How south did the Cushites go?

[Xabeshi]

We've found the Savannah Pastoralists in Kenya and Tanzania and the Tutsis of Rwanda and Burundi are believed to be of Cushitic descent but is that the southernmost we've ever ventured?
Is there any evidence of a Cushitic presence in Southern or Central Africa?

 

[The alchemist]

All the way to Southern Africa. There was a new study on Southern African hunter-gatherers and if I am not wrong, there was evidence that small bands of Southern Cushites, that they claimed looked genetically like ones from Tanzania, had ventured there and mixed with Southern African hunter-gatherers. We also have a study showing a three-way mixed person who had Bantu, Southern African HG, and Cushitic ancestry. They found that the Cushitic and SA HG ancestry mixed before the Bantu mixture.

I'm not sure if there was anything in central Africa though. It's too foresty for pastoralism, too.

 

[Daisybilaawe]

All the way to Southern Africa. There was a new study on Southern African hunter-gatherers and if I am not wrong, there was evidence that small bands of Southern Cushites, that they claimed looked genetically like ones from Tanzania, had ventured there and mixed with Southern African hunter gatherers. We also have a study showing a three-way mixed person who had Bantu, Southern African HG and Cushitic ancestry. They found that the Cushitic and SA HG ancestry mixed before the Bantu mixture.

I'm not sure if there was anything in central Africa though.

Do you think that had Somalis abandoned Tribal Affiliation in like the 4-5th Century and instead operated solely on Somali Uniformity that they'd be able to take (Somalia, Somali Galbeed, a Chunk of Oromia, Afar Region, Djibouti, Southern Red Sea Region-Debubawi Käyh Bahri, All of Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, Northern Mozambique Madagascar, Comoros, Zanzibar, Seychelles, Mauritius, Mayotte, Reunion) and make it all being Somali-owned and Somali-spoken or unrealistic?

 

[The alchemist]

Do you think that had Somalis abandoned Tribal Affiliation in like the 4-5th Century and instead operated solely on Somali Uniformity that they'd be able to take (Somalia, Somali Galbeed, a Chunk of Oromia, Afar Region, Djibouti, Southern Red Sea Region-Debubawi Käyh Bahri, All of Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, Northern Mozambique Madagascar, Comoros, Zanzibar, Seychelles, Mauritius, Mayotte, Reunion) and make it all being Somali-owned and Somali-spoken or unrealistic?

That is a big question, not going to lie. Don't you have anything smaller and cuter?

 

[Daisybilaawe]

That is a big question, not going to lie. Don't you have anything smaller and cuter?

Nah you're a smart guy, try break it down.

 

[Riftvalley]

Namibia. I think.

 

[The alchemist]

Nah you're a smart guy, try break it down.

We would need a completely different expansionary ideology that had an imperialistic structuralist and bureaucratic system that focused on information diffusion networks, technological processing that required contact with the broader world and use of regional resources. We would need institutions to manage those. In such a system where diverse people existed, our expansion there would mean aggression, then assimilation of those people. You see, success in aggression alone does not guarantee longevity. The Mongols invaded all the way to the peripheral Eastern Europe, but how long did they hold?

We would need a skill-based society that focused on craftsmanship. This would allow the system to function better and more efficiently. The more connected everything is, the more control you can have over it. Somalis in this society would receive a massive migration, and Somalis would need to live somewhere central to build a capital hub, which ideally would mean somewhere greener than the north and a bit more central within the empire. The Muqadisho area would be alright. From there, you'd build transport roads that went to the critical point, boosting economic activity, flow of people, and connecting sea-based and land-based logistics.

Ideology is essential to have for such a system to rule over the people. You need a strong assimilationist ideology that says, if one fits certain learned criteria, you become part of the whole. Ethnocentrism does not work well here, although there would be a hidden bias for Somalis. That is when we get to the heart of the issue. If that had been a reality, we would look like very mixed people. Somalis would not exist; the people would be the product of the empire. Rome during its height was genetically distinct and heterogeneous from the people who lived a thousand years before.

But you know, Somalis did have vast cultural and economic land and they indeed did have what would could be classed as an almost empire because it stretched from deep in Somaliland (we can see this in the architecture and economic dealings, flow of people and ideas), the entire Eastern Ethiopia, and even further when Somalis pushed significantly, further into Habash lands (but the last only briefly). I think @Maintainnnin made a post about the extent of its northwestern expansion and it seemed almost unbelievable, that if true, it would have been massively understated to put it lightly. Either without that, that civilization was quite geographically massive. It had economic dealings with the broader world (similar to the past of Somalis that had similar activities, but in the pre-Islamic era. Read some of my posts talking with @Midas) it was quite connected and central to the broader civilizational world.

This was done in a tribal society. You see, tribalism is not, by default, a bad thing or something that necessarily holds people back. Turks were tribal and ruled Rum. Ancient Iranians during their empire days were tribal. Mesopotamia was settled by Semitic tribes who then became the ruling elites. Ancient Nubia was a tribal, layered society despite having state-based centralization. I can go on and on. We were tribal during the Ifat-Adal days, although whether that constitutes an empire is probably not so relevant, given it was large in its own respect, though I believe in its conservative measure alone was inhabited in Somali lands (I think an empire needs to be hyper diverse).