%0 Journal Article
%A Semo, Armando
%A Gayà-Vidal, Magdalena
%A Fortes-Lima, Cesar
%A Alard, Bérénice
%A Oliveira, Sandra
%A Almeida, João
%A Prista, António
%A Damasceno, Albertino
%A Fehn, Anne_Maria
%A Schlebusch, Carina
%A Rocha, Jorge
%+ Human Population History, Department of Evolutionary Genetics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Max Planck Society
%T Along the Indian Ocean coast: Genomic variation in Mozambique provides new insights into the Bantu expansion : 
%G eng
%U https://hdl.handle.net/21.11116/0000-0005-F1B4-F
%R 10.1093/molbev/msz224
%D 2020
%* Review method: peer-reviewed
%X The Bantu expansion, which started in West Central Africa around 5,000 BP, constitutes a major migratory movement involving the joint spread of peoples and languages across sub-Saharan Africa. Despite the rich linguistic and archaeological evidence available, the genetic relationships between different Bantu-speaking populations and the migratory routes they followed during various phases of the expansion remain poorly understood. Here, we analyze the genetic profiles of southwestern and southeastern Bantu-speaking peoples located at the edges of the Bantu expansion by generating genome-wide data for 200 individuals from 12 Mozambican and 3 Angolan populations using ∼1.9 million autosomal single nucleotide polymorphisms. Incorporating a wide range of available genetic data, our analyses confirm previous results favoring a “late split” between West and East Bantu speakers, following a joint passage through the rainforest. In addition, we find that Bantu speakers from eastern Africa display genetic substructure, with Mozambican populations forming a gradient of relatedness along a North-South cline stretching from the coastal border between Kenya and Tanzania to South Africa. This gradient is further associated with a southward increase in genetic homogeneity, and involved minimum admixture with resident populations. Together, our results provide the first genetic evidence in support of a rapid North-South dispersal of Bantu peoples along the Indian Ocean Coast, as inferred from the distribution and antiquity of Early Iron Age assemblages associated with the Kwale archaeological tradition.
%J Molecular Biology and Evolution
%O Mol. Biol. Evol.
%V 37
%N 2
%& 406
%P 406 - 416
%I Oxford University Press
%C Oxford
%@ 0737-4038