Pale Skin/Black Genes: Yorkshire clan linked to Africa
By
Ogu Eji Ofo Anu
Cutting edge genetic research increasingly adds weight to the proposition that people of African origin have lived in Europe and Britain for centuries.
A study carried out by a team of experts from Leicester University published in European Journal of Human Genetics found that seven men bearing a rare Yorkshire surname carry a very rare genetic signature previously thought to express only in people of African origin.
Although the men appeared to have a shared common ancestor in the 18th Century, the African DNA lineage they carry probably arrived in Britain hundreds of years earlier.
The Y Chromosome:
The Y chromosome is a string of genetic material found only in males, which is passed down from father to son, more or less in its original form.
The Y chromosome accumulates small changes (as a result of mutations) in its DNA sequence, over the course of time. By analyzing these changes, scientists are able to study the relationships between different male lineages as well as population movements.
These period mutational changes that occur in the Y chromosome allow its categorization into different groups (called haplogroups) which, provide useful tools in determining a person’s geographical ancestry.
Certain haplogroups might be very common in, for example, East Asia and very rare in Europe. Inferences are made on a haplogroup`s geographical origin based on its prevalence in a particular region of the world. Although this is a crude way of deducing ancestral geographical origins, it represents the cutting edge of today’s genetic science.
Pale-Skin and Black Genes:
Haplogroup A1, is highly West African-specific. It is a very old haplogroup which presence is very rare even in the west African region.
There are only 25 other people known worldwide with this gene and they are all African. Yet, this recent study has sequenced this haplogroup in 7 pale-skin English men living in Yorkshire.
That an African specific gene which has only been sequenced in 25 Africans should be discovered in 7 white-men living in one small town in England is indeed highly significant and provocatively suggestive.
Family tree:
According to the BBC News-site which also reported on this study, the study began with one individual who had no knowledge of any African heritage in his family.
Upon sequencing the unusual haplogroup, the scientist decided to expand their study to determine the extent of the haplogroup’s presence in the genetic make-up of Yorkshire men.
Since sharing a surname significantly raises the likelihood of sharing the same ancestor and hence the same type of Y chromosome, the researchers started recruiting people with the same last name, which starts with “R” and originates in Yorkshire.
18 men were tested, seven carried the rare African haplogroup. This ratio represents a mind boggling percentage when one considers the rareness of this gene even in west Africa. It appears to indicate an early colonization of Yorkshire by people of west African descent.
An attempt to fit the men into a family tree suggests that they had shared a common ancestor as of the 18th century. Further analysis however confirms that the haplogroup had a presence on the British Isle that dated many centuries prior to the 18th.
Migration Routes:
Although majority of the Black people living in England today originated in Africa and the Carribean in the second half of the 20th century, there were also Africans living in Britain before the 20th Century.
One must not forget that the Ibero-maurisians who are believed to have settled the British Isle in the pre-historic times were mostly Black Africans who had crossed into Spain from North Africa and then crossed the Alps or sailed the North sea into the British Isle.
Traditions also insist that the Phoenicians, another group of Africans usually passed off by racist minded scholars as “brown mediterranean types” originally came from the Horn of Africa. Phoenicians were known to have colonized the British Isle and extracted precious minerals from its mines including tin.
Scottish and Irish legends also hold that certain Egyptians had also colonized the Isle as traders, and then later as political exiles. Those Egyptians were Black Africans many of whose latter-day descendants live with pale skins covering black genes.
The Roman Empire was largely situated in North Africa geographically speaking. Thus many African Romans had a great influence on the Roman Empire. A Black African lawyer from Mauritania named Spetimus Severus had ruled Roman Empire from the capital Roman and even established an illustrious dynasty of Black Roman rulers. At that time, Britain was an outlaying backwater territory of celtic and germanic barbarians with whom the Romans rarely interacted.
At one point, the Romans administrators of the British colony had built the Hadrian’s wall, an early fort used to control the movement of barbarian tribes. Black Roman soldiers of African descent garrisoned this fort. Thousands of those soldiers settled and had children in England with the locals. Recent studies have confirmed the African origin of many osteological and genetic samples recovered from Roman cemetries near the Hadrian’s wall.
One must recall the Moors who had ruled a great part of southern Europe for periods ranging between 300 – 800 years. These Moors were the light of dark-age Europe and introduced the ancient sciences, medicine, mathematics, architecture and luxury goods into Europe, even further afield from their southern European sphere of influence. Their contribution facilitated the birth of western Europe which is wrongly termed as the Renassiance.
Finally, mention must be made of the several thousand Africans who were subsequently kidnapped and trade with the connivance of the elites of Europe into enforced slavery between 1516 and 1830 AD.
The first (Unknown) Black President of the United States: Paleskins/Black Genes In Action:
Human migration history is very complex, particularly for an island nation such as England, and this study further debunks the idea of the Aryan white homogenous germanic English race. It demonstrates that underneath many pale skins lie black African genes!
For example, When scientists analysed the DNA of the third US president, Thomas Jefferson, they found that his Y chromosome belonged to a haplogroup known as K2.
Although Jefferson’s father claimed Welsh ancestry, genetics has disproved this claim as false since his Y-haplogroup is rare in Europe and has not yet been reported in Britain.
In fact, genetic studies show that Thomas Jefferson’s K2 haplogroup ultimately came from north-east Africa or the Middle East, the areas where it is most commonly found today. It is thus highly probably that Jefferson was a recent descent of some un-named and denied Somali, Kenyan, or Sudanese making him the first Black president of the United States.
Incidentally, Jefferson, a founding father of the United States and one of the better known writers and signatory of the US constitution had a known preference for African women that he had enslaved on his plantation. He actually fathered a whole tribe of unacknowledged “mulatto” children from those Black women many of whom he enslaved or sold.
Someone once said that terrible crimes have been aided and abetted under the ignorant white-out of racist prejudice.
Ogu Eji Ofo Anu
January 25th, 2007.
Sources:
BBC NEWS:
Published: 2007/01/24
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/science/nature/6293333.stm
The African Land of Spain: http://www.africaresource.com/rasta/2006/08/25/the-african-land-of-spain/
The Black Romans: http://www.africaresource.com/rasta/2006/06/29/the-black-romans/
Blacks in Rome: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/tyne/wear/3181666.stm
John Dunn has quite simply exposed his own cretinous,ill thought out racist ideology and has no place in any intelligent debate. John Dunns intellectual capacities are perhaps most closely compared to some of the higher mammals,like i dunno maybe a monkey!
Wow, you guys aren’t getting personal t all are you? Once again an “African” can make racist, offensive comments, but if someone simply states fact, then they are wrong! Also, when I couldn’t find an online source(which is not to say that there is no such mention) and admit it, I am insulted. You guys have never admitted any of your hundreds of ludicrous factual errors.
Okay, in acnient times “Africa” was simply Tunisia and parts of Western Libya. The Libyans were renowned for the blueness of their eyes, and Carthaginians were simply Phoenicians ie Lebanese. There was no concept of the “Continent of Africa”, as nobody considered modern “Africa” to be one continent. People SOUTH of the Sahara were called “Aethiops”, “Negroes” etc. People NORTH of the Sahara were never called “Aethiop” etc.
http://www.geoccities.com/enbp/quotes.html
Does anyone dispute that Ancient Egyptians and Moors were darker than your average European? Of course not(well some Nordicist idiots which I amo not, may).
However simply being darker than someone sle doesn’t mean you are a different race. Greeks are in turn darker than Norwegians. Does that make them a different race?
http://www.sitesled.com/members/racialreality/north_africans.html
http://www.sitesled.com/members/racialreality/egypt_nubia.html
http://www.sitesled.com/members/racialreality/phoen_moors.html
http://www.sitesled.com/members/racialreality/skincolor.html
Although, I’m pretty sure some “African” is going to say that the site is “racist”, or “Hitlerite” or some such hollow insult.
Also, if there is a single “African” people then why are only “African-Americans” trumpeting it? Why aren’t actual people in “the continent of Africa” “coming together as one”? What was the Rwanda Genocide but a RACIST encounter between Hutus and Tutsis(who are different races)? Why is there trouble in Darfur? Could it be that the people involved are from two different, and mutually hateful, racial groupings? Why are is there warfare all over “Africa” based solely on ethnic/racial lines? And don’t blame it on a “legacy of colonialism” or some such claptrap. The fact is the people can immediately tell who is of their race and who is not. And people, like it or not, group with their own. The Hutus and Tutsis both realized that the other people were NOT their own race and acted attrociously, but no more so than other racial genocides in history. The fact is most “African-Americans” are so mixed with European and Native American DNA that they have a wide variety of looks, and virtually none of these look like TRUE Black People. Anyone FROM “Africa” can immediately tell a West African from say an East African. And all DNA testing show that there is a far greater DNA variation in the Sub-Saharan region than the rest of the world combined! What is “race” but DNA clusterings? And yes West Africans form a distinct DNA clustering, East Africans form a distinct DNA clustering etc. Of course North Africans cluster with Middle Eastern people, as do DNA testings on Ancient North African remains.
“Afrocentrism” is simply a misguided attempt by “African-Americans” to give themselves an identity and some sort of “glorious past” after centuries of abuse and mistreatment at the hands of the American slavers. The slavers robbed them from their homes, stole their names (a black guy called Bill Cosby?), stole their language(making them speak English), stole thir culture, stole their identity, stole their dignity, and stole their humanity(calling them “three-fifths” of a person, “boy”, “nigger” and worse). They also stole their DNA structure, as the depraved white slavers raped the black slavewomen, mixing the bloodstream, and refusing to recognise their own children as anything other than “niggers”. If the slaves fought back they were beaten, flooged, lynched. Even after slavery was abolished, there is still a social structure in the USA that strives to deliberately keep black people on the bottom. And NO REPEARATIONS FOR THIS DISGUSTING CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY HAVE EVER BEEN MADE.
Thus it is understandable that the “African-Americans” are angry, no pissed off! The 2 MAJOR issues are the treatment of their ancestors, and theft of basic self-pride and dignity, and the fact that they have no idea who their original ancestors are/were.
The “African” model suits both purposes. While some white American can pinpoint the exact village in Ireland his ancestors came from, and they even still have the family name, the Black Americans have no idea where they came from. Their names, memories, even the way they look have been lost forever. They know only that they came from “the continent of Africa” so they claim the whole continent as their Mother Country, as it’s undeniable that that is where their ancestors came from. Thus “Africa” becomes not what it is(a vast landmass of over a billion people, with thousands of ethnicities, cultures, languages, and the broadest range of DNA on the planet), but rather single country! Many African-Americans talk about “Africa” as though it’s the size of Belgium, and all people speak “African”, and practise “African culture”! When someone points out that “Africa” is NOT one state, and of the myriad of different peoples, each with their own unique language, culture, history, identity etc., not to mentuion their own distinctive look(far more so than Europeans, most people couldn’t tell a Greek from an Italian say, but anybody could tell an Eritrean from a Zulu etc.), then they are shattering the illussion of “Africa”. Watch ANY US tv show, and see Oprah or Martin Larence or whoever talk about “Africa” the same way someone would talk about Scotland, ie one small region with a uniform people. Sorry people but Africa is enormous, and the different peoples bear that out. By saying that there is a single “African” people YOU are the racist ones, as lumping such diverse peoples into a single generic “African” “tribe” is exactly what the slavers did, ie “All Africans are the same, they have no distinctive cultures, languages etc. They’re savages”.
Also, the other big point is that modern African-Americans are an oppressed people. They have suffered hundreds of years of slavery and mistreatment, and it’s unlikely that Bush or anyone else will ever even attempt to give them some sort of token reparation or apology for this disgusting act against them. They still live with the knowledge of how their ancestors, their family, were mistreated and abused. Thus we get “Black Egypt” and “Black Moors”, fantasies of times when Blacks ruled over Whites, and Blacks had White Slaves. By fantasizing about this imaginary past, and distorting history, it gives modern mistreated Black Americans a chance to say “yeah, well there was a time when we treated YOU like cattle or property”. There has also been a massive amount of books etc about black superheroes with their white whores, and evil Neo-Nazis with blonde hair and blue eyes, brought down by the noble Black Hero. But none of this changes anything. The White Corporation is happy to peddle out mythical pasts about Black Egyptians and Black Moors(but notice the imediate attacks when it was claimed that the Israelites were Black?), not just because of White American bias against Muslim cultures like modern Morocco and Egypt, but because none of this changes the fact of how Blacks are treated NOW. The Black people can study “Black History” and go around in daydreams about how the Egyptians were black, but they are still mistreated by the White American Leaders. Rather than attempt to tackle the misbalance of American Society they go “Oh here’s something to take pride in”. By ignoring the relevant issues TODAY, and focusing on some non-existent past(that is offensive to Egyptians, Moors, Tunisians and others), they “Afrocentrists” are essentially doing nothing more than Minstrel Dancing.
Okay, that link was wrong, it should be:
http://www.geocities.com/enbp/quotes.html
I got confused by having to delte links to the “racial reality” webiste (surf for it, as the administrators here regard it as “spam”, presumably because ti refutes various articles on this page).
I stand by my above remark, saying “African” as a broad term is DEMEANING not uplifting to “African” people.
And playing at “Black Pharaoh” today does NOTHING to address the mistreatment of Black Amerians TODAY. Rather than steal somebody else’s history, why not try and do something about the Racist US Social Structure in 2007?
Also, actual “Black Africans” do NOT NEED to pretend they are descended from Ancient Egyptians or Moors or anything else. They are happpy and proud to just be themselves. I only hope there comes a time when “African-Americans” can take genuine pride in their OWN achievments and identity, and don’t need to steal other people’s heritages to make themselves feel worthwhile…
First, the article states that the admixture most likely occured in the 17th century. However the administrator merely ignored that! And what makes you think the gene originated in Africa? It is just as likely that an English sailor came ashore and had sex with a local woman. She gave birth to a child who was then re-assimilated back into the African genepool, but with a rare English gene. In other words it’s just as likely that the gene flowed from the Yorkshire family into the African family and not vice versa.
One is reminded of an hysteria few years ago about how somebody had “proved” that Arabic and Southern european “had African genes”. The point was that DNA testing had found a gene common to West Africans, Italians, Greeks and Arabs. Immediately Hitlerite claimed this proved that the Mediterranean populations were hybridized with Black People, while Afrocentrists claimed that this proved that the original Black Egyptians had taken civilization to Europe and the Middle East. It was taken for granted that this gene originated in West Africa. However, deeper research without bias revelaed the truth….virtually all Arabs carry the gene, only about 4% or southern Italians, and about 2.5% of Greeks, and less than 2% of one specific population in West Africa had the gene. In other words more than 99.9% of Africans, and more than 95% of Greeks and Italins DID NOT have the gene, while virtually all Semitic peoples DID have it. It was a Middle eastern gene, and the small West African population who did have it lived in the exact same area were Arab slavers used to raid, and had raped local African woman. Thus, the hysteria about “African genes in Mediterranean populations” had all been bunk. Proper analysis showed that the gene ORIGINATED in modern-day Syria and had flowed out FROM there.
Next, when we talk about “Africans” we must remember that just because there were African civilizations does not mean that ALL Africans were part of them. While there were civilizations in eg Ghana and Mali, they also kept their own Blackskinned slaves. It was these same African slaves who were sold into slavery to go to the USA and Caribbean. In other words, the “mighty” African-Americans were always slaves, first to local civilized Africans(eg in Ghana), and then the slaevs of the White Man. The local civilized blacks took the dregs and human refuse of their society, and it is these people who were then sold into foreign slavery. The Europeans and Arabs could not have taken that aount of people without local African help to round up the most undesirable Africans who lived amongst them.
Next, to John Dunn, you got it wrong. American society is giving Black People every break. There is Black History Month, Black History courses at high school and college, Black Entertainment Television, Black Affirmative Action, Black Power Groups, Black Caucases, Black Miss Maerica Pageants, Black Business Groups, Black Newspapers, Black Magazines etc. And these are all ENCOURAGED by the governement! Now substitute “White” or “Asian” for any of those…eg “Asian Power”, or “White Entertainment Television”, and it’s suddenly offensive! That’s an obvious double standard.
yes there were Great African Civilizations, but the ancestors of people like “t” were probably cleaning out the latrines of the Black Sultan.
Nuff with the racial and personal hatred!!!!
An Afrocentric Movement like RastaFarI would serve the continent of Africa/Ethiopia well, if these is so much disunity going on over there. And yes in part, I blame colonialist politics, as, like much of the “developing” world, the rich multinational corporations do go in and exploit the resources and the locals where ever they find the resources they are after…..As for genetics, still a mystery to I, thats why I want to check this DNA tracking tech….sounds legit….I have no idea whats back there in my genes and I am pale skinned and blue eyed….all this speculating about history, we just don’t know enuff to be so certain…which is probably why we argue…uncertainty is unsettling……Luckily for I and I, the mystery is an accepted part of it…and Jah Knows time will tell….
Blessings and Raspect
Sistren Nya
This is an interesting page but what is more interesting is the interaction between everyone. It’s small minded to think that black Africans were not present and useful in socities outside of Africa going back as far as first contact between nations. It is also small minded to believe that black Africans are the root of everything. I see so many comments here that seem rooted in a need to prove something. Even if we are referencing old works it doesn’t mean that it’s the final say on a subject. Our idea of race as ever important may not be the way that people saw things hundreds or thousands of years ago. I would imagine they were tougher times and you would work it out with those around you for the common cause of survival. Even including slavery in the US. I’m sure that the slaves of wealthy land owners were probably treated poorly compared a slave in the rural mountains of NC, just as I am more important as an employee to a small business owner than to a giant corporation. Slaves have existed in every society and eventually they have been assimilated into that society.
On a personal note I will say this as a descendant of black African slaves it is important to see that there are black Africans in other areas of the world do other things through out history. I’m sure there were Asian, Slavs and Europeans deep in the heart of black Africa before we would ever think possible and I believe that black Africans have traveled to each of those places as well.
I think it’s a mistake to read too much or too little into the written history that we have access to. Every piece of literature has not survived, everything is not deemed as important to one person to the next and what we read may not be what was intended by the author. I like to think that before black Africans became a hot commodity in the slave trade we were just people living our lives and calling us out as black Africans wasn’t necessary to everyone who put words to page instead they used words like friend, neighbor or shield mate and that was enough.
using terms like “white” and “black” when describing genealogical anthropology sounds a lot like Euro-centric/Afro-centric nonsense. At first, I wondered where this board was going, then it became clear that there is an enormous bias going on here. This is certainly not the place for serious OBJECTIVE study.