"Cushiticness" of the southern Cushites

[Xabeshi]

What practices and traditions have the southern cushites such as the Iraqw kept from their ancestors?
Are their lifestyles even closer to the original Cushites than their northern neighbours?
How about those groups that have Cushitic ancestry such as Tutsis, Kikuyus, Masaai, Samburu?

 

[NidarNidar]

What practices and traditions have the southern cushites such as the Iraqw kept from their ancestors?
Are their lifestyles even closer to the original Cushites than their northern neighbours?
How about those groups that have Cushitic ancestry such as Tutsis, Kikuyus, Masaai, Samburu?

Not sure how much the language has changed due to proximity with Bantus, but it sounds a mix between Somali and Oromo.

 

[Bsblaster]

What practices and traditions have the southern cushites such as the Iraqw kept from their ancestors?
Are their lifestyles even closer to the original Cushites than their northern neighbours?
How about those groups that have Cushitic ancestry such as Tutsis, Kikuyus, Masaai, Samburu?

What constitutes "Cushiticness" exactly? Apart from the groups that aren't completely language-shifted, it would be hard for any of the other groups to know because their cultures have amalgamated so much and "settled" into their own unique thing over the centuries.

For the Tutsi-Hima, what is decidedly not Bantu is the culture around pastoralism, but it's hard to say which of that is Nilotic or Cushitic.

Some songs/sounds and certain dances maybe? Similar clothing style to the Somali Macawi? The culture of poetry maybe?

Here's a funny one: My great-grandfather who died in the early 90s, before the internet, was a "we wuz Yemeni" so apparently we have that in common with some of you. I lol whenever I think of this.