Natufufians, Taforalt, and the Iberomaurusians - The DNA of Pre-Historic of North Africa
There is no denying that one of the biggest debates in the history of Africa was 'Who Were the Ancient Egyptians' and 'Who Were the Ancient North Africans'. Of course, there are many who are intrigued by the history of Ancient Egypt, as it was, without doubt, one of the greatest civilizations in humankind. However, as an African, I feel there are many aspects of ancient African history that is yet to be told, or in a sense, being deliberately hidden. I personally am not afraid to speak out about African history, neither am afraid to be labeled an 'Afrocentrist'. This is simply because I believe there is never a 'single story' to any part of history.
There are too many fallacies that are coming out regarding the ancient history of Africa, which is, in my opinion, either done deliberately or out of ignorance. It is now clear to me that both Egyptologists and genetic scientists, are one way or another, concealing evidence on who the ancients were or using semantics to distance black Africans from their own history on the continent. This post will be the first in a series of Ancient African history which I plan to cover over the next few months. I will first address the topic of Who were the ancient Iberomaurusians, who were the ancient North Africans and where are their descendants now. I will use both historical and genetic evidence and will later touch on the topic of Ancient Egypt.
The African Hunter-Gatherers - The First Inhabitants of North Africa
The story of Africa cannot begin without the mention of the Hadza Hunter-Gatherers - The First Eurasians of the Middle East, Europe, Asia, and North Africa. The Hadza carry Y-DNA Haplogroup B. May I add that various genetic scientists at the Harvard Medical School, as well as National Geographic, have also confirmed this such as National Geographic has also confirmed this. To put it simply black Africans, represented by the Hadza, were in North Africa first. They also settled alongside the Haplogroup A Nilotic people. However, unlike the Nilotics who were firmly placed in North East Africa, the Haplogroup B Hadza people also settled in the Middle East, Europe, Asia, and the Pacific Islands probably around 65, 000 - 100,000 years ago and their genetic fingerprint are found in ALL modern humans.How Did Black People Come to North Africa
Prior to 3,000 - 5,000 years ago, there were no white people in Africa and everybody in Africa was lactose intolerant. White skin came with the SLC24A5 mutation that took place 10,000 years ago in Anatolia. This gene is now carried by present-day North Africans and Middle Easterners and was inherited from one human that lived 10,000 years ago somewhere in Anatolia and later showed up in Africa probably between 3,000 - 4,000 years ago. The first whites that entered Africa were known as the ‘Libyan Berbers’ and much much later, the Hyksos Semites came. These people slowly made their way down to northwest Africa and diluted into the gene pool. They entered some countries in Africa through war, whilst other countries were entered via cultural assimilation and admixture.Who were the Libyan Berbers?
The Libyan Berbers are well recorded in history, and the ancestral lineage is from Anatolia, West Asia. They have cultural affiliations with East Europeans, the Basque people in Spain, and the Scandinavians, however, the bulk of their ancestry is from Anatolia (West Asia) - they dress like Turkish people and even look like them - because they ARE them. However, they have diluted into the E1b1b black African gene pool through thousands of years of admixture.
But make no mistake, there were already native blacks always living in North Africa long before the arrival of the Libyan Berbers which I will identify later.
Image Source: CNN News
Although the North African Berbers like to claim that they are ‘different’ from Arabs, recent genetic studies say otherwise. In fact, there isn’t much difference between present-day North Africans and Arabs.
Quote from the study
‘’Though no differences have been found in uniparental and classical markers between Berbers and Arabs, the two main ethnic groups in the region, the scanty genomic data available have highlighted the singularity of Berbers. We characterize the genetic heterogeneity of North African groups, focusing on the putative differences of Berbers and Arabs, and estimate migration dates. We analyze genome-wide autosomal data in five Berber and six Arab groups, and compare them to Middle Easterns, sub-Saharans, and Europeans. Haplotype-based methods show a lack of correlation between geographical and genetic populations, and a high degree of genetic heterogeneity, without strong differences between Berbers and Arabs.’’
As you can see, the Berber identity is simply a ‘tribal’ and ‘cultural’ identity, not a racial one.
So were the Libyan Berbers the first in North Africa?
So, Were the Libyan Berbers the First in North Africa?
No! North African white Berbers commonly use this argument that a white-skinned Cro-magnon type man called ‘Mechta Afalou’ lived in North Africa and that’s who they descend from. However, there is no evidence that they directly descended from this man - especially, considering the huge amount of migrations that took place in North Africa from Turks, Romans, Greeks etc.
In fact, the 2018 study on the 15,000-year-old ancient remains of the ancient Iberomarusians buried in Northern Morocco tells a completely different story. These ancient individuals carried the E1b1b genes but the SLC24A5 depigmentation genes found in the present-day North African whites did not show up, even though the same MtDNA and Y-DNA genes showed up (U6 and E1b1b). This is a further testament that the white skin found in the Berbers today would have arrived via a more recent migration to the Maghreb.
In that study, they also discovered a ‘ghost’ archaic gene carried by the Iberomaurusians which is now only found in Sub Saharan Africans, specifically West Africans. At first, the scientists could not ascertain where it came from, but later, another recent study from the Dzudzuana caves in Georgia revealed that West Africans (represented by the Yoruba) carry 12% DNA passed down from a Taforalt/Iberomarusian related group. They also found 5% Hadza admixture indicating a Hadza presence was still in North Africa 15,000 years ago.
So, pretty much, the unique combination of all the genes found in the ancient Iberomaurusians (The Berber marker Y-DNA E1b1b/mtDNA U6, the Middle Eastern genes, the Hadza genes (haplogroup B), and the ‘ghost’ genes) closely matches the Hausa, Fulani, Yorubas, Mandinka, and Soninke peoples more than it matches the present-day North Africans. The Hausa people in Nigeria carry every single one of these genes and the Mande speaking tribes had a whopping 5.8% archaic Eurasian genes.
This is further testament to the fact that the first West Eurasians came back to Africa as black. So, E1b1b is African to the core and the Iberomaurusians were black people.
Hausa Nigerian couple:
How Did This Happen?
After haplogroup A and B emerged, the archaic humans were probably mixing with both Nilotic and Hadza women in North-East Africa. It is probably from this admixture the Haplogroup DE and E carriers emerged within Africa. This admixture might have taken place as far back a 50,000 years ago and would have migrated to the Middle East and out of Africa and into Europe via the Y-DNA E1b1b men. However, the rest of the Y-DNA E family never really left Africa. Bear in mind that E1b1b was the second migration out of Africa. The first migration would have taken place many years earlier when Haplogroup B left for Asia - the continent where C and D were formed from admixture with Denisovans.
Over the course of thousands of years, E1b1b re-entered Africa from the Middle East, settling in Egypt and North East Africa and battling their E1b1a / Nilotic brothers in Sudan for gold and fertile land. Eventually, cultural assimilation took place between the two and they all ended up in West Africa - caused by both the spread of the Sahara, desertification, and the later foreign invaders (Lybians and Hyksos (who are ironically their descendants).
Who are the descendants of the Ibermaurusians?
The Iberomaurusians are not the direct ancestors of the present-day North Africans, because the present-day North Africans lack the unique cocktail of all the genes found in the Iberomarusian remains. Rather, the Iberomaurusians were the direct ancestors of the West Africans.
In fact, it is the West African Hausa/Fulani and Mande speaking tribes who are the direct ancestors of the present-day North African Berbers who carry E1b1b. The only difference is that the present-day North Africans show more newly acquired West Eurasian and European input in their genes that came from a more recent wave of whites that migrated from Europe and West Asia that took place over the last 2–3,000 years. That’s why genetic scientists have now proposed the theory that West Africans are Basal North Africans and the Natufians are Basal Eurasians.
West Africans, particularly those in Senegal, Mauritania, and Mali, are the ones who carry these ancient admixtures and the history of Ancient North Africa including Ancient Egypt, the animistic cultural beliefs were spun from these people - Songhai, Dogon, Serer, Wolof, Soninke, Hausa, Igbo, Yoruba, Fulani, Mandinka, Ashanti - all the tribes of West Africa. Although most are now Muslim, many still practice those ancient beliefs and until this day, the arts are still in West Africa (I will show this later).
Who were these ‘Ghost’ People?
Most West Africans already know who these ‘ghost’ or archaic people were and they went by the name of the ‘Bafour’ - or if not the Bafour themselves, at least, they were the ancestors of the Bafour. These were the indigenous people of North Africa, prior to the arrival of the Berbers. They may have also been related to the first black-skinned archaic humans that lived in Europe and West Asia before the SLC24A5 carriers showed up.
Additionally, they may have also been related to the ancient ‘Mechta Afalou’ (Cro-Magnon) people who are now disappeared. However, this is not confirmed yet.
But one thing is for sure, these were not white people like the present Berbers, they had black skin, and probably had wavy hair like the Fulani people, and were most likely living alongside the Hadza and Nilotics in North Africa at some point.
What Does DNA Say?
Present-day North Africans are trying to claim that they descend directly from ‘Mechta Afalou’ but there is no evidence of this. North Africans also like to use the argument that the indigenous Berber component MtDNA U6 and E1b1b belongs to the white-skinned Berbers and Europeans. However, they ignore the fact that other Africans also show a connection to those lineages like the Hausa and Fulani people in Nigeria.
They also like to claim that the indigenous North Africans were white and the Sahara separated them from other Africans, forgetting the Nilotic and Hadza peoples always lived above the Sahara. African Hunter-Gatherers even lived as far as Europe. They also like to put up computer-generated images (like the below) of Mechta Afalou to support their claim. There is no evidence whatsoever that the Mechta Afalou had this skin color in the image below. In fact, the recent 2018 study on the 15,000-year-old ancient remains of the Iberomarusians in North Africa that showed that the ancient E1b1b individuals had the following characteristics;
“Phenotypic analysis was performed on four of the Taforalt individuals with higher genomic coverage. The Taforalt individuals tested did NOT carry either of the derived SLC24A5 alleles associated with lighter skin color, the derived OCA2 allele associated with blue eye color, or the derived MCM6 allele associated with lactase persistence. However, they were found to carry the ancestral SLC24A4 allele associated with dark eye color.’’
Haplogroup E is derived from DE and is an African lineage and the study clearly proves that both the mixed-race combination of E1b1b and MtDNA U6 was dark-skinned before it was white.
Yet, white North Africans still think that the ancient North Africans looked like this;
“The results pointed to a Middle Eastern origin for Cheddar Man, suggesting that his ancestors would have left Africa, moved into the Middle East and later headed west into Europe, before eventually crossing the ancient land bridge called Doggerland which connected Britain to continental Europe.” Image Source: First modern Britons had 'dark to black' skin, Cheddar Man DNA analysis reveals
Who were the first Eurasians?
The first Eurasians would have arrived in Africa black-skinned or mixed race. How their genes were acquired by the white Libyan West Asian Berbers that arrived much later was through admixture and assimilation. There were many different waves of white-skinned Europeans and West Asians that entered North Africa at a much later date. Nonetheless, they were not the same people as the original E1b1b carriers - the SLC14A5 skin colour alleles would have differentiated them.
The last possible scenario could be that black African men that carried E1b1b left Africa and mixed with West Asian women of the MtDNA U6 haplogroup somewhere in the Near East and the admixed population came back to Africa. This would make more sense as MtDNA U6 is usually linked with European women that belong to the Y-DNA - R1a. E1b1b, on the other hand, is clearly an African lineage. This would, therefore, mean that the first North African Berbers were mixed race.
What’s even more interesting is that 47% OF Hausa people in Nigeria carry R1b, with some minor A, B, E1b1b, and E1b1a. But Hausa people still look very black-skinned despite having R1b.
Hausa People - Nigeria
So What Else Does DNA Say?
Regardless of who Mechta Afalou was, the archaic humans found in West Africans are uniquely African and are very distinct from the archaic genes of the Australian Aborigines (Denisovans) or Eurasians (Neanderthals) and the Cro Magnon. Hence why genetic scientists have labeled them as a ‘Pan African’ archaic humans.
In other words, Africans may have already admixed with their own unique archaic humans and defined their own unique gene pool before migrating out of Africa. This unique combination would have made its way out of Africa via the Y-DNA E1b1b lineage as mentioned earlier.
Studies also confirmed that the Iberomaurusians also passed on genes to the Natufians who were also E1b1b. Funny enough, a very similar same phenotype is found in Yemen like this man.
Earlier, I mentioned about the Mandinka having the highest archaic genes of all Africans - 5.8% - look at this Mandinka footballer Pappiss Cisse from Mali below - the Mandinka are some of the blackest of all West Africans and bear a similar resemblance to the South Sudanese Nilotics - who are the blackest of all humans.
Mandinka, themselves, show Nilotic heritage - they carry various Y-DNA’s that include A1a - it is very likely these archaic humans would have mixed with both Nilotic Dinka and Hadza women. It could also be where the Mandinka got their name - from the ‘Dinka’ in South Sudan.
Where Did the Present-Day Berbers Fit In?
As the SLC24A5 gene that arrived very late in African history was inherited from one human (which matured in Anatolia), then that is evidence of a separate migration at a much much later date. The present-day Berbers in North Africa arrived via Libya and settled in Egypt. By the time the Libyans had arrived, the Ancient Egyptian civilization was already in full swing.
The Libyan nomadic Berbers then continued their migration in the Westerly direction of the already existing admixed black-skinned Iberomarusians who were the ancestors of the Ancient Egyptians and they diluted into the gene pool.
Who were the Ibermaurusians?
As mentioned earlier, the Hadza were ancestral to the Iberomaurusians. Much of the genes of the Iberomauriusians were formed from an admixture of archaic humans with the Hadza/Mota/Nilotic peoples as well as Middle Eastern proto-Berber component.
Did the Iberomaurusians start ancient Egyptian civilization?
The Egyptian civilization was spun by the spirituality of the Iberomaurusian people which was then passed on to their descendants. However, Iberomaursians were quite distinct from the Ancient Egyptians. By the time the SLC24A5 Libyan Berbers carriers arrived, the archaic Africans were already admixed with the Hadza and Nilotics for well over 50,000 years and became the ancestors of the present-day West Africans.
Dhar Tichitt and the Iberomaurusians
Most of the descendants of the ancient Egyptians ended up in Mauritania, just like the Libyan Berbers who also ended up in Morocco and Northern Mauritania. Mauritanian history is well-recorded and the Libyan Berbers/Hyksos entered into the Iberomaurusian culture existing in Mauritania as recent as the 3rd century. Hence, the reason why the unique admixture of the Iberomaurusian genes found in the Taforalt study is not found in present-day North Africans or Middle Easterners.
Dhar Tichitt neolithic settlement
The Iberomarusians were pretty much Nilo Saharans and were also responsible for Dhar Tichitt neolithic settlement in Mauritania which I talked about earlier. These Neolithic settlements were advanced and the burial practices were the same as Ancient Egypt. They originally developed a semi-nomadic lifestyle, based on horse and cattle.
Berbers regularly raided Dhar Tichitt and eventually invaded the city. The white Arabs and North African Berber later diluted into the ancient Mauritanian gene pool and settled in Northern Mauritania.
The farmers and horses
The horses of the Iberomaurusians are indigenous to Africa and not due to foreign imports - some strains of horses are descendants of the ancient North African Barb horses that were used by the black-skinned ancient Iberomausians that lived in the North African region before migrating to West Africa. Horse riding had been part of West African history for well over 5,000 years
The Ibermaurusians eventually made their way down to Northern Nigeria for greener pastures or due to foreign invasions by Libyan Berber and Arabs (Almoravids), as well as due to desertification. They went by horse to West Africa and the image below shows Neolithic rock art depicting their house culture - these were found at the Dhar Tchitt neolithic settlement in Southern Mauritania - 4, 000 - 2,000 BC.
‘’Finger-painted scenes of mounted and unmounted horses in rows are common. Grotte des Écritures features herdsmen whilst M’treoka features incised boulders with engravings. The rock art covers a time from the Hunters Period: 7,000 – 2,500 BCto the Camel Period: about 100 BC.’’
Source: Trust for African Rock Art
According to the British Museum ‘’Traditional chronologies for Saharan rock art areas tend to place depictions of ridden horses chronologically after those of horses and chariots, and in general use horse depictions to categorise regional stylistic periods of rock art according to broad date boundaries. As such, in most places, the ‘horse’ rock art period is usually said to cover about a thousand years from the end of the 2nd millennium BC. It is then considered to be succeeded by a ‘camel’ period, where the appearance of images of dromedaries – known only to have been introduced to the eastern Sahara from Arabia at the end of the 1st century BC – reflects the next momentous influx of a beast of burden to the area and thus a new dating parameter (read more about depictions of camels in the Sahara).
People often assume that horses came to Africa via the present-day white Berbers and Arabs, but in fact, horses were already there. Horses have been in West Africa since 4,000 BC or even as far as 7,000 BC and most of the rock art in Mauritania depicting horses were found in South Eastern Mauritania, an area where the present-day Berbers and Arabs never settled.
The current Berbers and Arabs of West Asian descent actually arrived on camels. What’s more, Dhar Tichitt was destroyed upon the arrival of Libyan Berbers and Arabs in the 3rd century - So, neither of those groups were the source of horses or the civilizations in West Africa.
West African Horsemen - Source: Durbar! – Nigerian Style
The Cattle Herdsmen
Iberomaurusian Nilo Saharan people were also known across Africa for their cattle culture. Rock paintings are found all over caves in North of cattle and livestock. The Sanga cattle are the modern relatives of the Ancient Egyptian cattle and they are found amongst the Nilotic people in East Africa, the Fulani people in West Africa and the Tutsi and Zulu peoples in Central and Southern Africa.
The cattle herders also migrated down to West Africa - the rock paintings below depict them. They no longer exist in North Africa. They have moved South to East and West Africa with their cattle.
Who Were the Ancient Egyptians?
Many people like to make claims that Ancient Egyptians were white Middle Eastern caucasians by posting silly images such as this;
In this image, Ramses is chasing away the Nubians, so this justifies that he was a Middle Eastern Caucasian? Really?
But when you ask them why is Ramses the same colour as some of the Nubians they get tongue-tied. And when you show them pictures of black Africans that don’t fit their simplified ‘negro’ vs ‘caucasian’ rhetoric they are still tongue-tied. Here are a group of men from the same West African tribe looking very different.
As mentioned. the ancients of Africa were all black-skinned until between 3,000 - 5,000 years ago when the white gene SLC24A5 showed up in Africa. The white Libyan and Hyksos migrated from the Caucasus to an already existing ancient civilization in Egypt and diluted into the already existing Y-DNA haplogroup E gene pool that was carried by the ancient black North Africans. The only reason why the present-day, white-skinned North Africans carry the Y-DNA E is because their male ancestors were black. However, the bulk of their ancestry is actually from West Eurasia. The Copts are probably an admixed group but look white because of heavy West Eurasian admixture.
By the time ancient Egypt had become heavily mixed with the West Eurasian white Arabs and Libyans, the history and the culture were fast deteriorating. The West Eurasian Arabs were the ones who destroyed the Ancient Egyptian civilization and brought it to the ground.
To be honest, there isn’t much that links Modern-day North African culture back to Ancient Egyptians except the E1b1b DNA. Even so, there is more of a possibility that the ancient Egyptians were actually E1b1a. The only Pharaohnic DNA ever released was Ramses 3rd and he was reported in a study to carry E1b1a. All the culture is in the South of the Sahara - more specifically in West Africa, as you will see later.
Animistic cultures and Ancient Egypt
Kemeticism/Animism is all about living in the rhythm of your natural environment. There are various ‘gods’ or pantheons, but there is always one supreme God. One common theme you will notice with tribes around the world that practice Kemticism is that they all carry feathers in their hair. All the way from Papua New Guinea to the Native Americans, to the Yorubas in West Africa - in every Kemetic culture, you will find the Serpent God and the feathers. Although the feathers have a different meaning depending on the tribe you come into contact with, nonetheless, they have common grounds and go back to one ancestor.
Ancient Egyptian Feather Headress
Nilotics Feather Headress
Melanesians Feather Headress
Native Americans Feather Headress
Non-Animistic Cultures
The present-day Egyptians are mostly West Eurasian migrants from Anatolia who didn’t have much of a Kemetic culture but rather a Barbarian one. They migrated to Egypt and settled in the lands of the Hamitics, as well as the Hebrews. Upon arriving, many adopted the culture of the Hamitic blacks in ancient North Africa and diluted into the gene pool, whilst others adopted an Abrahamic/Hebrew culture that spread from the blacks in Southern Yemen (Natufians). The Allah God told them not to worship statues and idols like those of the Hamitics.
Over time, as more and more West Eurasians arrived via the Middle East, the original Kemetic culture was replaced to an Abrahamic one. You can identify their West Eurasians origins by the silver Turkish style jewellery they wear and the headscarves they use to cover their heads which is a classic West Eurasian/East European dress style.
There is absolutely nothing in modern-day North African culture that remotely resembles any of the ancient beliefs in ancient Egypt. Pretty much all the ancient artifacts were dug up by foreign Egyptologists.
Only in Sub Saharan Africa are the true Ancient Egyptian beliefs, statues and arts still found. The dress style of the Ancient Egyptians is found amongst the Nilotics - e.g the Masai necklace (a Nilotic peoples). The ancient arts are mostly found amongst the Yoruba in Nigeria. This is because the ancient Egyptians were Nilotic-Saharan’s that migrated to West Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa with their culture and art.
There are thousands of ancient artifacts in West Africa resembling all the ancient Egyptian spirituality which these Eurocentric Egyptologists are deliberately ignoring. No artifact in modern North day Africa remotely resembles the ancient spirituality of Egypt except from what’s been dug up by foreign Egyptologists. They can’t even properly interpret what the ancient sculptures or tools were used for.
Masaai Ancient Nilotic Necklace
Ancient Egyptian Snake Helmet
Yoruba Snake Helmet
Ancient Egyptian Rams head
Yoruba Rams Head
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Figure of Ancient Egyptian God ‘Bes’ - Note the skull on the neck
Yoruba - Child of Obatala (Note the skull on the neck)
Source: African Art
The Egyptian voodoo/ magic stick
Yoruba voodoo/ magic stick
Ancient Egyptian Cow Hathor Goddess of puberty - note the ears like a cow
Panya Ngome Congolese mask - Symbol of Puberty - This mask, used by the Eastern Pende people of the DRC is known as panya ngombe and represents a buffalo, symbol of authority and dignity. It is worn only during the mukanda initiation of adolescent boys after their circumcision, to gather donations to cover the cost of the celebration that took place after the initiation period.
