Who are the Iraqw?
Iraqw is spoken in northern Tanzania, on a high plateau between Lake Manyara and Lake Eyasi. It is spoken by roughly 500,000 speakers, and is the largest Southern Cushitic language. In comparison, its closest relatives, Gorwaa, Alagwa and Burunge, have significantly fewer speakers.
Swahili is a second language for the vast majority of Iraqw speakers. Swahili is used in administration and schools, and Iraqw is used for all other domains - although hardly in written communication. The written material that is available in Iraqw is religious in nature. Some stories, riddles and other specimens of the rich, historical Iraqw verbal art are now also available in writing.
Iraqw is surrounded by speakers of the Datooga (a Southern Nilotic language), Mbugwe and Nyiramba (Bantu languages), Gorwaa (a closely related Southern Cushitic language), and Hadza (an isolate click language). Most people have cattle and its economic value is largely the dung, used as fertilizer. In recent years, as more people move to the growing towns and are accustomed to living alongside Western technology, some Iraqw feel that they must leave behind their traditional upbringing to fit into a "modern" world. The materials on this website were recorded in 1987-1990, 2005, and 2018 in various locations around Mbulu and Kwermusl. Although they represent the traditional oral culture of the Iraqw, to some living there now, they may act as a reminder of the past.