Genetic study details complex ancestry of East Africa's Swahili people
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[March 30, 2023]
By Will Dunham
(Reuters) - A study of centuries-old DNA has deciphered the complex
ancestry of coastal East Africa's Swahili people, revealing how a
cosmopolitan and prosperous medieval civilization arose thanks in large
part to women from Africa and men arriving from Persia.
Researchers said on Wednesday they examined the DNA of 80 people from
five sites in Kenya and Tanzania dating to about 1250 to 1800 AD. More
than half of the genetic input in many of them traced to female
ancestors from Africa's east coast while a significant contribution also
came from Asia, of which about 90% came from men from Persia - modern
Iran - and 10% from India.
After around 1500 AD, the bulk of the Asian genetic contribution shifted
to Arabian sources, the study showed.
The Swahili coast region stretches roughly from the Somali capital
Mogadishu at the north to Tanzania's Kilwa island at the south and also
includes parts of Kenya and Malawi and the Indian Ocean archipelagoes of
Zanzibar and Comoros.
The medieval Swahili people in city-states such as Mombasa and Zanzibar
exported goods from the African interior including ivory, gold, ebony
and sandalwood, as well as slaves, to destinations across the Indian
Ocean. They also were among the first practitioners of Islam among
sub-Saharan people.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Mar/30/images/ads/current/safetytip_sda_beasonag_2023.png)
"The sex-bias in the African-Asian admixture raises questions about the
social dynamics and gender roles. On the one hand, you have Persian men
mixing with African women, which might highlight social inequalities,
usually with the female mixing population of a lower status," said
Harvard University geneticist Esther Brielle, lead author of the study
published in the journal Nature.
"However, in this case, because Bantu populations in East Africa often
have more matrilineal tendencies, African women likely had more autonomy
in choosing their partners for building a family. And the situation
could have been that powerful trading families in Africa and Asia formed
economically beneficial marriage ties," Brielle added.
It may be, the researchers said, that the African women and their
communities chose to form families with Persian princes or traders,
reinforcing trade networks of African and Persian merchants.
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![](../images/033023PIX/news_m2.jpg)
Local men sing and dance during a mock
traditional Swahili wedding in Lamu November 18, 2006, during the
Lamu cultural festival which showcases traditional Swahili dances,
poetry, donkey and dhow races. REUTERS/Radu Sigheti/File Photo
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Mar/30/images/ads/current/graue_lda_preowned_032723.jpg)
People of African and Asian origins began to mix in the region by
around 1000 AD, the study showed. The genetic findings reflected
the Swahili people's cosmopolitan nature. Their Swahili language is
of African origin, the predominant religion of Islam was imported
from the Middle East and the cuisine shows Indian and the Middle
Eastern influences.
"The roots of the Swahili language can be traced back over 1,500
years as part of the Bantu language family. This demonstrates the
indigenous nature of this society and shows us that the genetic
input from Persia was not part of a wholesale population movement,"
said study co-author Stephanie Wynne-Jones, a professor of African
archaeology at the University of York in England.
The Swahili culture reached its apex from the 12th to 15th
centuries, declining with the arrival of the Portuguese during the
16th century.
"The genetic data provides new information that challenges previous
colonial assumptions about the origins of Swahili people and their
advances being attributed to foreigners," Brielle said.
The evidence of Indian ancestry adds a surprising new layer to the
history of the East African coast, Brielle added.
There has been a long debate among some scholars over Swahili
origins, though modern Swahili people have an oral history embracing
both African and Asian roots. For instance, one text based on oral
tradition traces the founding of Kilwa to the arrival of a Persian
prince.
"It is exciting that the results are consistent with the indigenous
oral histories of the Swahili people. These findings bring out the
African contributions, and indeed the Africanness of the Swahili
without marginalizing the Persian-Indian connection," University of
South Florida anthropologist and study co-author Chapurukha Kusimba
said.
(Reporting by Will Dunham in Washington; Editing by Daniel Wallis)
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