Sub-Saharan Africa

[suelevin1]

I am embarrassed to say that I had no idea exactly where the Sahara desert extends to. I knew it was huge but thought it was in central Africa. The map below shows it be be in north central Africa and stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea. If you have had DNA testing completed and got markers for Sub-Saharan Africa, that covers a lot of the continent!

[teresapy]

Hi, This is Teresa P. Yates.
I had no idea the Sahara was that huge either!

Actually, Sub-Saharan African refers to the countries south of the Sahara. I do not usually refer to Wikipedia, but I think it is safe for this: "Sub-Saharan Africa is, geographically, the area of the continent of Africa that lies south of the Sahara Desert. Politically, it consists of all African countries that are fully or partially located south of the Sahara (excluding Sudan, even though Sudan sits in the Eastern portion of the Sahara desert).[2] It contrasts with North Africa, which is considered a part of the Arab world. Somalia, Djibouti, Comoros, and Mauritania are geographically part of Sub-Saharan Africa, but also part of the Arab world.[3]

The Sahel is the transitional zone between the Sahara and the tropical savanna (the Sudan region) and forest-savanna mosaic to the south.

Since probably 3500 B.C.E,[4][5] the Saharan and Sub-Saharan regions of Africa have been separated by the extremely harsh climate of the sparsely populated Sahara, forming an effective barrier interrupted by only the Nile River in Sudan, though the Nile was blocked by the river's cataracts. The Sahara Pump Theory explains how flora and fauna (including Homo sapiens) left Africa to penetrate the Middle East and beyond. African pluvial periods are associated with a "wet Sahara" phase during which larger lakes and more rivers existed.[6]

The use of the term has been criticized because it refers to the South only by cartography conventions and projects a connotation of inferiority; a vestige of colonialism, which some claim, divided Africa into European terms of homogeneity.[7][8][9].

I have three Sub-Saharan African markers but no indication of Sub-Saharan African ancestry ( no specific matches in my DNA Fingerprint Plus or known otherwise). Sub- Saharan African markers alone may not necessarily indicate this ancestry as scientists believe we all come from Africa and can be a common deep ancestral marker for this reason. If you get markers or matches to Sub-Saharan African, you might also have matches to populations that have an admixture of Sub-Saharan African: Spanish/Portuguese, some Native American Indian tribes like Choctaw or Seminole, some Melungeon lines, etc. We are all much more mixed than we realize, and we believe that this knowledge will help with racism that is still prevalent. Moreover, some older populations, like Jewish, can reflect this deep ancestral marker more. TP Yates

[suelevin1]

Thanks for the clarification! That is very good information and should trigger conversations.

Sue