23andme Sub-Saharan Africa Update

 

Like many others, I was eagerly awaiting the update for sub-Saharan Africa on 23andme. We manage the account of a close relative from Haiti and were very interested in seeing any changes. Overall, the changes were not a surprise for Haitians and match what little I have uncovered with historical/genealogical sources. For example, the only "Very Close" African genetic group was the Igbo. This matches our findings of a consistent "Ibo" presence among African slaves in 18th century Bainet. 

The distant Yoruba people genetic group was also not surprising. Given the well-known historical interactions between peoples of Benin and southwestern Nigeria as well as the Yoruba presence in both regions, we suspect many Haitians may have this genetic group. Indeed, it is also matched by the high number of Yoruba matches for this relative on Ancestry.

The Ewe, Ga, and Ga-Dangme genetic groups are also to be expected as distant. One of the mutual African DNA matches between this person and myself on Ancestry is Ga, suggestive of an identical by descent shared ancestry. The Ga also overlap with Togo and Benin peoples, a known source of the African captives brought to Saint Domingue. As for the Mende, Temne and Kru, our relative has DNA matches from Sierra Leone on Ancestry and 23andme. From the former site, she and I share a match with someone who is half-Sierra Leonean (and half-Nigerian). This relative also has 2 Mende matches on Ancestry. 

Unfortunately, they did not get any African genetic groups for Angolan/Congolese or Senegambian and Guinean. This was disappointing as it would have been interesting to see African genetic groups for each region. Nonetheless, this person has 2 Fulani matches on 23andme and may see genetic groups in the next update.