The genetic legacy of the expansion of Bantu-speaking peoples in Africa

Cesar A. Fortes-Lima, Concetta Burgarella, Rickard Hammarén, Anders Eriksson, Mário Vicente, Cecile Jolly, Armando Semo, Hilde Gunnink, Sara Pacchiarotti, Leon Mundeke, Igor Matonda, Joseph Koni Muluwa, Peter Coutros, Terry S. Nyambe, Justin Cirhuza Cikomola, Vinet Coetzee, Minique Castro, Peter Ebbesen, Joris Delanghe, Mark Stoneking, Lawrence Barham, Marlize Lombard, Anja Meyer, Maryna Steyn, Helena Malmström, Jorge Rocha, Himla Soodyall, Brigitte Pakendorf, Koen Bostoen and Carina M. Schlebusch ()
Additional contact information
Cesar A. Fortes-Lima: Uppsala University
Concetta Burgarella: Uppsala University
Rickard Hammarén: Uppsala University
Anders Eriksson: University of Tartu
Mário Vicente: University of Stockholm
Cecile Jolly: Uppsala University
Armando Semo: Universidade do Porto
Hilde Gunnink: Ghent University
Sara Pacchiarotti: Ghent University
Leon Mundeke: University of Kinshasa
Igor Matonda: University of Kinshasa
Joseph Koni Muluwa: Institut Supérieur Pédagogique de Kikwit
Peter Coutros: Ghent University
Terry S. Nyambe: Livingstone Museum
Justin Cirhuza Cikomola: Catholic University of Bukavu
Vinet Coetzee: University of Pretoria
Minique Castro: Agricultural Research Council, Onderstepoort
Peter Ebbesen: University of Aalborg
Joris Delanghe: Ghent University
Mark Stoneking: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Lawrence Barham: University of Liverpool
Marlize Lombard: University of Johannesburg
Anja Meyer: University of the Witwatersrand
Maryna Steyn: University of the Witwatersrand
Helena Malmström: Uppsala University
Jorge Rocha: Universidade do Porto
Himla Soodyall: University of the Witwatersrand
Brigitte Pakendorf: CNRS & Université de Lyon
Koen Bostoen: Ghent University
Carina M. Schlebusch: Uppsala University

Nature, 2024, vol. 625, issue 7995, 540-547

Abstract: Abstract The expansion of people speaking Bantu languages is the most dramatic demographic event in Late Holocene Africa and fundamentally reshaped the linguistic, cultural and biological landscape of the continent1–7. With a comprehensive genomic dataset, including newly generated data of modern-day and ancient DNA from previously unsampled regions in Africa, we contribute insights into this expansion that started 6,000–4,000 years ago in western Africa. We genotyped 1,763 participants, including 1,526 Bantu speakers from 147 populations across 14 African countries, and generated whole-genome sequences from 12 Late Iron Age individuals8. We show that genetic diversity amongst Bantu-speaking populations declines with distance from western Africa, with current-day Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo as possible crossroads of interaction. Using spatially explicit methods9 and correlating genetic, linguistic and geographical data, we provide cross-disciplinary support for a serial-founder migration model. We further show that Bantu speakers received significant gene flow from local groups in regions they expanded into. Our genetic dataset provides an exhaustive modern-day African comparative dataset for ancient DNA studies10 and will be important to a wide range of disciplines from science and humanities, as well as to the medical sector studying human genetic variation and health in African and African-descendant populations.

Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1038/s41586-023-06770-6

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