SSA ancestry in modern-day North Africans

alais

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It's said that North Africans are distinct from Sub-Saharan populations (SSA), and are closer to West Asian and European populations than to Sub-Saharan populations. Modern North Africans over the centuries have mixed with these Sub-Saharan populations though. I wondered how much SSA (Sub-Saharan DNA) ancestry modern North Africans have. I made some models based on academic samples: SSA ancestry in modern-day North Africans ranges from 15% to 36%, the average is 19.5%. I think that genetic studies underestimate SSA in modern North Africans.

What do you think? What do the genetic studies support?

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It would be interesting to see the results for Kabyles (N-Coast Algeria Berbers), Chaoui (Aures Mountains Berbers) and Rif Maroccans (Berbers), surely a bit different compared to nomadic Berbers of Oasis?
 
It would be interesting to see the results for Kabyles (N-Coast Algeria Berbers), Chaoui (Aures Mountains Berbers) and Rif Maroccans (Berbers), surely a bit different compared to nomadic Berbers of Oasis?

Most of this SSA seems to have entered North Africa within the last 2-1000 years, mostly with the Arab slave trade. My hunch is that mountain dwellers like the Chaoui and Rif people, who are more isolated and could probably not afford slaves, have less. I don't know about Kabyles, but I would guess on the low end.

It's certainly possible to have origins there and only have the faintest trace of SSA. Look at the North African Jews.

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@Angela
It was my "secrete" thought
 
It would be interesting to see the results for Kabyles (N-Coast Algeria Berbers), Chaoui (Aures Mountains Berbers) and Rif Maroccans (Berbers), surely a bit different compared to nomadic Berbers of Oasis?

Those results already include some Berber tribes.
 
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Those results already include some Berber tribes.

True.
But Berbers are numerous, and their big "hat" covers large regions, someones very southern, someones in between, someones mountanous or maritime in North; the southern nomadic tribes would be very more mixed and even then, some time ago, the "chiefs" lineages were "whiter" than the common ones. Todate I don't know.
Rifians, eg, for I think, could be very under this SSA average of North Africa. I have no mean to know, bit I would be iterested knowing it.
 
^^Exactly. Where the heck do people get this idea that all the "Berber tribes" have the same admixture and therefore the same looks? Some admixed more with arriving Arabian tribes (those more to the east) and with SSA people than others. Usually the more isolated the less admixing. I believe southern Moroccans have the most SSA.
 
I found this article about a genomic analysis of North Africa publish in November 2022. I searched for references to this article on the forum and did not find any, so I think that no member has posted about it yet.
It a article that points to recent SSA admixture on North Africa (XIII-XIV and XVII century) and rejects a major contribution from older trans-Saharan migrations.

The genomic analysis of current-day North African populations reveals the existence of trans-Saharan migrations with different origins and dates

Abstract
The Sahara Desert has acted as a barrier to human gene-flow between the northern and central parts of Africa since its aridification. Nonetheless, some contacts between both sides of the desert have occurred throughout history, mainly driven by commercial activity. Part of this was the infamous trans-Saharan slave trade, which forcedly brought peoples from south of the Sahara to North Africa from Roman times until the nineteenth century. Although historical records exist, the genetic aspects of these trans-Saharan migrations have not been deeply studied. In the present study, we assess the genetic influence of trans-Saharan migrations in current-day North Africa and characterize its amount, geographical origin, and dates. We confirm the heterogeneous and generally low-frequency presence of genomic segments of sub-Saharan origin in present-day North Africans acquired in recent historical times, and we show evidence of at least two admixture events: one dated around the thirteenth–fourteenth centuries CE between North Africans and a Western-sub-Saharan-like source similar to current-day Senegambian populations, and another one dated around the seventeenth century CE involving Tunisians and an Eastern-sub-Saharan-like source related to current-day south-Sudan and Kenyan populations. Time and location coincide with the peak of trans-Saharan slave-trade activity between Western African empires and North African powers, and are also concordant with the possibility of continuous recent south-to-north gene-flow. These findings confirm the trans-Saharan human genetic contacts, providing new and precise evidence about its possible dates and geographical origins, which are pivotal to understanding the genomic composition of an underrepresented region such as North Africa.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00439-022-02503-3
 

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