The Tishkoff Study Confirms the Essential Originality of Africans and “Blackness” (196 hits)
The recently released groundbreaking genetic study by Sarah Tishkoff and her team of African, American and European researchers confirms and/or establishes three essential things about Africans, African-Americans and their evolutionary relationships with the rest of the populations of the world. First of all, there can now be no doubt that approximately 200,000 years ago the human race had its origins in Africa. The true “Adam and Eve” were Black. This fact has been widely accepted in the scientific community for some time. But thanks to the Tishkoff team we can now pinpoint the place of origin to Southern Africa - near the current-day South African-Namibian border. From there ancient Africans migrated northeast until they reached roughly what is current-day Ethiopia.
From Ethiopia - at a point near the middle of the Red Sea - some of these early humans began leaving the African continent to populate the Middle East and Asia and then gradually spread next to Europe and finally to the Americas - probably across a land bridge which no longer exists.
Fundamentally, this confirms a point that I, as an amateur historian, have maintained for years: All people on the planet Earth are ultimately of African ancestry - from the darkest-skinned person in the Congo to the lightest-skinned person in Sweden. Or as one of the researchers Muntaser Ibrahim of the department of molecular biology at the University of Khartoum in the Sudan phrased it, “Everybody’s history is part of African history because everybody came out of Africa.” This conclusion is based on the scientific theory that the highest levels of genetic diversity are to be found in the populations which have been on Earth the longest because they have had the longest time to evolve and experience genetic changes. The study found that Africans are the most genetically diverse people on the planet and are thus the oldest or original people. Tishkoff, a geneticist at the University of Pennsylvania, explains, “Given the fact that modern humans arose in Africa, they [Africans] have had time to accumulate dramatic [genetic] changes.”
Second, the ten-year study also confirms the diversity (and implied vitality) of African Americans. The research covered 121 African populations, 60 non-African populations and four African American populations in Chicago, Baltimore, Pittsburgh and North Carolina. The conclusion: The genes which populate the bodies of the average American Black come from four primary sources: 71 percent from the Niger-Kordofanian people (language group) of West Africa; 13 to 15 percent from European ancestors; 8 percent from various other African people ranging from Angola to Senegal; and the remainder from various other peoples - African and non-African.
The only people with a higher level of mixed ancestry than American Blacks were the so-called “Cape-colored” of South Africa who are a blend of African, European, East Asian and South Indian ancestry. For American Blacks there is also a strong West Indian connection. According to one of the researchers, during the slave trade, only 20 percent of Blacks were transported directly from Africa to America. The other 80 percent were sent to the West Indies to be what was called “seasoned” - brutalized into submission. However, among the Blacks transported directly to America, a few, such as the residents of the Sea Islands off Georgia and South Carolina, can trace their origins to specific regions of Africa such as Sierra Leone and Guinea. Other than these groups, it is extremely difficult to trace the ancestry of most African Americans to a specific people or tribe because the genetic mixture was so great.
Third, the ultimate goal of the study, as Tishkoff put it, was to set the stage “for future genetic studies, including studies of genetic and environmental risk factors for disease and drug response.” But thus far, says Tishkoff, the researchers have found that “Africans have the most diverse DNA and the fewest potentially harmful genetic mutations.” By extrapolation, the above statement applies to American Blacks. In other words, we are genetically well evolved and adapted to survive on this planet. Thus, our ailments and diseases are more likely to flow from social and environmental conditions along with the harm we do to ourselves rather than from any genetic weakness or abnormality. This is an extremely important point of which we should be aware and celebrate, especially when we are constantly bombarded with articles about Blacks being two or three times more likely than whites to have some ailment or disease.
The truth is Black is original, diverse and well-evolved for success on planet Earth. The problem is most Blacks think and behave in manner opposite of the truth. [Robert Taylor encourages readers to learn their history and stay abreast of the latest historical developments by reading his popular, weekly “Black History Journal.” Get a free email edition by emailing Taylor at TaylorMediaPrime@yahoo.com .]
