The Slave Coast...

An additional pleasant surprise was to see the 9 ethnic groups comprising the reference populations for Benin/Togo in the Ancestry update. According to the site, they now have Aja, Ewe (Eʋe), Fon, Gen, Gun, Tori, Waci, Weme and Yoruba (Ìran Yorùbá) listed. Our estimated 15% supposedly comes via our Haitian ancestry, and the history of the slave trade in this part of West Africa suggests members of all the above groups were probably present in Saint-Domingue. Our estimated 15% ancestry from this area probably reflects groups that were called Arada, Fon, and Dahomey in the Caribbean. We assume we likely have Yoruba ancestry since our Haitian parent now has Yorubaland (and Nigerian Woodlands) as some of their regions in the update. But surely some "Arada" of unknown derivation were also among our ancestors. It is interesting to note, too, that many Arada (named after the kingdom of Allada) in Saint-Domingue were not necessarily natives of that kingdom. Indeed, many were probably captives of Allada's conflicts as well as people from deeper into the interior. One suspects Bariba, Nupe, Cotocoli, Gedevi, and other groups must have been filtered to the coast via Ouidah and other ports. The pronounced Creole plurality of the enslaved population in Bainet and Jacmel by the late 1700s likely included people descended from captives purchased along the Slave Coast...