Mbulu people

sometime in last 2000 years the Mbulu people arrive (now called the Iraqw)

The area round Karatu was cultivated as early as 2,000 years ago by the Mbulu or Iraqw, a Kushitic group of people who migrated south from Ethiopia and the Yemen, and who still dominate the area today. The Maasai came fairly recently, in the early 1800’s, but were driven into other areas, more suitable for cattle herding, by repeated wars with their agricultural neighbours, and by sleeping sickness in their herds.

based on copies of old German maps, Mto-wa-Mbu was tribal no-man's land between the warring Maasai and Wambulu at the turn of the century, and nowhere were there any settlements to be found.

In 1923 Clark returned, walking with his safari from the railhead at Moshi past Arusha and climbing the rift escarpment near Mtu-wa-Mbu. Pushing on through the country of the Wambulu - the people of the mists - the safari ascended the south-eastern slope of Ngorongoro and after threading their way through the dense cloud forest, paused for lunch in a glade.