Who are the most Cushitic ancestrally?

[Som]

Few Somalis have retained the original proto Cushite phenotype but they’re rare.

I think the original Cushites had more Caucasoid features and they were light to reddish brown in color. Similar to some modern populations in Upper Egypt (mainly Copts).

Are the ancient nubians proto cushitic? They are often described as dark skinned

 

[Cuneo]

Are the ancient nubians proto cushitic? They are often described as dark skinned

The populations that inhabited upper Egypt and Lower Sudan like the A-group, C-group and early Kerma were most likely Proto Cushitic or proto East, Central and north Cushitic. There’s a phenotypic difference between early Kerma, Middle Kerma and late Kerma (indicating Nilotic migrations from the south). So it’s hard to tell. The ancient Nubians (Kingdom of Kush) were most likely more Eurasian (slightly), with some extreme outliers, than modern Horn of Africans.

Btw, the late Cushitic migrations to the Horn, millennia after the South Cushitic migration, could very well be the results of Early Dynastic Egypt consolidating power in these areas and absorbing these communities into their centralized Kingdom.