West African hunter-gatherers

Pleistocene Middle Stone Age West Africans may have dwelled at Ounjougou, Mali (71,000 BP – 59,000 BP, 59,000 BP – 28,000 BP), Faleme Valley, Senegal (Late MIS 5), Tiemassas, Senegal (62,000 BP – 25,000 BP), Earlier than 32,000 BP, or by 30,000 BP, as evidenced by their microlithic industries (e.g., quartz, sandstone). Amid the early period of the Holocene, West African hunter-gatherers may have had Sahelian stone industries, from Senegal to Niger, which derived either from a distinct Sub-Saharan African stone tradition, or from the Shum Laka stone tradition of Cameroon. In the 10th millennium BCE, Niger-Congo speakers developed pyrotechnology and employed subsistence strategy at Ounjougou, Mali. Prior to 9400 BCE, Niger-Congo speakers independently created and used matured ceramic technology (e.g., pottery, pots) to contain and cook grains (e.g., Digitaria exilis, pearl millet); ethnographically and historically, West African women have been the creators of pottery in most West African ceramic traditions and their production of ceramics is closely associated with creativity and fertility. West African agriculturalists of Kintampo and West African hunter-gatherers of Punpun were migratory peoples, who settled at the sites seasonally for various reasons (e.g., oil palm production); this is evidenced by the varied way in which flora are situated at the rockshelters. West African hunter-gatherers may have migrated southward near the forest region or scattered into smaller groups amid arid seasons. projectile point, a very small stone tool Various activities (e.g., production of local resources) occurred in partially settled areas of the savanna and forest regions. After 4500 BP, desertification may have resulted in Saharan peoples migrating toward the south. The southern parts of the forest region, near Kintampo, may have been unfit for the subsistence techniques of farming domesticated crops (e.g., pearl millet) from the region of northern Africa. As a result, subsistence techniques were adapted to the natural environment of the forest region, and local crops (e.g., oil palm, yams), may have been introduced into what was usually farmed. Successful adaptation to the local ecology seems to have occurred, from the southern part of the forest region to the coastal region of West Africa. West African agriculturalists likely formed mutual relations with the West African hunter-gatherers. As a result of these relations, West African hunter-gatherers likely provided West African agriculturalists with oil-rich and Vitamin A-rich nuts as part of their local food source. Additionally, West African agriculturalists may have acquired forest subsistence knowledge and strategies from West African hunter-gatherers. With exception to some parts of West Africa (e.g., Ntereso, Kintampo), prior to late first millennium BCE, West African hunter-gatherers, who were the most widely spread cultural group of socially organized populations, were likely the only group to populate the forest and savanna regions of West Africa. The expansion of West African hunter-gatherers north, toward the Sahelian region of the Middle Niger, led to interaction with populations from further north. Prior to initial encounter with migrating populations from further north, West African hunter-gatherers may have already engaged in basic agricultural production of tubers as well as utilizing Elaeis guineensis and Canarium schweinfurthii. After interaction began, some West African hunter-gatherers may have acquired knowledge of pottery and polished stone production, which then spread further southward onto other West African hunter-gatherers, while others may have acquired knowledge of pastoralism. Continued interaction may have resulted in further acculturation (e.g., loss of West African hunter-gatherer languages). Isolated groups of West African hunter-gatherers may have continually dwelled throughout the region of the Pays Mande mountains after the development of metallurgy. West African hunter-gatherers may have even adopted, culturally adapted metallurgical practices, while still maintaining their ancient stone industrial traditions. Cultural continuity, via stone industries of isolated West African hunter-gatherers from the forest-savanna region, has been found throughout West Africa as late as the end of first millennium CE. Kamabai Shelter, in Sierra Leone, had quartz microliths dated to 1190 ± 95 BP. In Mali, quartz microliths were dated to 1430 ± 80 BP in Nyamanko and dated to 1020 ± 105 BP in Korounkorokale. Kariya Wuro, in Nigeria, had quartz microliths dated to 950 ± 30 BP. After having persisted as late as the end of first millennium CE, or 1000 BP, many of the remaining West African hunter-gatherers were likely ultimately acculturated and admixed into larger groups of West African agriculturalists, akin to the migratory Bantu-speaking agriculturalists and their encounters with Central African hunter-gatherers. ==History==

According to early European literature of the 16th century CE, West African pygmies dwelled throughout West Africa (e.g., Cameroon, Sierra Leone, Liberia). In 1500 CE, when the Dogon people entered the Bandiagara Cliffs, they encountered West African pygmies known as the Tellem. ==Oral Traditions About West African Hunter-Gatherers==

Mande (e.g., Soninke, Malinke) peoples and Dogon people had oral traditions of West African pygmies (e.g., Tellem). For the Dogon, even before the Tellem, there were groups (e.g., Yeban, Andoumboulou) that were even more ancient. Water-based economic (e.g., fishing) peoples (e.g., Bozo, Sorkawa), who are reputed to be one of the Niger River's first settlers, recognized that there were even earlier settled peoples – "red men." The oral history among numerous modern West Africans is that their ancestors were West African pygmies. Among the Sousou, in Guinea, West African pygmies were known as the Doki. Among the Malinke, West African pygmies were known as Komo Koudoumi. Among peoples in Liberia, West African pygmies were known as Jinna. Among modern West Africans (e.g., Mende of Sierra Leone, Guere of Ivory Coast), there is oral history of their ancestors encountering West African pygmies. Given the varying heights among modern West Africans who dwell within the forest region, this may indicate that admixing had occurred between West African pygmies and the southward migrating ancestors of modern West Africans incoming from the savanna region. ==Languages==

West African hunter-gatherers may have spoken a set of presently extinct Sub-Saharan West African languages. In the northeastern region of Nigeria, Jalaa, a language isolate, may have been a descendant language from the original set(s) of languages spoken by West African pygmies. ==Ancient DNA==

Cameroon Ancient DNA was able to be obtained from two Shum Laka foragers from the early period of the Stone to Metal Age, in 8000 BP, and two Shum Laka foragers from the late period of the Stone to Metal Age, in 3000 BP. The mitochondrial DNA and Y-Chromosome haplogroups found in the ancient Shum Laka foragers were Sub-Saharan African haplogroups. Two earlier Shum Laka foragers were of haplogroup L0a2a1 – broadly distributed throughout modern African populations – and two later Shum Laka foragers were of haplogroup L1c2a1b – distributed among both modern West and Central African agriculturalists and hunter-gatherers. One earlier Shum Laka forager was of haplogroup B and one later Shum Laka forager haplogroup B2b, which, together, as macrohaplogroup B, is distributed among modern Central African hunter-gatherers (e.g., Baka, Bakola, Biaka, Bedzan). The autosomal admixture of the four ancient Shum Laka forager children was ~35% Western Central African hunter-gatherer and ~65% Basal West African – or, an admixture composed of a modern western Central African hunter-gatherer component, a modern West African component, existing locally before 8000 BP, and a modern East African/West African component likely from further north in the regions of the Sahel and Sahara. The two earlier Shum Laka foragers from 8000 BP and two later Shum Laka foragers from 3000 BP show 5000 years of population continuity in region. Yet, modern peoples of Cameroon are more closely related to modern West Africans than to the ancient Shum Laka foragers. Modern Cameroonian hunter-gatherers, while partly descended, are not largely descended from the Shum Laka foragers, due to the apparent absence of descent from Basal West Africans. The Bantu expansion is hypothesized to have originated in a homeland of Bantu-speaking peoples located around western Cameroon, a part of which Shum Laka is viewed as being of importance in the early period of this expansion. By 3000 BP, the Bantu expansion is hypothesized to have already begun. Yet, the sampled ancient Shum Laka foragers – two from 8000 BP and two from 3000 BP – show that most modern Niger-Congo speakers are greatly distinct from the ancient Shum Laka foragers, thus, showing that the ancient Shum Laka foragers were not the ancestral source population for modern Bantu-speaking peoples. While Southern African hunter-gatherers are generally recognized as being the earliest divergent modern human group, having diverged from other groups around 250,000 BP - 200,000 BP, as a result of the sampling of the ancient Shum Laka foragers, Central African hunter-gatherers are shown to have likely diverged at a similar time, if not even earlier. ==References==