Genetic history of Bantu speakers and relationship to African-Americans

[Angela]

See:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/05/170504161501.htm
[FONT=&quot]"Dispersals and genetic adaptation of Bantu-speaking populations in Africa and North America."[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Credit: Patin et al., Science (2017) / Etienne Patin / Institut Pasteur

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[FONT=&quot]"As they dispersed through the rainforest, BSPs encountered local populations of rainforest hunter-gatherers (RHGs), resulting in an admixture event roughly 800 years ago. Analyses of data allowed the authors to identify adaptive genes that BSPs likely acquired from other African populations, including specific immune-related genes.

Lastly, to better understand the genetic contribution of BSPs to present-day African Americans of North America, the team estimated the African ancestry of 5,244 African Americans from various locations on the North American continent.
Among other findings, the authors report that African Americans in these locations retain approximately 16% western RHG ancestry, suggesting that African Americans are more genetically diverse than previously suggested.
See also:
http://science.sciencemag.org/content/356/6337/543

"Bantu languages are spoken by about 310 million Africans, yet the genetic history of Bantu-speaking populations remains largely unexplored. We generated genomic data for 1318 individuals from 35 populations in western central Africa, where Bantu languages originated. We found that early Bantu speakers first moved southward, through the equatorial rainforest, before spreading toward eastern and southern Africa. We also found that genetic adaptation of Bantu speakers was facilitated by admixture with local populations, particularly for the HLA and LCT[FONT=&quot] loci. Finally, we identified a major contribution of western central African Bantu speakers to the ancestry of African Americans, whose genomes present no strong signals of natural selection. Together, these results highlight the contribution of Bantu-speaking peoples to the complex genetic history of Africans and African Americans."

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[Angela]

More on the massive Bantu expansion from the SMBE Conference, courtesy of Razib Khan:

https://gnxp.nofe.me/2017/07/10/the-great-bantu-expansion-was-massive/

"one of the more interesting talks was given by Pontus Skoglund (soon of the Crick Institute). He had several novel African genomes to talk about, in particular from Malawi hunter-gatherers (I believe dated to 3,000 years before the present), and one from a pre-Bantu pastoralist."


"Perhaps more curiously: the Malawi hunter-gatherers exhibit not evidence of having contributed genes to modern Bantu residents of Malawi.Surprising, but not really. If you look at a PCA plot of Bantu genetic variation it really starts showing evidence of local substrate (Khoisan) in South Africa. From Cameroon to Mozambique it looks like the Bantu simply overwhelmed local populations, they are clustered so tight. Though it is true that African populations harbor a lot of diversity, that diversity is not necessarily partition between the populations. The Bantu expansion is why.
Of more interest from the perspective of non-African history is the Tanzanian pastoralist. This individual is about 38% West Eurasian, and that ancestry has the strongest affinities with Levantine Neolithic farmers. Specifically, the PPN, which dates to between 8500-5500 BCE. More precisely, this individual was exclusively “western farmer” in the Lazaridis et al. formulation. Additionally, Skoglund also told me that the Cushitic (and presumably Semitic) peoples to the north and east had some “eastern farmer.” I immediately thought back to Hogdson et al. Early Back-to-Africa Migration into the Horn of Africa, which suggested multiple layers. Finally, 2012 Pagani et al. suggested that admixture in the Ethiopian plateau occurred on the order of ~3,000 years ago.
Bringing all of this together it suggests to me two things:

1. The migration back from Eurasia occurred multiple times, with an early wave arriving well before the Copper/Bronze Age east-west and west-east gene flow in the Near East (also, there was backflow to West Africa, but that’s a different post….).
2. The migration was patchy; the Mota sample dates to 4,500 years ago, and lacks any Eurasian ancestry, despite the likelihood that the first Eurasian backflow was already occurring."

 

[bicicleur 2]

the migrations from SW Asia to Africa started right after the 8.2 ka climate event and lasted till the formation of Egypt, ca 5.5-5 ka ; by then the Sahara barrier was formed too
the Berber and Bantu expansions are intra-Africa expansions which happened later
also the expansion of J1 proto-Arabs from Yemen into Sudan and Ethiopia happened later (3-4 ka)

 

[Fire Haired14]

So Bantu expansion was as massive as Corded Ware expansion.

 

[Megalophias]

So Bantu expansion was as massive as Corded Ware expansion.

Much bigger - area of the Bantu zone is about that of the whole continent of Europe, with all kinds of terrain and climate.

 

[bicicleur 2]

So Bantu expansion was as massive as Corded Ware expansion.

Bantu were fully develloped iron age herders expanding into mesolithic territory

 

[Megalophias]

Well, a lot of their expansion was as iron-working agropastoralists encountering foragers, but the earliest stage seems to have been Neolithic, and there were already pastoralists before them in parts of eastern and southern Africa.

 

[halfalp]

Bantu is the new black, oh wait...