Haitian Results

On this page i will attempt to provide some analysis for the Haitian AncestryDNA results which have kindly been shared with me or which i found on public websites. If you want to skip the discussion just scroll to the bottom of the page to see a selection of Haitian Ethnicity Estimates. I will restrict myself to the African part of their Ethnicity Estimates as it’s in line with the theme of this blog. In order to enable easy comparison i have scaled the African breakdown to 100% for all, leaving aside any non-African admixture. For more details on my research methodology see the front page of this AncestryDNA section. Follow this link for an overview of all the Haitian results:

Spreadsheet with Haitian results

As far as i was able to verify all of these Haitian results are from persons who are either Haitian-born themselves or who have two Haitian-born parents. These are obviously first of all individual results reflecting unique family trees and very limited in number because there are only few Haitians who have tested with Ancestry.com. Furthermore DNA testing at this stage cannot be expected to be 100% accurate in estimating regional origins. See this page for more disclaimers, especially on how the country name labeling of the AncestryDNA regions should not be taken at face value! Undoubtedly with more Haitian testresults available you might also see different or additional patterns. Still i think the screenshots i will post in the last section of this page might be representative to a considerable degree for how many other Haitians would score hypothetically speaking. I will now proceed with discussing the main patterns i’m able to pick up on. Of course merely expressing my personal opinions & thoughts and not meant to be conclusive in any way 😉

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UPDATE 06-11-2016: this article was first published on 3 Oct. 2015, when i had only 15 Haitian AncestryDNA results available for my analysis. As my survey has been ongoing i have since collected more Haitian AncestryDNA results. That’s why i have slightly adjusted this page and also inserted more screenshots of results.  For comparison with the original version follow this link:

• Haitian AncestryDNA results (2015)

For a blogpost pointing out the main new findings as well as some analysis of the European and Native American scores for Haitians follow this link:

• 45 Haitian AncestryDNA results

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Summary of Findings

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When reviewing the statistics i calculated above based on the data entered in the spreadsheet, it’s good to be aware that averages tend to hide underlying variation. That’s why it’s always advisable to also take into account other measures such as the median and also the minimum & maximum values to get a sense of the range of the scores.

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This second chart features an additional macro-regional breakdown into “Upper Guinea”, “Lower Guinea” and “Central Africa” which is of my own making. Making this distinction is admittedly arbitrary and can only produce a rough proxy, given the limitations of AncestryDNA. Still I find it useful because you get to see some patterns more clearly and it conforms with what’s common in slave trade literature. For ethnolinguistical and historical maps from these 3 main regions of provenance see:

• Upper Guinea
• Lower Guinea
• Central Africa.

Observations

• “Cameroon/Congo”, “Benin/Togo” and “Nigeria” are the most significant and consistent regions reported for Haitians sofar. Confirming what we know from documented slave trade as well as cultural retention in Haiti.

• “Southeastern Bantu” and “Pygmy/San” (“South Central Hunter-Gatherers”) scores might be minor for the most part, but it’s insightful in my opinion to combine them with “Cameroon/Congo” to produce a proxy of Central African ancestry for Haitians. Measured in such a way Central African ancestry would be among the highest when compared with other parts of the Afro-Diaspora (see also Afro-Diaspora AncestryDNA results: A Comparison).

• However judging from the current results Lower Guinean ancestry (Ghana, Benin,Togo, Nigeria) seems to be primary for Haitians with Central African (Congo) origins coming in second place. This might be somewhat surprising when going by slave trade statistics in which Central Africa is always clearly mentioned as the biggest area of enslaved captives for Haiti (see chart in next section or also this one taken from the Slave Voyages Database). However such reasoning leaves out of consideration the compound effect of early creolization among people leaving from the Bight of Benin and the relatively later arrival of Central Africans in Haiti. Plus it omits the considerable Inter-Colonial slave trade carried out in Haiti with surrounding Caribbean islands, and especially Jamaica. As a trivial aside apparently in Haitian Kreyòl the historical term of “Guinea” or rather “Ginen” is still being used to refer to Atlantic Africa although in a more spiritual meaning (see also “What´s in a name”).

• Upper Guinean roots (“Senegal”+ “Mali”) are largely diluted even if still detectably present for Haitians, as is the case for most parts of the Afro-Diaspora. There are a couple of higher outliers for “Mali” though. “Mali” could very well be suggestive of genuine Malian origins, “Bambara’s” being regularly documented for Haiti (see chart below). However given the imperfections of the current AncestryDNA Regions, i suppose “Mali” could perhaps also signal origins from Burkina Faso or the northern Gur-speaking parts of Ghana/Benin/Togo. Aside from other options (Guinea Conakry/Sierra Leone). The trace amounts of “North Africa” for Haitians could still be indicative of genuine ancestry from Upper Guinea or the Sahel Region. Although again also other ancestral scenario’s might apply.

• The average score for “Ivory Coast/Ghana” is about equal to “Senegal” + “Mali” combined. Highlighting noticeable ancestral connections with the Gold Coast and the Wind Ward Coast due to English contraband slave trade in Haiti (often by way of Jamaica). Although in fact also the French carried out direct slave trade with especially the Ivory Coast (Cape Lahou).

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Maximum regional scores

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The above compilation is meant to illustrate those regional lineages which seem to have been the least diluted within Haiti’s genepool. Besides the “average” result the other 5 screenshots feature a maximum or highest ranking regional score i have observed sofar. See also this page for an actualized overview:

• Maximum Scores for African AncestryDNA Regions across the Diaspora

Obviously a much greater variation and a usually more regionally mixed outcome can be observed if you closely examine each and every single individual result (see last section of this page). Also the screenshot i selected as the “average” Haitian result is naturally just based on the limited samples which were available to me. It happens to show the closest similarity and most likely also closest genetic affinity to the regional averages i have calculated for my 45 Haitian samples. Especially with regards to the total African amount (92% being both the median and mode score for my sample group) and the ranking of the first four regions.

Determining the largest regional components within the African breakdown, on average, for each of my sample groups has been a primary research effort during my  AncestryDNA survey. Afterall these most prominent regional scores can be considered to have the highest reliability at this stage and might also be confirmed independently by historical sources. Establishing where each African region is relatively more pronounced or instead more subdued might therefore provide insightful clues into localized ethnogenesis across the Diaspora. For further reading see also:

•  Afro-Diaspora AncestryDNA results: A Comparison

It seems a meaningful finding that sofar among my 45 Haitian survey participants only three regions produced amounts of above 50%: “Cameroon/Congo” (54%), “Benin/Togo” (51%) and “Nigeria” (53%). Most likely not by coincidence these are also the three primary regions when going by other statistics such as group averages (see chart 4), frequency of being the top region (see chart 3) as well as slave trade statistics (see chart 5).

Nonetheless it pays to be cautious with the country name labeling of the AncestryDNA regions. As often in fact border-crossing overlap is rampant and it should be kept in mind that these “ethnic estimates” are not meant to be seen as exact . See also:

• AncestryDNA Regions
• Is “Benin/Togo” really pinpointing origins from within Benin’s borders?
• Nigerian AncestryDNA Results

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African Amounts (unscaled)

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The chart above is intended to demonstrate the full extent of African ancestry among my Haitian survey participants. A majority of Haitian AncestryDNA testers (23/45=51%) falls within the range of 90%-99% African ancestry. Which is therefore easily the most frequent admixture interval i observed. Still at the same time a considerable number of people showed non-African admixture of inbetween 11%-30%. So generalizations should be avoided as individual variation will always exist.

To enable group comparison i have scaled everyone’s African breakdown to 100% within my AncestryDNA survey (see also this page for further details on my methodology). But obviously to put everything in broader perspective the original total African amounts are also still relevant. This kind of data often gets presented in a potentially misleading manner. Only highlighting the mathematical mean of all the results as the average. Which tends to downplay individual variation and obscure possibly skewed distributions. Especially atypical lower scores tend to pull down the mean. Therefore I have compiled various other statistical measures in chart 2.  As shown in the chart above my Haitian sample group is clearly showing an asymmetrical data distribution. Therefore i believe the median score of 92% (50% cut-off point of all observations) is a more representative reflection of the group average than the mean of 88.5% i obtained for my Haitian sample group (n=45).

I like to emphasize that no fictional national averages are implied. This graph firstmost reflects the limited sample group which was available to me. Follow this link for the source data. Even so i think that my sample size (n=45) is pretty robust already and will correlate closely to what is to be found within the Haitian genepool as a whole. As a crude rule of thumb it is often stated that n=30 is a large enough sample size for most standardized types of research. Also my samples have been randomly picked and are – as far as i have been able to tell – from various regions within Haiti as well as from various social backgrounds.

I have sofar seen 5 results for Haitians who are of fully 100 % African descent, which represents a share of 11% (5/45) of my sample group. Again this is of course based on limited sampling. But sofar it seems this frequency of “pureblooded” African descended persons (11%) might be the highest for Haiti when compared with most other parts of the Diaspora. It is good to keep in mind though that these people are still usually thoroughly “mixed”, even if only within an intra-African regional format as defined by AncestryDNA. It is very insightful to compare with other “100%” African results from actual Africans. They tend to show a much narrower scope of regions, almost always neighbouring ones, limited in number and one of them usually being truly predominant (>50%). See also:

• African AncestryDNA Results.
• African Amounts across the Diaspora

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Haitians more diverse in African origins than stereotyped?

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Ethnic identities documented in Haiti 1721-1797

Source: Geggus, David. 2001. The French Slave Trade: An Overview. The William and Mary Quarterly, Third Series, Vol. 58, No. 1, pp. 119-138.

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Trans Atlantic Slave trade carried out by the French to Haiti (St. Domingue) (Inter-Colonial trade by the English not included!)

Source: Geggus, David. 2001. The French Slave Trade: An Overview. The William and Mary Quarterly, Third Series, Vol. 58, No. 1, pp. 119-138.

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Africanisms (words of African origin) in Haitian Kreyòl (Kwa is referring mainly to Gbe languages from Benin)

Source: “Out of Africa: African Influences in Atlantic Creoles” (Parkvall, 2000)

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Again i like to stress the number of Haitian results i managed to collect (n=45) is very small. This samplesize cannot be expected to be fully representative for a population of more than 10 million people! However as the results are randomly picked and from various regions within Haiti they could still be a rough indicator of the scope of African diversity in Haiti as well as its main tendencies.  Already these AncestryDNA results might come as a surprise to people who exclusively associate Haiti’s African origins with Benin because of its well known influence on Haitian Vodou. This is however clearly a case of oversimplification as in reality Vodou is very much a syncretic religion which also contains important Congolese and Yoruba influences aside from its possibly Fon-Ewe foundations. And in fact the very concept of many different “nachons” (according to some accounts no less than 21!) in Vodou is a direct referral and acknowledgement of the various African nations who contributed to cultural retention in Haiti (see this article for a useful overview).

“Benin/Togo”  turned out to be the second biggest reported AncestryDNA region on average but not for every one. Also “Nigeria” and “Cameroon/Congo” show up as top regions, while the range for “Benin/Togo” goes from a high of  51% of total African ancestry to a low of merely 3%! So obviously there is individual variation among Haitians and more African diversity than some people might expect based on stereotypes. Actually when looking at the Haitian results on AncestryDNA they are most of all characterized by heterogeneity, a reflection of the blending of various ethnic groups from Western & Central Africa and to very minor degree also Southeast Africa. This is easily verified as almost all Haitian results i’ve seen show 4 or 5 different African regions in their main breakdown, leaving aside the Trace Regions. In this regard Haitians are of course the same as other parts of the Afro-Diaspora: a melange of ethnic/regional origins rather than just hailing from one particular area/lineage within Africa. For more discussion see also this comparison of AncestryDNA results of 7 Afro-descended nationalities (incl. Haitians):

• AncestryDNA Results Across the Diaspora

The charts shown above are meant to illustrate where some of this diversity could be coming from and in which approximate proportions. It’s of course not a complete overview and in future blogposts i might provide more context. For now i will just mention that contrasting documented slave trade records with documented ethnic origins of enslaved Haitians and Africanisms in Haitian Kreyòl already shows some insightful discrepancies. Mostly to be explained by English contraband slave trade with Haiti but probably also by more complex processes of creolization and historical differences in natural growth between ethnic groups.

• The Bight of Benin origins for Haiti are possibly understated when going by slavevoyages carried out only by the French but perhaps more importantly also more diverse than imagined: notice the numerous Yoruba (“Nago”) and also interior references (“Chamba”, “Hausa”, Nupe” etc.)  being mentioned in the first chart.

• Central African origins are possibly overstated when going by slavevoyages carried out only by the French. However the ancestral significance of Central Africa for Haiti is undeniable, this is apparent too judging from linguistical influence and documented origins of slaves. Aside from the Bakongo, also other ethnic groups from Central Africa might be hiding under the umbrellaterm of “Congo”.

• The Bight of Biafra share in Haiti’s ancestry is not often discussed but definitely present. Notice the share of documented “Igbo” in Haiti and how it’s almost twice as high as the percentage of Bight of Biafra in documented slave trade. They are also reported to have left behind a minor but noticeable linguistical legacy (see Parker 2000). It is most likely because of contraband slave trade by way of Jamaica.

• The Upper Guinean roots of Haiti can be assumed to be mostly from northern and interior parts of Senegambia, because of the relatively high proportion of  “Bambara”. Slave trade records might be a slight underestimation of the historical presence of Upper Guineans in Haiti. Notice for example also their minor but still valuable contribution to Haitian Kreyòl (Mandé and Atlantic). However their heavily biased sexratios (see first chart) might explain why their bloodlines and DNA got diluted eventually.

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Distinctly Haitian?

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As can be seen in the charts above and also discussed on this page, across the Afro-Diaspora there is a great deal of shared regional ancestry from within Africa. None of the AncestryDNA regions are in any way unique to any nationality or population. Haitians therefore have many African roots in common with other parts of the Afro-Diaspora. As long as these roots are defined in the AncestryDNA format that is. If it were somehow possible to uncover the ethnic origins hiding behind the limited number of AncestryDNA regions you would see much more differentiation. But even so given the interconnected history of the Afro-Diaspora it’s inevitable that Haitians will also share many of its African ethnic origins with other Afro-descended populations within the Americas

Keeping all these basic commonalities in mind it’s perhaps still interesting to explore which African origins could be more “typical” for Haitians. What stands out for them? Not anything unique but just reported in higher frequencies or proportions. Judging from the above two charts i would say that it’s especially the higher than average “Cameroon/Congo” and “Benin/Togo” shares of total African ancestry. We can see that both components are in no way confined to Haitians alone however it clearly peaks for them when comparing with Jamaicans, African Americans, Dominicans and Cape Verdeans. Which is a nice corroboration of what you might expect. It’s fascinating to also compare with the 15 Nigerian results i have collected sofar (incl. mostly Igbo’s and Yoruba’s). They show a slightly higher share of “Benin/Togo” but a lower share of “Cameroon/Congo” than the 45 Haitians, which proves how the DNA markers measured by the AncestryDNA regions are in fact found across borders and also among neighbouring ethnicities. Again it will be misleading therefore if you take the country name labeling too literally!

Some of the regional breakdowns (“ethnicity estimates” would actually be a misnomer) given to Haitians could very well be exactly the same in both ranking and percentages for persons from other parts of the Afro-Diaspora, like Jamaica or also African Americans. However the underlying ethnical origins might still be different even when AncestryDNA groups them together under the same region. This goes especially for the socalled “Benin/Togo” region. According to both historical evidence and cultural retention a higher likelyhood of Fon or other ethnic origins from within Benin/Togo’s borders should be expected for the Haitians than for Jamaicans or African Americans. Also “Nigeria” might much more frequently denote Yoruba or other western Nigerian origins for Haitians compared with Jamaicans and African Americans.To a lesser degree perhaps also the likelyhood of “Cameroon/Congo” signalling Central African origins instead of ancestry from Bight of Biafra might be higher for Haitians than for Jamaicans and African Americans. Although as discussed already Haitians also have partial roots from the Biafra area, just to a lesser (documented) degree. Regrettably the overlapping occurence of AncestryDNA regions within West Africa complicates a finer distinction for the moment.

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It’s also useful perhaps to look at the frequency of top regions being reported for Haitians. Even when usually 3 or 4 other main regions are also showing up in the total breakdown and obviously these would also matter for a complete scope on Haitian’s African origins. Right now of course the sample size is very limited, but it might be telling already that sofar usually  “Cameroon/Congo”, “Benin/Togo” and “Nigeria” ended up as number 1 main region for Haitians. It will be very interesting to know the distribution of these nr.1 regions if the samplesize grows to 145 in stead of 45. Will “Cameroon/Congo”  prove to be the main region for most Haitians still or rather “Benin/Togo”? And will the relatively high number of “Nigeria” top spots be sustained or not? Just based on informed speculation and notwithstanding a possibly even greater amount of diversity than already observed i would guess that any Haitian scoring “Senegal”, “Mali” or  “Southeastern Bantu” as number 1 region will be quite rare while “Ivory Coast/Ghana” as top region might occur more often but still will be somewhat uncommon for Haitians.

It’s true that Haitians have shared ancestry from Ghana with especially Jamaicans because of English contraband slave trade. However it might be exactly the generally diminished proportion of “Ivory Coast/Ghana” reported for Haitians which serves as a key difference between Haitians and African Americans/Jamaicans. That is when comparing on a population wide level, obviously there’s always individual variation. The same thing goes for “Senegal” and any noticeable difference in African origins (inspite much overlap) between Haiti & the Dominican Republic. The AncestryDNA region called  “Senegal” is present among Haitians but in much diluted proportions, more so even than “Mali”. While among Dominicans the “Senegal” scores are generally much higher, often also reported as number 1 region.

Summing things up we could say that Haitians are not unlike any other population of the Afro-Diaspora when it comes to their essentially mixed African origins. However proportionally speaking “Cameroon/Congo” and “Benin/Togo” might be somewhat more pronounced for most Haitians on average.

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Haitian Results

As far as i know and was able to verify all of these screenshots below are from persons with 4 Haitian-born grandparents. Meant to illustrate the individual variation among Haitians in the first place. Despite the limited samplesize these results might still also be quite representative while a few of them could even be distinctly Haitian. I like to thank again all the persons who kindly agreed to share their results with me!

High “Cameroon/Congo”

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Starting off with a truly predominant (>50%) score for the “Cameroon/Congo” region. Such scores of above 50% for just one single African region are quite rare for not only Haitians but also other parts of the Diaspora. Among 44 Haitian results sofar i have seen 3 persons scoring 50%+ amounts for just one single African region. It seems appropriate that this 54% Cameroon/Congo” is sofar the highest absolute amount for any region i have observed among Haitians. Afterall as i have discussed in greater detail above “Cameroon/Congo” represents the least diluted regional lineage among my Haitian sample group, with the highest likelyhood of ending up as top region. And actually chances are high that this person has an even greater Central African heritage when you also add up the 5% “Southeastern Bantu” and 2% “South-central Hunter-Gatherer’s”.

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This result below shows the second highest “Cameroon/Congo” score sofar. Combining with the 6% “Southeastern Bantu” it might imply about half of this person’s origins being from Central Africa. However technically speaking also some Biafran/Cameroonian origins might be included. The “Nigeria” score is afterall also quite considerable. Interestingly this person is from Northwest Haiti & Tortuga. Compared with other regions in the country the northern part of Haiti might have received the largest proportion of captives from Central Africa, more than 50% of the total according to Geggus (2001) (see also this chart).

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Below breakdown is yet again showing a combination of “Benin/Togo”, “Cameroon/Congo” and “Southeastern Bantu” but with a notable 17% “Mali” added in as well. Because of the absence of any  significant “Ivory Coast/Ghana” and “Senegal” it may be that this kind of composition could be more easily distinguishable from both Anglo-Caribbean and African American results.

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Aside from a prominent “Cameroon/Congo” percentage also the “Southeastern Bantu” score is significant. Combining them together it could imply more than half of this person’s African roots could be from Central Africa.

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Aside from a high “Cameroon/Congo” percentage also a striking “Ivory Coast/Ghana”  score to be seen for the next three results. Two of them also noticeable for showing a regionally balanced 100% African result, possibly covering all known areas of origin for Haitians, from Senegal to Mozambique.

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Aside from a high “Cameroon/Congo” proportion, also a very noticeable “Mali” score of 22%!

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Again high “Cameroon/Congo” combined with “Mali” in second place.

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High “Benin/Togo”

The only “Benin/Togo” score above 50% sofar, truly representing a majority therefore, even if only slightly.  Also noteworthy the  100% African score, something which can actually be seen across the Afro-Diaspora. But probably the frequency of such scores will be higher for Haitians, even when they also generally show minor proportions of non-African admixture. See also this overview:

• Maximum African amounts across the Diaspora

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A very similar breakdown, especially with the top 3 ranking being exactly the same. Because this person has some minor European admixture actually the relative “Benin/Togo” contribution is even greater: 50/92= 54%.

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With 44% “Benin/Togo” out of 78% African the result below shows the highest regional contribution i have observed sofar for “Benin/Togo” among Haitians: 56% (44/78). Even more predominant therefore than the previous result, relatively speaking.

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Again a striking combination of “Benin/Togo”, “Cameroon/Congo” and “Southeastern Bantu”.

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A very evenly breakdown to be seen below. Including not only “Benin/Togo”, “Cameroon/Congo” and “Nigeria”, the three major regions for Haitians sofar, but also “Ivory Coast/Ghana”. For an excellent discussion of these results see also:

• MY ANCESTRYDNA RESULTS ARE IN!

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High “Nigeria”

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The highest “Nigeria” amount i have observed sofar and also only the third >50% score for just one single African region. Truly predominant. More research needs to be done in order to establish which Nigerians ethnic groups contributed the most to such “Nigeria” scores for Haitians. However i suspect that compared with other parts of the Diaspora Haitians might have the most diverse Nigerian origins. That is going by historical records and some (very) preliminary DNA matching patterns. Most likely tending towards western Nigerian and especially Yoruba ancestry in the first place. However also eastern Nigerian, and especially Igbo roots, are bound to be significant as well. And furthermore northern Nigeria, especially the Hausa and Nupe, might very well have left their greater genetic legacy among Haitians, aside from among Bahians in Brazil. All these diverse Nigerian origins might very well be included at the same time in the impressive 53% “Nigeria” score shown below.

See this great blogpost for the reaction of the person who took the test:

• HaitianNaija: Ancestry DNA Results!!!

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The highest relative “Nigeria” contribution in my survey up till now can be seen below:49/77=63% out of the African breakdown.

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Among the highest “Nigeria” scores i have observed sofar for Haitians. Also the “Ivory Coast/Ghana” percentage is very notable. The person whose test results are being shown wrote two excellent blog posts about the whole process. He was once told his appearance showed a great resemblance with people from Benin. But having done the AncestryDNA test it turns out only 2% of his DNA shows genetic affinity with the Béninois 🙂

• The Quest For My African Ancestry: An Affordable Journey Thanks to Science (part 1)
• The Quest For My African Ancestry: An Affordable Journey Thanks to Science (part 2)

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In the three following screenshots below “Nigeria” as nr.1 main region is combined with “Benin/Togo” in second place.

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Also notice the 13% “Senegal”, Even if only  in third place the amount is stil the highest i have seen sofar for Haitians. Screenshot is taken from this very informative blog:

• Genealogia Nuestra

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Notice also the 2% North Africa. Just to cover all options it could somehow be related to distant Iberian/Canarian ancestry. However for Haitians a scenario involving partial origins from the Sahel Region (see this page for maps) is also very much a possibility according to documented slave trade by the French through the Senegal river valley.

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The following results belong to a person with 2 Haitian born parents but 1 grandparent being from Italy. The African breakdown was inherited solely by way of Haitian ancestors so it will still be representative for the purposes of my survey. The regional contribution of “Nigeria” is actually among the highest i have observed sofar: 27/55 being 49% of the total African amount. Not shown in the screenshot but in addition this person also scored 12 % West Asian.

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High “Ivory Coast/Ghana”

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One of the main outcomes and perhaps even surprises of my survey of Haitian AncestryDNA results has been the considerable level of “Ivory Coast/Ghana” amounts being reported. In a few cases “Ivory Coast/Ghana” even shows up as biggest region. Although sofar not really in a predominant manner. Aside from Ghanaian/Ivorian ancestry actually also Liberian or even Sierra Leonean origins might be hinted at by this region.

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The following two screenshots directly below are remarkable for several reasons. They belong to two siblings from northern Haiti.

• First of all the prominent “Ivory Coast/Ghana” postions are notable of course. Because this does not happen all too often for Haitians. Although perhaps more frequently than people might expect.
• Secondly eventhough 100% African scores are probably not going to be uncommon for Haitians (when larger sample groups become available) it is still interesting to come across such scores among the Diaspora. Still it should be pointed out that these breakdowns are very much evenly spread out across several regions, unlike those reported for native Africans.
• Given that due to random recombination the DNA results of two siblings can be quite different it is striking how similar both results are. Especially the ranking of all 8 regions is exactly the same! Really fascinating to see that recombination can also lead to almost identical results as you would expect 😉

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Aside from the highest amount being reported for “Ivory Coast/Ghana” this breakdown below is  actually again quite balanced. Also showing considerable additional scores for “Cameroon/Congo” and “Benin/Togo”. Regions which might be deemed more “typical” for Haitians. Also interesting how the European breakdown is seemingly pointing towards Northern European admixture. This could in fact still include French ancestry as the French ethnicity is basically a mixture of Mediterranean, Celtic and Germanic inputs.

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High “Mali”

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The only Haitian result sofar i have seen with “Mali” being reported as top region. Just another reminder that the African roots of Haitians are more diverse than sometimes assumed. Also the “Southeastern Bantu” amount is noteworthy in this regard. When it comes to interpreting the “Mali” region there are several possibilities, incl. Gur speaking origins from Burkina Faso and northern parts of Ghana/Togo/Benin. However judging from documented slave trade records it seems that any chances of genuine Malian ancestry might be highest for Haitians when compared with other parts of the Afro-Diaspora.

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An even higher “Mali” score for the next result, even when not being reported as top region. In fact with 29% it is the highest “Mali” amount i have observed sofar in my survey (n=44).

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Other Franco-Caribbean Results

It will be very interesting to see how Haitian results compare with other French speaking parts of the Caribbean. Sofar i have not come across many except the ones shown below. According to documented slave voyages Guyane together with Guadeloupe might have a noticeably greater amount of Upper Guinean ancestry than Haiti. However this is not showing up in these individual results.

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Source: Geggus, David. 2001. The French Slave Trade: An Overview. The William and Mary Quarterly, Third Series, Vol. 58, No. 1, pp. 119-138.

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French Guyane

This particular African breakdown could very well also have been obtained for a Haitian. Even if the predominant combination of “Nigeria” and “Ivory Coast/Ghana” is more typical for Anglo-Caribbeans and African Americans. Interestingly it might be that the 3% “Native American” is the most distinctive aspect singling this person out as Guyanese. Amerindian admixture, even if minor, can be expected to be quite widespread as afterall Guyane still has Amerindian populations. In contrast almost all the Haitian results i have seen sofar showed zero “Native American” and only a few times at most <1%. For more detailed discussion about the Amerindian genetic legacy for Haitians see this blogpost (scroll down):

• 45 Haitian AncestryDNA results

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Guadeloupe

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Again a result which might very well be for someone of Haitian descent when looking only at the African breakdown. Also it seems that it’s the non-African component, this time 9% “Asia South”, which makes for the distinction. Indian ancestry being much more common in both Guadeloupe & Martinique than in Haiti:

• Indians in Guadeloupe
• Indian Culture in Guadeloupe and Martinique

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Youtube

For even more Youtube video’s of Haitian AncestryDNA results see this overview:

• Haitian DNA Test Results | Résultat​s ADN Haitien (Rezilta tès ADN Ayisyen)

 

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Suggested Reading:

• On African Origins: Creolization and Connaissance in Haitian Vodou
• Historical Linguistic Dimensions of Spirit Migration in Haitian Vodou

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Sources:

– Parkvall, M. (2000). Out of Africa: African Influences in Atlantic Creoles.
– Geggus, D. (2001). The French Slave Trade: An Overview. The William and Mary Quarterly, Third Series, 58,(1),119-138.