn|EOPAME: Dinka|2009}}
While the Dinka were protected and isolated from their neighbours, the Cøllø were more involved in international affairs. The Cøllø controlled the west bank of the White Nile, but the other side was controlled by the Funj Sultanate, and there were regular conflict between the two. The Cøllø had the ability to quickly raid outside areas by [[war canoe]], and had control of the waters of the Nile. The Funj had a standing army of armoured cavalry, and this force allowed them to dominated the plains of the [[sahel]].
Cøllø traditions tell of Rädh [[Odak Ocollo]] who ruled c. 1630 and led them in a three decade war with Sennar over control of the White Nile trade routes. The Cøllø allied with the [[Sultanate of Darfur]] and the Kingdom of [[Takali]] against the Funj, but the capitulation of Takali ended the war in the Funj’s favour. In the later 17th century the Cøllø and Funj allied against the [[Dinka people|Dinka]] who rose to power in the border area between the Funj and Cøllø. The Cøllø political structure gradually centralized under the a king or ‘’reth’’. The most important is Rädh Tugø (son of Rädh Dhøköödhø) who ruled c. 1690 to 1710 and established the Cøllø capital of [[Fashoda]]. The same period saw the gradual collapse of the Funj sultanate, leaving the Cøllø in complete control of the White Nile and its trade routes. The Cøllø military power was based on control of the river.{{sfn|Gen Hist Africa: vol. V chap 7|1999|pp=89–103}}
===Southern Nilotic settlement in East Africa===
Starting in the mid-19th century, European anthropologists and later Kenyan historians have been interested in the origins of human migration from various parts of Africa into East Africa. One of the more notable broad based theories emanating from these studies being the [[Bantu expansion]]. The main tools of study have been linguistics, archaeology and oral traditions.
====Oral traditions====
The significance of tracing individual clan histories in order to get an idea of Kalenjin groups formation has been shown by scholars such as B.E. Kipkorir (1978). He argued that the Tugen first settled in small clan groups, fleeing from war, famine and disease, and that they arrived from western, eastern and northern sections. There is even a section among the Tugen that claims to have come from Mount Kenya.{{sfn|De Vries|2007|p=47}}
The Nandi account on the [[Settlement of Nandi]] displays a similar manner of occupation of the Nandi territory. The Kalenjin clans that moved into and occupied the Nandi area, thus becoming the Nandi tribe, came from a wide array of Kalenjin speaking areas.{{sfn|Huntingford|1953}}
It thus appears that there were spatial core areas to which people moved and concentrated over the centuries, and in the process evolved into the individual Kalenjin communities known today by adopting migrants and assimilating original inhabitants.{{sfn|De Vries|2007|p=48}}
For various reasons, slow and multi-generational migrations of Nilotic [[Luo peoples|Luo Peoples]] occurred from [[South Sudan]] into [[Uganda]] and western [[Kenya]] from at least 1000 AD continuing up until the early 20th century.{{sfn|Ogot|1967|pp=41–43}} Oral history and genealogical evidence have been used to estimate timelines of Luo expansion into and within Kenya and Tanzania. Four major waves of migrations into the former [[Nyanza province]] in [[Kenya]] are discernible starting with the People of Jok (‘’Joka Jok’’) which is estimated to have began around 1490–1517.{{sfn|Ogot|1967|p=144}} ‘’Joka Jok’’ were the first and largest wave of migrants into northern [[Nyanza Province|Nyanza]]. These migrants settled at a place called Ramogi Hill then expanded around Northern [[Nyanza Province|Nyanza]]. The People of Owiny’ (‘’Jok’Owiny’’) and the People of Omolo (‘’Jok’Omolo’’) followed soon after (1598–1625).{{sfn|Ogot|1967|pp=144–154}} A miscellaneous group composed of the Suba, Sakwa, Asembo, Uyoma and Kano then followed. The [[Suba people (Kenya)|Suba]] originally were Bantu speaking people who assimilated into Luo culture. They fled from the [[Buganda Kingdom]] in [[Uganda]] after the civil strife that followed the murder of the 24th [[Kabaka of Buganda]] in the mid 18th century and settled in [[South Nyanza]], especially at [[Rusinga Island|Rusinga]] and [[Mfangano Island|Mfangano]] islands.{{sfn|Ogot|1967|p=212}} Luo speakers crossed [[Winam Gulf]] of Lake Victoria from Northern Nyanza into [[South Nyanza]] starting in the early 17th century.{{sfn|Ogot|1967|pp=144–154}}
====Post-colonial traditions====
[[File:Mount Elgon-2.jpg|thumb|right|Mount Elgon, referred by Kalenjin as Tulwop Kony,a common Kalenjin point of origin]]
A number of historical narratives from the various Kalenjin sub-tribes point to Tulwetab/Tulwop Kony ([[Mount Elgon]]) as their original point of settlement in Kenya.{{sfn|Kipkorir|Welbourn|1973|p=64}} This point of origin appears as a central theme in most narratives recorded after the colonial period. One of the more famous accounts states that;
<blockquote>… the Kalenjin originated from a country in the north known as Emet ab Burgei, which means, the hot country. The people are said to have traveled southwards passing through Mount Elgon or Tulwet ab Kony in Kalenjin. The [[Sabaot people|Sabaot]] settled around the slopes of the mountain while the others travelled on in search of better land. The [[Keiyo people|Keiyo]] and [[Marakwet people|Marakwet]] settled in [[Kerio Valley]] and [[Cherangani Hills]]. The [[Pokot people|Pokot]] settled on the northern side of Mount Elgon and later spread to areas north of Lake Baringo. At [[Lake Baringo]], the [[Tugen people|Tugen]] separated from the Nandi and the Kipsigis. This was during a famine known as Kemeutab Reresik, which means, famine of the bats. It is said that during this famine a bat brought blades of green grass which was taken as a sign of good omen signifying that famine could be averted through movement to greener pastures. The Tugen moved and settled around [[Tugen Hills]] while the Kipsigis and the Nandi moved to [[Rongai]] area. The [[Kipsigis people|Kipsigis]] and [[Nandi people|Nandi]] are said to have lived as a united group for a long time but eventually were forced to separate due to antagonistic environmental factors. Some of these were droughts and invasion of the [[Maasai people|Maasai]] from Uasin Gishu.{{sfn|Chesaina|1991|p=29}}</blockquote>
Geographical barriers protected the southerners from Islam’s advance, enabling them to retain their social and cultural heritage and their political and religious institutions. The Dinka people were especially secure in the [[Sudd]] marshlands, which protected them from outside interference, and allowed them to remain secure without a large armed forces. The Shilluk, Azande, and Bari people had more regular conflicts with neighbouring states{{sfn|Gillies|n.d.}}
==Culture and religion==
[[File:LuoVillage.jpg|thumb|right|A [[Luo people of Kenya and Tanzania|Luo]] village in [[Kenya]]]]
Most Nilotes continue to practice [[pastoralism]], migrating on a seasonal basis with their herds of livestock.{{sfn|Okoth|Ndaloh|2006|pp=60–62}} Some tribes are also known for a tradition of [[cattle raiding]].{{sfn|BBC: cattle vendetta|2012}}
Through lengthy interaction with neighbouring peoples, the Nilotes in [[East Africa]] have adopted many customs and practices from [[South Cushitic languages|Southern Cushitic]] groups. The latter include the [[age set]] system of social organization, [[circumcision]], and vocabulary terms.{{sfn|Okoth|Ndaloh|2006|pp=60–62}}{{sfn|Collins|2006|pp=9–10}}
In terms of religious beliefs, Nilotes primarily adhere to [[African Traditional Religion|traditional faiths]] and [[Christianity]]. The [[Dinka religion]] has a [[pantheon (religion)|pantheon]] of deities. The Supreme, Creator God is [[Nhialic]], who is the God of the sky and rain, and the ruler of all the spirits.{{sfn|Lienhardt|1988|p=29}}
He is believed to be present in all of creation, and to control the destiny of every human, plant and animal on Earth. Nhialic is also known as Jaak, Juong or Dyokin by other Nilotic groups, such as the Nuer and Shilluk. [[Dengdit]] or Deng, is the sky God of rain and fertility, empowered by Nhialic.{{sfn|Lienhardt|1988|p=104}}
Deng’s mother is [[Abuk]], the patron Goddess of gardening and all women, represented by a snake.{{sfn|Lienhardt|1988|p=90}}
Garang, another deity, is believed or assumed by some Dinka to be a god suppressed by Deng; his spirits can cause most Dinka women, and some men, to scream. The term ‘’”Jok”’’ refers to a group of ancestral spirits.
In the [[Lotuko mythology]], the chief God is called [[Ajok]]. He is generally seen as kind and benevolent, but can be angered. He once reportedly answered a woman’s prayer for the resurrection of her son. Her husband, however, was angry and killed the child. According to the Lotuko religion, Ajok was annoyed by the man’s actions and swore never to resurrect any Lotuko again. As a result, [[death]] was said to have become permanent.
==Genetics==
===Y DNA===
[[File:Peace agreement dancers in Kapoeta, Sudan.jpg|thumb|right|Nilotic men in [[Kapoeta]], [[South Sudan]].]]
A [[Y chromosome|Y-chromosome]] study by Wood et al. (2005) tested various populations in Africa for paternal lineages, including 26 Maasai and 9 Luo from Kenya, and 9 Alur from the [[Democratic Republic of Congo]]. The signature Nilotic paternal marker [[Haplogroup A (Y-DNA)#A3b2-M13|Haplogroup A3b2]] was observed in 27% of the Maasai, 22% of the [[Alur people|Alur]], and 11% of the Luo.{{sfn|Wood|Stover|Ehret|Destro-Bisol|2005|pp=867–876}}
According to Gomes et al. (2010),{{sfn|Gomes|Sánchez-Diz|Amorim|Carracedo|2010|pp=603–13}} [[Haplogroup B (Y-DNA)|Haplogroup B]] is another characteristically Nilotic paternal marker. It was found in 22% of Wood et al.’s Luo samples, 8% of studied Maasai and 50% of studied [[Nuer people|Nuer]].{{sfn|Wood|Stover|Ehret|Destro-Bisol|2005|pp=867–876}} The [[E1b1b|E1b1b haplogroup]] has been observed at overall frequencies of around 11% among Nilo-Saharan-speaking groups in the Great Lakes area,{{sfn|Cruciani|La Fratta|Santolamazza|Sellitto|2004|pp=1014–1022}} with this influence concentrated among the Maasai (50%).{{sfn|Wood|Stover|Ehret|Destro-Bisol|2005|pp=867–876}} This is indicative of substantial historic [[gene flow]] from Cushitic-speaking males into these Nilo-Saharan-speaking populations.{{sfn|Cruciani|La Fratta|Santolamazza|Sellitto|2004|pp=1014–1022}} In addition, 67% of the Alur samples possessed the [[Haplogroup E2 (Y-DNA)|E2 haplogroup]].{{sfn|Wood|Stover|Ehret|Destro-Bisol|2005|pp=867–876}}
A study by Hassan et al. (2008) analysed the Y-DNA of populations in the Sudan region, with various local Nilotic groups included for comparison. The researchers found the signature Nilotic A and B clades to be the most common paternal lineages amongst the Nilo-Saharan speakers, except those inhabiting [[Darfur|western Sudan]]. There, a prominent North African influence was noted. Haplogroup A was observed amongst 62% of Dinka, 53.3% of Shilluk, 46.4% of Nuba, 33.3% of [[Nuer people|Nuer]], 31.3% of [[Fur people|Fur]] and 18.8% of [[Masalit people|Masalit]]. Haplogroup B was found in 50% of [[Nuer people|Nuer]], 26.7% of Shilluk, 23% of [[Dinka]], 14.3% of Nuba, 3.1% of Fur and 3.1% of Masalit. The E1b1b clade was also observed in 71.9% of the Masalit, 59.4% of the Fur, 39.3% of the [[Nuba]], 20% of the [[Shilluk people|Shilluk]], 16.7% of the Nuer, and 15% of the Dinka.{{sfn|Hassan|Underhill|Cavalli-Sforza|Muntaser|2008|pp=316–323}} Hassan et al. attributed the atypically high frequencies of the haplogroup in the Masalit to either a recent [[population bottleneck]], which likely altered the community’s original haplogroup diversity, or to geographical proximity to E1b1b’s place of origin in North Africa. The researchers suggest that the clade “might have been brought to Sudan […] after the progressive desertification of the Sahara around 6,000–8,000 years ago”.{{sfn|Hassan|Underhill|Cavalli-Sforza|Muntaser|2008|pp=316–323}} Henn et al. (2008) similarly observed Afro-Asiatic influence in the Nilotic Datog of northern Tanzania, 43% of whom carried the M293 sub-clade of E1b1b.{{sfn|Henn|Gignoux|Lin|Oefner|2008|pp=10693–10698}}
===mtDNA===
[[File:Pokot Woman.jpg|thumb|right|[[Pokot people|Pokot]] women trekking through the [[Kenya]] outback.]]
Unlike the paternal DNA of Nilotes, the maternal lineages of Nilotes in general show low-to-negligible amounts of Afro-Asiatic and other extraneous influences. An [[mtDNA]] study by Castri et al. (2008) examined the maternal ancestry of various Nilotic populations in Kenya, with Turkana, Samburu, Maasai and Luo individuals sampled. The mtDNA of almost all of the tested Nilotes belonged to various Sub-Saharan [[Macro-haplogroup L (mtDNA)|macro-haplogroup L]] sub-clades, including [[Haplogroup L0 (mtDNA)|L0]], [[Haplogroup L2 (mtDNA)|L2]], [[Haplogroup L3 (mtDNA)|L3]], [[Haplogroup L4 (mtDNA)|L4]] and [[Haplogroup L5 (mtDNA)|L5]]. Low levels of maternal gene flow from [[North Africa]] and the [[Horn of Africa]] were observed in a few groups, mainly via the presence of mtDNA [[Haplogroup M (mtDNA)|haplogroup M]] and [[Haplogroup I (mtDNA)|haplogroup I]] lineages in about 12.5% of the Maasai and 7% of the Samburu samples, respectively.{{sfn|Castrì|Garagnani|Useli|Pettener|2008|pp=189–92}}
===Autosomal DNA===
The [[Autosome|autosomal]] [[DNA]] of Nilotic peoples has been examined in a comprehensive study by [[Sarah Tishkoff|Tishkoff]] et al. (2009) on the genetic clusters of various populations in Africa. According to the researchers, Nilotes generally form their own African genetic cluster. The authors also found that certain Nilotic populations in the eastern Great Lakes region, such as the Maasai, showed some additional Afro-Asiatic affinities due to repeated assimilation of Cushitic-speaking peoples over the past 5000 or so years.{{sfn|Tishkoff|Reed|Friedlaender|Ehret|2009|pp=1035–44}}
===Admixture analysis===
[[Tishkoff, Sarah|Tishkoff]] ‘’et al’’ in 2009 published the largest study done to characterise genetic variation and relationships among populations in Africa. They examined 121 African populations, 4 African American populations and 60 non-African populations. Their results indicated a high degree of mixed ancestry reflecting migration events. In East Africa, all population groups examined had elements of Nilotic, [[Cushitic peoples|Cushitic]] and [[Bantu peoples|Bantu]] ancestry amongst others to varying degrees. They also found that by and large, genetic clusters were consistent with linguistic classification with notable exceptions including the Luo of Kenya. Despite being [[Nilo-Saharan languages|Nilo-Saharan speakers]], the Luo cluster with the [[Niger-Kordofanian|Niger-Kordofanian speaking]] populations that surround them. They suggest that this indicates a high degree of admixture occurred during the southward migration of Southern Luo. Kalenjin groups and Maasai groups were found to have less Bantu ancestry but significant Cushitic ancestry.{{sfn|Tishkoff|Reed|Friedlaender|Ehret|2009|pp=1035–44}}
[[David Reich (geneticist)|David Reich]], a geneticist known for his studies on ancient DNA carried out a study which found that mutation frequencies in [[Luo people]] were much more similar to those of the surrounding Bantu speakers. They suggested that Luo speakers in East Africa may not have always been socially disadvantaged as they migrated into territories already inhabited by Bantu speakers. This is in keeping with oral history which affirms that large groups of Bantu speakers adopted Luo language, culture and customs that were dominant at the time.{{sfn|Reich|2018|pp=215–216}}
==Physiology==
[[File:Lornah Kiplagat-b.jpg|thumb|right|150px|Cross country world champion and record holder [[Lornah Kiplagat]], one of many prominent Nilotic distance runners.]]
Physically, Nilotes are noted for their typically very dark skin color and slender, tall bodies. They often possess exceptionally long limbs, particularly vis-a-vis the distal segments (forearms, calves). This characteristic is thought to be a climatic adaptation to allow their bodies to shed heat more efficiently.
Sudanese Nilotes are regarded as one of the tallest peoples in the world. Roberts and Bainbridge (1963) reported average values of {{convert|182.6|cm|ftin|abbr=on}} for height and {{convert|58.8|kg|lb|abbr=on}} for weight in a sample of Sudanese Shilluk.{{sfn|Roberts|Bainbridge|1963|pp=341–370}} Another sample of Sudanese Dinka had a stature/weight ratio of 181.9 cm/58.0 kg (71.6&nbsp:in/127.9 lbs), with an extremely ectomorphic [[somatotype and constitutional psychology|somatotype]] of 1.6–3.5–6.2.
In terms of facial features, Hiernaux (1975) observed that the nasal profile most common amongst Nilotic populations is broad, with characteristically high index values ranging from 86.9 to 92.0. He also reported that lower nasal indices are often found amongst Nilotes who inhabit the more southerly Great Lakes region, such as the Maasai, a fact which he attributed to genetic differences.{{sfn|Hiernaux|1975|pp=142–143 & 147}}
Additionally, it has been remarked that the Nilotic groups presently inhabiting the African Great Lakes region are sometimes smaller in stature than those residing in the Sudan region. Campbell et al. (2006) recorded measurements of 172.0 cm/53.6 kg (67.7 in/118.2 lbs) in a sample of agricultural Turkana in northern Kenya, and of 174.9 cm/53.0 kg (68.8&nbsp:in/116.8 lbs) in pastoral Turkana.{{sfn|Campbell|Leslie|Campbell|2006|pp=71–82}} Hiernaux similarly listed a height of 172.7 cm (68 in) for Maasai in southern Kenya, with an extreme trunk/leg length ratio of 47.7.{{sfn|Hiernaux|1975|pp=142–143 & 147}}
Many Nilotic groups excel in [[long-distance running|long]] and [[middle-distance running]]. Some researchers have suggested that this sporting prowess is related to their exceptional running economy, a function of slim body morphology and slender legs.{{sfn|New Studies In Athletics, vol.2|pp=15–24}} A study by Pitsiladis et al. (2006) surveyed 404 elite Kenyan distance runners; it found that 76% of the international-class respondents identified as part of the [[Kalenjin people|Kalenjin]] ethnic group and that 79% spoke a Nilotic language.{{sfn|Onywera|Scott|Boit|Pitsiladis|2006|p=415}}
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{{refend}}
{{navboxes | list=
{{Ethnic groups in Kenya}}
{{Ethnic groups in South Sudan}}
{{Ethnic groups in Tanzania}}
{{Ethnic groups in Uganda}}
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{{Authority control}}
[[Category:Nilotic peoples| ]]
[[Category:Nile basin|*]]
[[Category:Ethnic groups in Kenya]]
[[Category:Ethnic groups in South Sudan]]
[[Category:Ethnic groups in Tanzania]]
[[Category:Ethnic groups in Uganda]]

Cushitic and Nilotic peoples of North-East Africa

(Horn of Africa, The Sudans, and Surrounding Areas)

Cushitic peoples

Ethnonym[edit]

History[edit]

Origin[edit]

East Africa[edit]

The Horn of Africa[edit]

Sudan[edit]

South Africa[edit]

Languages[edit]

Ethnic groups[edit]

Cushitic-speakers[edit]

Ethiosemitic-speakers[edit]

Nilo-Saharan speakers[edit]

Culture[edit]

Agriculture and Animal Husbandry[edit]

Music[edit]

Religion[edit]

Genetics[edit]

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

References[edit]

Nilotic Peoples

Name[edit]

Ethnic/linguistic divisions[edit]

Languages[edit]

Ethnic groups[edit]

History[edit]

Origins[edit]

Early Expansion[edit]

Expansion out of the Sudd[edit]

Shilluk[edit]

Southern Nilotic settlement in East Africa[edit]

Oral traditions[edit]

Post-colonial traditions[edit]

Culture and religion[edit]

Genetics[edit]

Y DNA[edit]

mtDNA[edit]

Autosomal DNA[edit]

Admixture analysis[edit]

Physiology[edit]

Citations[edit]

Bibliography[edit]

Written by Habesha Gaaffaa-Geeska Yäafrika, PhD.

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