@shotgun
yep. same with nordics in europe. strange how people call sub saharan and nordics the 'prototype' of their region when they are new settlements
True.
But with West Africans - they migrated from other parts of Africa (N/NE/E), as told by the oral history of all West African groups. However, historians always omit their migration pattern & put their existence in West Africa hence they don’t include them in any DNA groupings older than 10-20,000 years ago.
If we go by Herotodus’ book on the origin of thr Nile River & the expedition further into Africa: the earliest settlement in West Africa in what’s known today as Mauritania was the Kingdom of Atlas. Atlas in the book was the same as Atlantis by Herotodus but despite how Herotodus is revered in Europe as one of the GOAT historians/philosophers - that has been dismissed cos it will change history (that’s a topic for another day). He also claimed that apart from Atlas & Nile River flowing westwards - the only thing in the region were wild animals & very short people (pigmies).
After Atlas collapsed & was buried by the Sahara (the eye of the Sahara) - the next settlement to appear in West Africa was Ghana Empire in the same Mauritania, which was built by Soninke people (a Mande group). And that period coincides with when the Bantu speakers started expanding from the borders of West Africa & Central Africa - to East & Southern Africa & the disappearance of pigmies.
So, this is the period when mass migration to West Africa started happening. The Mandes were the first group to build settlements in West Africa & other groups arrived later. And it’s evident in how different kingdoms & empires by different groups started springing up during this period.
I think with North Africa - apart from Egypt, it was mostly called “Libya” during ancient times. And ancient Libya was a coastal settlement on the Mediterranean sea. The bulk of today’s Libya, Morocco & Algeria were unoccupied. People started building settlements in those places later. And migrations have been happening between those places & West Africa since West Africa became occupied. A lot of them also share borders with West African countries hence Berbers are indigenous to both regions & come in different shades.
