Jacmel Civil Registry During the Haitian Revolution

Although still not as detailed as we would like, we would like to explore more fully the civil registry of Jacmel and other parts of Haiti before independence, digitized through ANOM's website. These records, which now record more of the formerly enslaved population, sometimes contain rich information pertinent to historical and genealogical research. For instance, many of the people who appear in the marriages recorded in these years, from say, 1795-1803, were Africans who were married. These Africans give a nation of origin or country of origin, too, sometimes using the same colonial categories of African nations or other places we have never heard of. For example, where was Manboula? Or Zumbo? These African place names and ethnonyms might more accurately reflect how these people saw themselves, since they were no longer slaves but free people. In addition, sometimes records of their marriages record the ages and names of children they had who were born illegitimate. These were undoubtedly, in some cases, children born to the parents when both were enslaved. Someone with a lot of time and eager to peruse these records might be able to find some of their ancestors listed in these notices.

The person above is an example from Jacmel, recorded in 1801. The man, Jean Baptiste Maturin, was a Hausa around 40 years old who married a Creole woman. This record seems to be in accordance with the known demographics of the Hausa population in Saint Domingue. Said to be overwhelmingly male, these Hausa captives who did marry or have children did so with Creoles and other African nations in the colony. Sadly, the record doesn't go into more detail about what particular part of the "Aoussa" country Jean Baptiste Maturin hailed from. But other Africans who appear in these records from those revolutionary years may give more data and information. 

Inheritance Breakdown with Ancestry

Another fun aspect of Ancestry DNA's services is the ability to check which parent contributed to the ethnicities estimate in one's DNA origins. For my Haitian parent, it is interesting to see that the entirety of their 11% European ancestry is derived from their mother. This matches my genealogical research into the origins of this grandparent, who appears to have affranchi ancestors during the colonial period. As we speculated previously, the non-French ancestry may all be France but due to the measurement of French DNA in Ancestry's algorithm, the French ancestry was split into Scotland, France, Portugal and Wales. Anyway, the results confirm my theory about our Haitian parent's mother. 

The father, however, may have been entirely or almost entirely sub-Saharan African in origin. What is interesting about him is the entirety of our parent's "Nigerian" ancestry allegedly came from him. If so, we assume this grandfather had substantial "Nigerian" origin. That, however, is a problematic concept and, based on the records we have for French slaving, we assume his "Nigerian" ancestry was likely some mix of Ibo, Yoruba, Nupe, Hausa and possibly others. Our grandmother, on the other hand, was the one who possessed far more ancestry from Cameroon, Congo, and Western Bantu Peoples. She was also the one who bequeathed Senegalese ancestry to our parent.

The African ancestry of these two was, therefore, rather distinct though they occasionally overlapped. According to Ancestry's Chromosome Painter, our grandfather's "Nigeria" segments were often rather long, perhaps hinting at recent ancestry. If Ibos were among the large number of enslaved Africans in Bainet during the late 1700s, perhaps he had, at least in part, Ibo origins. Our parent also matched with Yoruba and Igbo Nigerians through her test results. She also matched with Mandinka people from Sierra Leone and Mali and two individuals from the DRC. Therefore, we consider it likely that she is of Yoruba, Ibo, Bambara, Mandingue, "Congo" and possibly Wolof, Akan, and "Arada" origins.

The Survival of the Garamantes

Image from the World History Encyclopedia

We have been perusing the Corpus of Early Arabic Sources for West Africa History and the reports and studies by archaeologists and wonder if the Garamantian state, in some form, persisted well into the Islamic era. We know from John of Biclar's chronicle that the Garamantes sent an envoy to the Byzantines in 568, which is after the Vandal Wars and after Justinian, according to Procopius, had built churches and promoted Christianity at Ghadames and among the Berbers in Tropolitania. Even though there is no evidence of conversion to Christianity in the 6th century Fazzan, we know the Byzantines at least reached some of their neighbors. This seems to imply survival of a Garamantian polity to the end of the 500s.

Then we have a period where we know little about the Fazzan until the 660s, when Uqba b. Nafi arrived and imposed tribute on the Fazzan and Kawar. Just using Arabic sources from the medieval period, one finds references to Qaramantiyyun, Qazan, and Fazzani people as "Sudan" ("blacks") who were described as non-Muslims. Reading al-Tabari on the Zanj Revolt in 9th century Iraq, one finds references to people from the Fazzan among the Zanj (black) slaves. Sahnun, in the 800s, also quoted the opinion of Malik ibn Anas on the Fazzanis, implying that they were still non-Muslim blacks in the late 700s (see the fascinating article by Brunschevig on this). Then, al-Ya'qubi referred to the Fazzan region as ruled by a powerful chief who was always at war with the Mazata Berbers in Wadan.

The Mazata were Ibadites, and probably among the slave-traders described by the same author as operating in Zawila and Kawar. My guess is that Waddan and Germa were the centers of two different polities that dominated the region, and in Waddan and Zawila, the Ibadites and their trading network were powerful enough to be the victim of a raid from the Abbasids in c.762-763. Yet, over a century later, another part of the Fazzan region is described as independent. The polity controlling the section of the Fazzan in opposition to the Mazata at Waddan were possibly the Garamantes, whose wars with the Ibadi Mazata would have led to some of them becoming captives sold into slavery abroad.

Further evidence of this Garamantian state surviving longer can be seen in the remnant populations living at Germa and Tassawa described by al-Idrisi. Al-Idrisi seems to have been confused about the political layout of the land in the pre-Islamic era, but he described the people at these two towns using an irrigation system (perhaps the foggara in a far less intensive manner). Perhaps this remnant of the Garamantes engaged in trans-Saharan salt trade, since al-Muqaddasi described the Qaramatiyyun transact with salt. Maybe the Garamantes (or their possible desendants) focused on the salt trade in the southern Fazzan and perhaps Kawar while the Mazata and other Berbers engaged in the slave trade with their Ibadi partners and Kanem and beyond? 

We can state with some degree of certainty that al-Muqqadasi was the last writer to refer to a population called Garamantes (or something approximate). The Garamantes, at least in some form, may have survived as a distinct people until the end of the 10th or early 11th century, and were likely a heterogeneous Berber population. Islamization of Garama and its surroundings appears to have been complete by this time, too, with archaeologists like Mattingly reporting findings of a central mosque in the ancient Garamante capital. 

Epouro

 

We never thought we would develop an interest in hymns from various Orthodox Church traditions. But here we are...obsessively listening to  Greek Orthodox, Coptic, and Ethiopian Orthodox music. These Coptic hymns in particular are rather beautiful. 

Bainet Origins with Ancestry DNA Estimates

Our Haitian parent took a DNA test via Ancestry recently. A native of Bainet, we find their results to be what one might expect of an average Haitian person: mainly sub-Saharan African in origin (and a mix of various parts of West Africa and West Central Africa) and some European ancestry (mainly French). None of this is too surprising, and we always knew our mother's family had some European ancestry. However, we believe she was trying to find more precise data on her African ancestry. Unfortunately, the algorithm and samples used by Ancestry appear to be rather limited on details or precision when it comes to sub-Saharan Africa. Thus, we see results broken down by nation without any additional breakdown on specific ethnic groups within these occasionally vast or large nations & regions. For instance, what does it mean to be 25% Nigerian, like our parent? Nigeria is a large country with dozens of ethnic groups. We know some of the modern-day populations of Nigeria were enslaved in Saint Domingue, like the Yoruba, Nupe, Hausa and Ibo, but this genetic ancestry estimate only confirms that broadly. Nonetheless, as the amateur, self-proclaimed genealogist, I shall endeavor to connect her results with my previous feeble attempts at tracing our roots in the context of Bainet and Haitian history.

First, the easy part. The 11% European ancestry, only designated as 5% French. We believe there must be issues or occasional problems with the algorithm for detecting French ancestry. Or, alternatively, one of our very distant forebears may have been of Spanish or Iberian origin and took a French name upon arrival in Saint Domingue. As for Wales and Scotland, these are perhaps misread for French ancestry or, perhaps, a remnant of a Scottish family that lived in Bainet in the 1700s. We refer, of course, to the MacGill family of colonial Bainet. The first of that name in Bainet appears to have been a Michel MacGille, who died in 1750. ANOM, which has digitized the parish books of Baynet, has Michel MacGille listed as a native of Montserrat (?), indicating that he may have been from the British isles but resident in the Antilles before relocating to Bainet. Perhaps the Welsh and Scottish ancestry indicated in the Ancestry DNA estimate is also from this man, who could have raped an enslaved woman like so many planters and colons in the Antilles. Overall, the European ancestry is likely from France, and inherited from free people of color, including families we have ranted about previously at this blog. 

The African origins, the fun part, is, sadly, the most difficult to make sense of. Overall, our parent is mainly West African rather than Central African. However, this West African ancestry is rather well-distributed across that vast region. Although Senegal is represented at 3% (perhaps a sign of distant Wolof ancestry, although "Senegalois" were not always defined as such in the records of Saint Domingue, Mali (18%) is rather high. While this is a problematic category and lacks ethnic breakdowns, we assume this "Mali" ancestry in Bainet is likely traceable to the Bambara and Mandingue populations. We know Bambara were a sizable minority of the enslaved population in 18th century Bainet. Mandingue and other related peoples were also present in Saint Domingue, some of whom were actually Muslims. The rather high Mali results obtained here may be a sign of an important concentration of Bambara and Mandingue peoples in Bainet or its environs in the 18th century.

How to interpret the Ghana & Ivory Coast, Nigeria, and Benin & Togo results is also difficult. We know from French records that Cotocoli, Mina, Hausa, Borno, Nupe, Ibo, Fon, Arada, Thiamba, Ouidah, Dahomey, and Nago were exported to Saint Domingue. Again, the lack of precise breakdowns of the African DNA results means we cannot go much further than this. We can hypothesize a general descent from all or some of these aforementioned groups in Bainet. Likewise, the 14% Cameroon, Congo and Western Bantu Peoples is probably indicating some degree of "Congo" ancestry, and we know the "Congos" were numerous in Saint-Domingue. Nigeria, an enormous nation of rich ethnic diversity, included Yoruba, Hausa, Ibo, Fulani, Borno (Kanuri?), Nupe and others sold into slavery. That rich ethnic diversity in Bainet may have included a demographically important Ibo component, as Ibos were present in Bainet. Indeed, Geggus's research on the French slave trade found a significant number of captives brought to the South of the colony were from the Bight of Biafra, which would have included Ibos. 

Intriguingly, our parent is overwhelmingly of West African origin rather than Central African, which we interpret as possibly being evidence of a deeper ancestry among Creole slaves. Our thinking here is that the already demographically significant Creole slave population had less Central African ancestry by the late 1700s, and this group appears to have been the majority on some plantations in Bainet. Indeed, looking at some data on the Saugrain plantation in 1720, one finds that Creole slaves were already the largest group. The other Africans were mainly West Africans, with areas of the Slave Coast and Gold Coast represented among the bossales and a mix of other Africans from Senegal and Central Africa. By the late 18th century, Creoles appear to have outnumbered the other slaves owned by at least one Perronneau in the 1790s and on two indigoteries studied by Siguret. The enslaved workforce of Bainet appears to have been largely Creole, with significant Ibo and Congo presence. 

Of course, the above is just speculation based on limited data. Sex ratios, plantation inventories, and more precise data on the growth of the slave population in Bainet is required. However, we find our results to be generally in concordance with that of a summary of 45 Haitian Ancestry DNA results analyzed here. The main difference is that our parent had far less Central African ancestry and more Mali. We would love to see more data from Bainet and people with Bainet origins to see if this pattern is generally true in our region. As for the "hacked" results, they reveal trace amounts of Khoisan, Aka, Mbuti and Indigenous Americas ancestry. Presumably, because the results are less than 0.5%, Ancestry did not include them into their Ethnicity breakdown. We assume Indigenous Americas is probably Taino of some sort or another. 

Playing With Languages

Although linguistics is an area of study we hardly understand, perusing the works of Claude Rilly on Meroitic and Nubian Languages, as well as the chapter by Murray Last in Becoming Hausa that includes the notion of a Coptic influence on Hausa suggestive of an early Copt presence or traders in that region, sparked our own amateurish attempts to find links between distant African languages. Using English or French bilingual dictionaries for Hausa, Coptic, Old Nubian, Kanuri, and the Zaghawa languages, we pretended we could discover possible links that connect the Middle Nile with the Central Sudanic regions of Hausaland and Kanem-Borno. Of course, since we don't really know what we're doing, most of this is difficult to say and rather difficult to prove without a much deeper understanding of Egyptian, Kanuri, Hausa, Meroitic and Zaghawa languages. 

First, the fascinating notion of Rilly that the Meroitic qore title for the king, being adopted by several other societies in Sudan. Well, this very title, sometimes presented as qere in other studies of the Meroitic language, bears a close resemblance to the archaic Zaghawa or Beria word for king, kire (or kireh) While we need further research on the Zaghawa and related Saharan languages of the the Nilo-Saharan family, the Zaghawa associated with the early state of Kanem called their kings KAKRH in the unvocalized Arabic rendering of al-Ya'qu'bi in the late 9th century. While several centuries separate early Kanem from the Napatan-Meroitic civilization, perhaps the Zaghawa, who were mobile and probably interacted in some fashion or another with the Nubian civilizations, borrowed the term from the Meroitic language because of the prestige and influence of Meroe on other Sudanic peoples. In addition, the etymology of the Meroitic word for king, according to Rilly's research, is traced to what he considers the Meroitic term for head. Well, the Zaghawa kire has no link to their word for head, although kire can be used for an older sibling. Ultimately, in our opinion, a possible Meroitic origin for the titles of early Kanem kings is suggestive, perhaps linking, in some fashion, the Meroitic civilization with the rise of other kingdoms in western Sudan and Chad. If early Kanem and its Zaghawa rulers adopted the Meroitic title, what else was possibly influenced by ancient Nubia in Kanem-Borno?

Besides the possible Meroitic origin of the early titles of Kanem rulers, Hausa and Coptic is another interesting relationship. While we failed to find, in our amateurish attempt, significant connections between Coptic and Hausa, it is a little easier to understand how Hausa (and Chadic) are classified as Afro-Asiatic languages. For instance, the Hausa word for palace, fada, is similar to the Egyptian pharaoh. We believe this connection is due to both words being rooted in the following two words: "big house."  The Hausa term for sin, zunubi, almost looks like the Coptic term for sin, too (ⲛⲟⲃⲉ). Indeed, the Hausa term for king, or sarki, which almost resembles the Egyptian špsj and srḫ or serekh. Other speculative and or possible links between Hausa and Egyptian or Coptic can be seen in their respective words for moon, weave, some numbers, and, perhaps, the Hausa and Egyptian words for towns (birni and dmj. It is likely that most of these similarities stretch back deeper in time to the Afroasiatic roots of Hausa and Ancient Egyptian, instead of influences from the Coptic on Hausa in medieval times. Who knows, perhaps the famous bori cult of the Hausa has a common origin with the term ba in Egyptian.  

It is also likely that the Kanuri influences on Hausa, which could be the origin of the term birni, included other words of Nilo-Saharan languages as well as Berber via the Sahara. Intriguingly, the Kanuri equivalent to write, borrowed by Hausa, may be of Berber origin instead of Egyptian or Nubian, yet not from the Tuareg Berbers. What this means is unclear, but we think it very likely that the Zaghawa were possibly influenced by or interacted with speakers of the ancient Meroitic language. Murray's theory of a Coptic influence on Hausa or a traceable Coptic linguistic presence in Hausaland seems unlikely, though. Indeed, most of the similarities were probably due to both languages sharing a common root as Afroasiatic tongues. Nonetheless, we are fascinated by a possible Meroitic linguistic influence in western Sudan and Chad, although far more work needs to be done on the various languages spoken in the region. 

The Caribs of Dominica

Since we have read a few of his essays on the Dominica Caribs elsewhere, we thought Douglas Taylor's The Caribs of Dominica. Though very short, it seems to be based on fieldwork in the Carib Reserve in the 1930s. It certainly reflects that older era in which Western scholars openly expressed racist and condescending views of their ethnographic subjects. Nonetheless, the material focus of this brief study highlighted how the Caribs of Dominica, even after generations of Christianization and intermarriage with the black population, retained some distinct practices of canoe-making, fishing, basketry, and traditions that give some insights into the nature of precolonial indigenous social practices. For our purposes, however, it would likely be more fruitful to revisit and read Rochefort, Labat, and Breton, especially the bilingual dictionary from the 17th century that would shed even more light on the nature of an indigenous Caribbean people.