A 4,000-year genomic history of Bantu speakers from the Congo rainforest
- 1Institut Pasteur, Paris, France
Abstract
The Congo rainforest was the heartland of the Bantu Expansion, yet its demographic history remains partially understood. We inferred past population dynamics using genomes from 960 sub-Saharan Africans, including four newly sequenced ancient individuals from Iroungou cave and 176 present-day individuals from Gabon. Bantu-speaking populations began differentiating ~4,000 years ago, preceding explosive population growth by a millennium. Distinct southward dispersals contributed to the ancestry of Bantu speakers in Gabon and elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa, with the ~700-year-old Iroungou individuals providing the closest genetic proxies for the latter. Both Bantu speakers and hunter-gatherers from the Congo rainforest experienced a major demographic crisis ~1,500 years ago, coinciding with an archaeological hiatus. These findings illuminate early Bantu dispersals and the subsequent, unexplained collapse of rainforest populations.
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BibTeX
@misc{parasayan20264000year,
title = {{A 4,000-year genomic history of Bantu speakers from the Congo rainforest}},
author = {O. Parasayan and M. Roux and F. Mendisco and J. Prado-Martinez and D. Liu and G. Laval and C. Harmant and M.-H. Pemonge and C. Pomilla and L. Young and M. Hurles and M. Sandhu and D. Massilani and B. Chak and L. B. Barreiro and J.-M. Hombert and P. Mouguiama-Daouda and S. Kacki and R. Grollemund and M.-F. Deguilloux and G. de Saulieu and R. Oslisly and L. Quintana-Murci and E. Patin},
howpublished = {bioRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.64898/2026.10.27.762084},
url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.27.762084v1},
note = {CC BY-NC},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - A 4,000-year genomic history of Bantu speakers from the Congo rainforest
AU - O. Parasayan
AU - M. Roux
AU - F. Mendisco
AU - J. Prado-Martinez
AU - D. Liu
AU - G. Laval
AU - C. Harmant
AU - M.-H. Pemonge
AU - C. Pomilla
AU - L. Young
AU - M. Hurles
AU - M. Sandhu
AU - D. Massilani
AU - B. Chak
AU - L. B. Barreiro
AU - J.-M. Hombert
AU - P. Mouguiama-Daouda
AU - S. Kacki
AU - R. Grollemund
AU - M.-F. Deguilloux
AU - G. de Saulieu
AU - R. Oslisly
AU - L. Quintana-Murci
AU - E. Patin
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/27
PB - bioRxiv
DO - 10.64898/2026.10.27.762084
UR - https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.27.762084v1
AB - The Congo rainforest was the heartland of the Bantu Expansion, yet its demographic history remains partially understood. We inferred past population dynamics using genomes from 960 sub-Saharan Africans, including four newly sequenced ancient individuals from Iroungou cave and 176 present-day individuals from Gabon. Bantu-speaking populations began differentiating ~4,000 years ago, preceding explosive population growth by a millennium. Distinct southward dispersals contributed to the ancestry of Bantu speakers in Gabon and elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa, with the ~700-year-old Iroungou individuals providing the closest genetic proxies for the latter. Both Bantu speakers and hunter-gatherers from the Congo rainforest experienced a major demographic crisis ~1,500 years ago, coinciding with an archaeological hiatus. These findings illuminate early Bantu dispersals and the subsequent, unexplained collapse of rainforest populations.
ER -