The Peopling of Africa

[The Odum of Ala Igbo]

Scientific study on the origins and varying levels of Asian genetic heritage in Madagascar:

https://www.nature.com/articles/srep26066

The Austronesian expansion, one of the last major human migrations, influenced regions as distant as tropical Asia, Remote Oceania and Madagascar, off the east coast of Africa. The identity of the Asian groups that settled Madagascar is particularly mysterious. While language connects Madagascar to the Ma’anyan of southern Borneo, haploid genetic data are more ambiguous. Here, we screened genome-wide diversity in 211 individuals from the Ma’anyan and surrounding groups in southern Borneo. Surprisingly, the Ma’anyan are characterized by a distinct, high frequency genomic component that is not found in Malagasy. This novel genetic layer occurs at low levels across Island Southeast Asia and hints at a more complex model for the Austronesian expansion in this region. In contrast, Malagasy show genomic links to a range of Island Southeast Asian groups, particularly from southern Borneo, but do not have a clear genetic connection with the Ma’anyan despite the obvious linguistic association.

continued

Explicit admixture analysis on the low density dataset confirms this assessment, showing that the three Malagasy populations have ~70% African ancestry (red) versus ~30% Asian ancestry (mixed colours; Fig. 2). These two main components appear consistently, in similar proportions, in plots from K = 2 to K = 14 (Supplementary Fig. S9). The Asian ancestry of Malagasy individuals is diverse, with no component (or set of components) pointing to a specific Asian population as the source of Malagasy. The Asian components found in Malagasy instead occur across Island Southeast Asia, including the South Kalimantan Dayak, Dusun, Murut, Javanese and the Ma’anyan.

continued

Together, these analyses confirm that Malagasy are a mixture of African and Island Southeast Asian populations, as suggested by much previous research6,7,8,9,30,31. However, this study provides the new information that the Island Southeast Asian populations with closest genetic affinity to the Malagasy are located along the coasts of Borneo, although exact source populations still cannot be clearly identified. Surprisingly, the Ma’anyan, despite speaking the closest sister language to Malagasy, do not share any particularly strong genetic links with Malagasy (Figs 2 and 5).

 

[The Odum of Ala Igbo]

The Vezo people of Madagascar. 70 per cent East African(Bantu)/30 per cent Austronesian heritage on average. They speak a dialect of the Malagasy language which is largely Austronesian in grammar, syntax and structure.

 

[The Odum of Ala Igbo]

The Merina people of Madagascar. On average, 50 per cent Austronesian/50 per cent East African (Bantu)

Another Merina person.

 

[Poitier]

"Egypt is the last nation built along the Nile, not the first......The first nation built along the Nile in Central/East Africa....we call it Uganda"

keep thinking this shyt is a game

 

[The Odum of Ala Igbo]

The Peopling of Madagascar and Africa's Indian Ocean Islands (cont'd)

(From UNESCO General History of Africa)

On the historiography of Madagascar and an indigenous Malagasy script!

These sources have survived in a variety of circumstances. Sometimes, especially in the south-east, they have been attached to documents

written in Arabic-Malagasy script (volan'Onjatsy or sorabe);4 some - times they have been absorbed, in the form of traces that are difficult to interpret, in sources that have been much reworked;5

The destruction of megafauna in Madagascar due to human activities

T h e present-day vegetation of Madagascar is generally considered to be the direct or indirect result of huma n activity. Th e disappearance, about the beginning of the present millennium, of some animals (large lemurs, large 'ostriches' or Aepyornis, large land tortoises, giant crocodiles, dwarf hippopotamuses, etc.) that lived in this original environment, and whose cemeteries are to be found often around old water points, seems at least to indicate that there had already been a considerable change in the forest cover, even if it ma y also be supposed that there was also a period of relatively lower rainfall in order to explain the drying up of some regions.

Metal-working in Madagascar

However, copper, which was to enjoy great fortune in later periods, seems at first to have led there only to craft jewellery production notably of the vangovango bracelets with a broken ring that have been found as far away as Irodo and that are still called, even when they are made of silver, by the name haba. Once again, the linguistic associations are interesting. Th e Cham haban and the curu saban both mean copper in the continental Austronesian domain; 3 8 saba in both Malagasy and in Comor - ian is still the usual word for copper today.39

Iron was exploited in significant quantities. Here, the metal does not seem to have been worked on the spot, since the usual practice of re-use, attested to by ethnography, is not enough to explain the striking contrast between the abundance of traces of exploitation of the ore (ashes, charcoal, slag) and the virtual absence of iron objects, the sites of the period having yielded only one bracelet (Andranosoa), a harpoon and fish-hooks (Talaky). T o this might be added - in a country where the existence of stone tools has not yet been attested - marks of axes and knives on bones (Andaro, Andranosoa). N o doubt the smelted products were largely exported through Talaky, whose development, if not its foundation, thus appears to be linked to its role as an outlet to the sea of export products from the interior, which moreover were apparently not limited to smelted products.

Animal rearing and protein-consumption

Sheep skins ma y have been a second export product. An d it ma y well be that the large surplus of meat that was thus obtained was salted and smoked, using techniques of preservation known to have existed at the time. This preserved meat could naturally have been a third export product. But, if the maritime traffic was heavy, this meat probably served mostly to supply the boats. No r is it impossible that some of it was destined for local consumption. It is already quite certain that these inhabitants of the interior in the south who , following the traditional Malagasy way of doing things,4 ' used a very refined cuisine based on boiling and sophisti- cated methods of preparing meat (art of carving, etc.),42 were at least not deficient in animal proteins.

 

[The Odum of Ala Igbo]

Other animal products and some food plants

In addition to sheep, they also reared - but in smaller numbers, it would seem -

oxen and goats, the consumption of which is attested by the leftovers from meals, which also show the consumption of products of hunting (bones of birds, hedgehogs, and other small rodents) and fishing (fish bones, crab claws, shells of sea urchins, freshwater and seawater shellfish). As for their food plants, which are not mentioned in the historical tradition and for which there is no archaeological evidence, no doubt they at least included those among the earliest plants domesticated on the Island that were present in the region, yams and taros or similar plants, which could also be gathered in the forest, as they still are today. An d to them ma y be added, in addition to the calabash gourd with its man y uses which is widely found there, the providential Madagascar periwinkle (Catharanthus roseus Linn.), which Malagasy sailors knew traditionally and probably diffused among other sailors at a very early date.43 This is certainly not, strictly speaking, an edible plant, but the appetite-reducing properties of its leaves relieve hunger pangs, and earned it the nam e of tonga (literally: 'which enables (one) to arrive') in the south. Indeed, it is not necessary to penetrate into the hinterland to procure it, for it is rather a coastal species, even managing to survive in salty areas. Thus it ma y be supposed that the boats that must have called in at Talaky could take it on board as canoes of today do.

 

[The Odum of Ala Igbo]

Oceanic Navigation to Madagascar/Madagascar in wider regional contexts

Austronesian vessels

Austronesians were the first to be recognized as being the builders of the great sewn boats intended for sailing the high seas, which the Chinese authors from the third to the ninth century described by the name of kun-lun bo, describing them as ships with woven sails averaging 50 m in length and capable of transporting between 500 and 1000 people and a cargo of between 250 and 1000 tons.48 Rafts and canoes with an outrigger or outriggers ma y perhaps have continued to transport some Austronesian immigrants at the end of the first millennium to Madagascar - poverty and courage, like the taste for adventure, are timeless. However, it is no longer possible, for periods after the third century — and perhaps even before this time

Artistic depiction of an outrigger sailing canoe used by Polynesians, the cousins of the Austronesian settlers of Madagascar

If it is agreed that the Austronesians were the first to sail towards Madagascar (whose peopling, language and culture bear their imprint - on this point no doubt has emerged during recent research), there is good reason, given the evidence looked at above, to examine closely the hypothesis that the Island was integrated into an inter-regional trade system which provided a demand for a number of valuable products.52 Timber, caulking gum , aromatics and spices were, from a very early date, supplied by gathering techniques in the Island; these included cinnamon which seems to have been one of the most profitable products in such trade, whose exploitation by protected gathering techniques was a speciality of ancient Champa. 5 3

cont'd

It rests first on the likely participation of Austronesians in the transport of persons and goods in the western Indian Ocean at the beginning of the first millennium. Various pieces of evidence suggest the possible presence of the 'vessels of black men' 5 4 - kun-lun-bo - close to Africa; the reference by the Periplus of the Erythraean Sea to sewn boats with woven sails on the northern coast of Azania;

 

[The Odum of Ala Igbo]

Trade with Madagascar and Malagasy/Comorian attempt to conquer Yemen!

T h e first difficulties that traders from Madagascar met with seem to have been related to the ineffectiveness of the alliance between Axum and Byzantium against Sassanid Persia. Th e Sassanids, thanks to the conquest of South Arabia (570) which they remained in control of until the conversion of the last governor to Islam in 628,** succeeded no doubt in partially taking over the legacy of the South Arabians in the sea trade in the Indian Ocean, including the Red Sea. The n conquered - and soon converted - Persia was to some extent integrated to the expansionist policy of the Arab-Islamic world, whose conquest of Egypt (641-2) completed the seizure of control of the trade routes in the west by the Arabs and Persians.

Whether active or passive, the initial adaptation of the Island to this situation manifestly consisted in entering into relations with Persian speaking importers, which is what explains ho w their influence is perceptible through the data yielded by the soil of Madagascar. Som e of them were, moreover, probably present on the African coast. But the at least partial change in partners and the interruption of overland routes, which lay behind not only the decline in the incense trade but also no doubt that in other products coming up against competition with those of the Arab-Persian world, also perhaps impeded the trade in cinnamon, which was already in competition with Ceylon which had been backed by the Sassanids since the fourth century. And when, taking advantage of the troubles at the end of the seventh and beginning of the eighth century in South Arabia, it seems,69 the people of al-Kumr (Comoros and Madagascar) embarked on the conquest of Aden in their outrigger boats, it should perhaps be seen as a partially successful attempt to restore the situation. For these conquerers, some of who m had settled dow n in Yemen , and had mad e Aden into their home port from where they would set out each season, 'sail[ing] together in a single monsoon', had succeeded in establishing a direct sailing route between their country of origin and south Arabia, a voyage that the Arabs and Persians in the thirteenth century, according to the testimony of Ibn al-Mudjäwir, were still taking three monsoons to complete. Thus, in spite of everything, they were able to compete with their rivals, since the Arab and Persian seafarers, wh o seem not to have known of the Comoros and Madagascar until the tenth century — and only had a clear idea of them by the twelfth century - continued to receive Malagasy products on the East African coast, which they would coast along.

 

[The Odum of Ala Igbo]

Commentary on the conversion of some Malagasy to Islam

In this and the immediately following centuries, as far as the Arabic sources lead one to suppose, the voyages of the 'Malagasy' seafarers probably usually ended at Aden. Their long familiarity with Muslim countries led to the conversion of some Malagasy to Islam, and it ma y even be wondered whether some voyages from alKum r to Aden and the entrance to the Persian Gulf did not in the end become part of the organization of Arab-Persian trade. On e fact in any case seems virtually certain, and that is that it was Malagasy seafarers converted to Islam wh o initiated the sailors of Oma n and Sïrâf into the direct sailing route to the north of the Island, where the earliest settlements can still be found at Onjatsy,70 and also to the island of Kanbalü, which al-Mas'udï said was 'inhabited by a mixed population of Muslims and idolatrous Zand]' and which it can still not be ruled out ma y have been situated somewhere in al-Kumr , where it would have to be looked for in the northwest.71 But wherever exactly Kanbalü was situated, this clearly implies that it was at the latest by the beginning of the tenth century that the rivalry with the Arabs and Persians was no longer experienced so intensely by all Malagasy. An d since that was happening at a time when, taking advantage of the situation created by the massacre of Muslims in Canton (878) and the growth of the power of Srïvijâya, the world of the Kun-lun, through control of the straits, had just gained a real advantage over rival navies (Arab-Persian and Indian, on the one hand, Chinese on the other), things were not going to stay like that.

 

[The Odum of Ala Igbo]

The map fukked up for not stating that West Africa has an indigenous species of yam and not including teff - BUT it's still interesting
NPR Choice page

 

[The Odum of Ala Igbo]

 

[The Odum of Ala Igbo]

10 Great Ancient African Civilizations Outside of Egypt -

 

[Premeditated]

My new theory is that Nilo-Saharans and Niger-Kordofanians were once part of a single phylum. The shrinking of the Sahara pushed one group towards the east (Nilo-Saharans) and Niger-Kordofanians South.

Nilo-Saharans bumped into Afro-Asiatics who were moving up the Nile and thus created Nile cultures such as Ancient Egypt. Niger-Kordofanians stayed in the Sahel zone until they learned how to grow rice and yam. After doing so, they pushed West African pygmies out of the region and quickly ran it over. Thoughts?

@KidStranglehold

damn, I've been skipping over this thread for years but have alot of catching up to do.

This have been my slight theory. not that most west africans stayed in the sahal, but that upper west africans have the same ancestory as the nilotics in east africa. except, my theory were, they came from Sudan, but now I can definitely see you point about nilotics originating from the sahal but moving east.
Senegalese and Malian are way taller than other africans besides Tutsis, some Cushytes and off course nilotics

 

[The Odum of Ala Igbo]

damn, I've been skipping over this thread for years but have alot of catching up to do.

This have been my slight theory. not that most west africans stayed in the sahal, but that upper west africans have the same ancestory as the nilotics in east africa. except, my theory were, they came from Sudan, but now I can definitely see you point about nilotics originating from the sahal but moving east.
Senegalese and Malian are way taller than other africans besides Tutsis, some Cushytes and off course nilotics

I wish we had the genetic research to back this up

 

[Samori Toure]

damn, I've been skipping over this thread for years but have alot of catching up to do.

This have been my slight theory. not that most west africans stayed in the sahal, but that upper west africans have the same ancestory as the nilotics in east africa. except, my theory were, they came from Sudan, but now I can definitely see you point about nilotics originating from the sahal but moving east.
Senegalese and Malian are way taller than other africans besides Tutsis, some Cushytes and off course nilotics

Dr. Clyde Winter theory basically says just that. He states that the Mande people were in the Maa Confederation with the Egyptians and Sumerians. His theory is based on the writings of Professor Desplagnes who was a French scholar who had been advised by the Mande that they were a part of the confederation.

Dr. Winters also pointed out that the Mande had always been traders and they created the oldest writing systems in the World.