DNA Tribes’ North African Regional Analysis

For the February issue of DNA Tribes Digest, the article reports on the genetic contribution of North African populations using autosomal STR and autosomal SNP analyses. The study tested 6 North African populations in which all the populations tested showed admixture with their neighboring populations; due to recent, and ancient migrations. While the study remains very simple in nature the results revealed what has been shown about the populations in North Africa in other various studies. In this particular study the North Africans tested had a 20% average of admixture from Sub-Saharan Africa (13.3% west African, 8.5% east African) based on SNP testing.

“Results for both autosomal SNP and autosomal STR markers indicated North African genetic links with populations of the Middle East, Europe, and Sub-Saharan Africa (summarized in Table 3). Differences between results (SNP and STR) express the separate reference datasets available for each type of marker. At present, STR data incorporate a larger global database of populations, which allows for a more detailed analysis of regional admixture components. However, results for both types of marker identified similar geographical links between North Africa and neighboring world regions. In both cases, results identified a primary Middle Eastern component and a secondary European and Sub-Saharan African components. These genetic links might express North Africa’s periodic links with Arab and Phoenician cultures attested in historical sources, as well as more ancient contacts attested in the archaeological record.”

The study can be found at the following link.

Y Chromosome Lineages in Men of West African Descent (Torres et al. 2012)

PLoS ONE 7(1): e29687. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0029687

Visualization of the genetic distances in the MDS plots illustrates a strong geographical relationship between the African populations. Within the mega cluster of African populations, there is a geographical distribution of the populations. Groups from the Grain Coast generally fall together, as do groups from the Bight of Benin. One African American population, those from South Carolina, cluster with the African populations. Notably, the South Carolina population falls nearest to the Grain Coast populations. Ethnohistorical records indicate a relationship between African Americans within this region of the United States and West Africans from Senegal, Gambia, and Sierra Leone. Based on such records it has been suggested that many African Americans within South Carolina originate from the Grain Coast region of West Africa. Furthermore, Africans from this region were sought-after and imported to the Americas for their knowledge of rice cultivation [8], [15], [17]. The current study is the first to test this hypothesis using genetic data. The other African derived groups from the Americas form a separate cluster and are closest to one outlying African group from the Bight of Biafra. Given that Caribbean slave census records collected in the 19th century indicate that many individuals were from the Bight of Biafra, this result appears consistent with historical data

Link

The Eariest Negroid

The earliest remains of ‘Negroids’ are found in Sudan on the Egyptian Sudanese border at Jebel Sahaba and Tushka. Tushka dates back to 14, 500 B.P.[plus or minus 490 years] and Sahaba is datd back to 13,700 B.P.8plus or minus 300 years]. Both are associated with Qadan blade industry.

Terminal Pleistocene and early Holocene populations of Northern Africa

Colin P. Groves and Alan Thorne.

This brings enlightenment to the fact that the people whom which we label as “negroids,”  did not originate in sub-Saharan Africa. This also destroys those who apply geo-political terms to designate phenotype. Negroids have populated North, South, East and Western Africa since their creation.

Kemetic Civilization Began In The South

When studying the history of Kemetic (Egyptian) civilization, many proponents are quick  to assassinate the origin’s of Egyptian civilization. For they consciously believe that what grew along the nile could have never  been an indigenous element. It must be stated preciously that what is known as “Egyptian Civilization” began in the south. Its also note worthy to point out that the Egyptians thought of the South as being the North, due to the flow of the Nile river. All importance of Egyptian civilization we learn from the South. Cairo and the cities which we consider in the current “north” were not of great importance in Ancient Egyptian civilization.

The Western Sahara and the Western Sahel

It’s best to note that current day west Africans have not always been situated in the location of western African. Hypothetically, west Africans’ descended from a Nilotic tribe in central and northern Africa; somewhere around Chad, and moved west as the wetlands of western Africa dried out. Much information about the first inhabitants of west Africa is known, however, what is known is the fact that small elements of cultures, and civilizations existed in the area as migrations increased, and populations increased. One of the first known civilizations of western African is known as “Nok civilization” or “Nok culture”. The culture of Nok appears to have been establish around 1000bc. The study below gives much information into the early west African. After Nok, other civilizations and empires erected, such as Ghana, Mali ect.

The Phylogeography of African Brazilians

Approximately four million Africans were taken as slaves to Brazil, where they interbred extensively with Amerindians and Europeans. We have previously shown that while most White Brazilians carry Y chromosomes of European origin, they display high proportions of African and Amerindian mtDNA lineages, because of sex-biased genetic admixture. Methods: We studied the Y chromosome and mtDNA haplogroup structure of 120 Black males from Sao Paulo, Brazil. Results: Only 48% of the Y chromosomes, but 85% of the mtDNA haplogroups were characteristic of sub-Saharan Africa, confirming our previous observation of sexually biased mating. We mined literature data for mtDNA and Y chromosome haplogroup frequencies for African native populations from regions involved in Atlantic Slave Trade. Principal Components Analysis and Bayesian analysis of population structure revealed no genetic differentiation of Y chromosome marker frequencies between the African regions. However, mtDNA examination unraveled considerable genetic structure, with three clusters at Central-West Africa, West Africa and Southeast Africa. A hypothesis is proposed to explain this structure. Conclusion: Using these mtDNA data we could obtain for the first time an estimate of the relative ancestral contribution of Central-West (0.445), West (0.431) and Southeast Africa (0.123) to African Brazilians from Sao Paulo. These estimates are consistent with historical information. Copyright (c) 2008 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Gonçalves VF, Carvalho CM, Bortolini MC, Bydlowski SP, Pena SD. Hum Hered. 2008 Jul 25;65(1):23-32 [Epub ahead of print]

Contemporary Scholars Agree Egypt In Africa

“Ancient Egyptian civilization was, in ways and to an extent usually not recognized, fundamentally African. The evidence of both language and culture reveals these African roots. The origins of Egyptian ethnicity lay in the areas south of Egypt. The ancient Egyptian language belonged to the Afrasian family (also called Afroasiatic or, formerly, Hamito-Semitic). The speakers of the earliest Afrasian languages, according to recent studies, were a set of peoples whose lands between 15,000 and 13,000 B.C. stretched from Nubia in the west to far northern Somalia in the east. They supported themselves by gathering wild grains. The first elements of Egyptian culture were laid down two thousand years later, between 12,000 and 10,000 B.C., when some of these Afrasian communities expanded northward into Egypt, bringing with them a language directly ancestral to ancient Egyptian. They also introduced to Egypt the idea of using wild grains as food.” (Christopher Ehret (1996) “Ancient Egyptian as an African Language, Egypt as an African Culture.” In Egypt in Africa Egypt in Africa, Theodore Celenko (ed), Indiana University Press)

S.O.Y. Keita: Early Nile Valley Farmers

National Human Genome Center at Howard University, Department of Anthropology, Smithsonian Institution Male Badarian crania were analyzed using the generalized distance of Mahalanobis in a comparative analysis with other African and European series from the Howells’s database. The study was carried out to examine the affinities of the Badarians to evaluate, in preliminary fashion, a demic diffusion hypothesis that postulates that horticulture and the Afro-Asiatic language family were brought ultimately from southern Europe. (The assumption was made that the southern Europeans would be more similar to the central and northern Europeans than to any indigenous African populations.) The Badarians show a greater affinity to indigenous Africans while not being identical. This suggests that the Badarians were more affiliated with local and an indigenous African population than with Europeans. It is more likely that Near Eastern/southern European domesticated animals and plants were adopted by indigenous Nile Valley people without a major immigration of non-Africans. There was more of cultural transfer.

Ancient Crania From Northern Africa

Historical sources and archaeological data predict significant population variability in mid-Holocene northern Africa. Multivariate analyses of crania demonstrate wide variation but also suggest an indigenous craniometric pattern common to both late dynastic northern Egypt and the coastal Maghreb region. Both tropical African and European metric phenotypes, as well intermediate patterns, are found in mid-Holocene Maghreb sites. Early southern predynastic Egyptian crania show tropical African affinities, displaying craniometric trends that differ notably from the coastal northern African pattern. The various craniofacial patterns discernible in northern Africa are attributable to the agents of microevolution and migration.

West African Origins of Southern Cooking

This video showcases how an enslaved woman would use a week’s ration of fatty pork meat to create Southern style cooking, by Jim Surkamp. Also note that some say the way okra came to be was that the female slaves hid the seeds in their hair and head wraps on their voyage from Africa to the Americas.