Influences From Cushitic, Kaskazi, Upland Bantu, and Nilotic Peoples
The Chagga's success in farming the highlands ensured that new communities spoke the Chagga language. These communities initially took the form of villages built along highland ridges. This custom apparently preserved an old practice coming from the Kaskazi and Upland Bantu side of their ancestry.
The Chagga also circumcised boys and initiated them into age-sets of the typical old Bantu type. At the same time, they adopted from the Southern Cushitic side of their ancestry the practice of female clitoridectomy, which they stopped after adopting Christianity or Islam.
In a variety of other aspects, Cushitic or Nilotic ideas prevailed in Chagga culture. The drawing of blood from cattle was a specifically Southern Cushitic addition to the sources of food. And like the Ongamo and Southern Cushites, the emerging Chagga society was entirely patrilineal.
Read more about this topic: Chaga People
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