Africa's amazing human genetic diversity

[Loki]

I am astounded to read about this. The Khoisan people, for example, split off from the rest of humanity about 200,000 years ago. That's as old as Y-chromosomal Adam and Mithochondrial Eve. And in Tanzania there are a few hunter-gatherer tribes who are unrelated to any other tribe in the world, the Hadza and Sandawe. The Sandawe are said to be even more ancient than the San people, and they live not far from the Cradle of Humankind site in Tanzania. They probably lived there since the start.

I think all our earliest ancestors (except Neanderthals, Denisovans) probably looked roughly like the San still do today. The San even exhibit epicanthic folds. They have a little bit of everything.

[Dema]

Interesting

[Coolguy1]

So they have the Y chromosome A?

[Loki]

So they have the Y chromosome A?

Yes.

[War Chef]

So what are the Bantu in relation to the San? Cousins, brothers, etc?

[Loki]

So what are the Bantu in relation to the San? Cousins, brothers, etc?

They are not related. The Bantu migrated from West-Central Africa about 2,000 years ago to the Great Lakes area, and then further south into Southern Africa. But, along the way they absorbed some of the indigenous Khoisan people, so they have some of their genes (a minority).

[Loki]

So they have the Y chromosome A?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khoisan

Various Y-chromosome studies since confirmed that the Khoisan carry some of the most divergent (oldest) Y-chromosome haplogroups. These haplogroups are specific sub-groups of haplogroups A and B, the two earliest branches on the human Y-chromosome tree.

Similar to findings from Y-Chromosome studies, mitochondrial DNA studies also showed evidence that the Khoe–San people carry high frequencies of the earliest haplogroup branches in the human mitochondrial DNA tree. The most divergent (oldest) mitochondrial haplogroup, L0d, have been identified at its highest frequencies in the southern African Khoe and San groups. The distinctiveness of the Khoisan in both matrilineal and patrilineal groupings is a further indicator that they represent a population historically distinct from other Africans.

[Taiguaitiaoghyrmmumin]

Bantus are very distant cousins but not recently related.they are older than bantus

[Sikeliot]

A large part of African diversity is due to foreign input from Arabs and whatnot. A large part of Africa (all Niger-Congo speaking people) are genetically homogenous from Ghana down to SE Africa.

[Isleño]

The irony. The world descended from Negroes. Karma people.