Genetics · Jenétika
The African ancestry of the Badiu
“Nos raís — di undi ki nu ben.” · Our roots — where we come from.
The lineages of the Badiu are, above all, African. We read the lineages alongside the history of the peoples of Senegambia and Upper Guinea.
Badiu Nation original research
Our Y-chromosome analysis
This project analysed Y-chromosome assignments for 1,257 Cape Verdean men, grouped by their paternal grandfather’s birth island. The analysis keeps island differences visible and examines how a specified weighting scenario changes the combined frequencies. The percentages below combine A1a, E1a, E1b1a, and E2b; they are lineage frequencies, not genome-wide ancestry estimates.
- 1,257
- participants in nine paternal-island groups
- 52.98%
- combined categories in the pooled sample
- 63.89%
- combined categories under scenario weighting
- 88.49%
- combined categories in the Santiago group
Nos antepasadus · Ancestral peoples
Peoples in Santiago’s history
West African peoples named in the history of Santiago’s African population. A broad haplogroup is shared by many neighbouring peoples, so lineages are linked to a particular people here only where a published study documents that association.
Mandé people of the upper Senegal and Gambia rivers; heirs of the Mali Empire.
People of the Senegal coast and the Cap-Vert peninsula; Wolof is among the languages linguists study in the formation of Kriolu.
Rice cultivators of the Guinea-Bissau coast and river valleys.
Pastoralists and traders dispersed across the Sahel and West Africa.
Founders of Wagadou — the Ghana Empire — and trans-Saharan traders.
Coastal people of the Sierra Leone estuary; present in the Upper Guinea trade.
Linhagens · Lineages
Two lines of descent
In the project’s study, 369 of 417 men in the Santiago group belong to four branches common in sub-Saharan Africa: most to E1b1a, the branch that includes E-M2, and others to E1a, A1a (part of haplogroup A, among the deepest-rooting branches of the human paternal tree), and E2b. Published studies of Cabo Verdean mitochondrial DNA report mostly sub-Saharan African maternal lineages, in the L haplogroups.
Paternal · Y-DNA
E1b1a · E1a · AFather to son. Branches recorded among Badiu families and community-reported matches.
- E-V38
- E-M2
- E-M180
- E-P252
- E-M54
- E-L485
- E-CTS9883
- E-Z6019
- E-CTS3274
- E-CTS12004
- E-CTS736
- E-M263.2
- E-M4254
- E-U290
- E-U175
- E-Z1902
- E-Z5994
- E-Z6003
- E-Z6005
- E-CTS6143
- E-M132
- E-M44
- E-L94
- A1a-M31
- A-M32
Lineages recorded to date, including community-reported results. These are not frequencies; for those, see the Y-DNA study.
Maternal · mtDNA
Mainly L1 · L2 · L3Mother to child. Lineages recorded among Badiu families and community-reported matches.
- L1b
- L1b1a
- L2a-d
- L2a1
- L2a1c
- L2b'c
- L2c
- L3b
- L3b1b
- L3e2b
- L3h1b
- L3d3a
- L2a1c3
- R0a
- L3b1a
- V
- U6a5
- U6a3
Lineages recorded to date, including community-reported results. These are not frequencies; for those, see the Y-DNA study.
Reading the lineages
What DNA can—and cannot—show
DNA can show population patterns, one paternal or maternal line, relationships among sampled lineages, and movements shared across families and places.
DNA does not define a person’s complete identity, culture, or belonging. Badiu identity is lived and carried; a genetic result is one line within that larger inheritance.
Population estimates still need their island, cohort, recruitment method, marker resolution, and uncertainty to be understood properly.
Trabadju ki ta ben · Future research
Deliberately open
The project’s first-party testing, family matches, and oral history will continue to deepen this work.
In progress
Full Y-STR panel
Deeper paternal resolution across Badiu surname lines.
In progress
mtDNA full sequence
Complete maternal coding-region results, not just HVR.
Planned
Badiu family lineage project
Consented family results connected with documented roots in Santiago.
Planned
Oral history × DNA
Cross-referencing family memory with lineage evidence.
Leituras · Further reading and comparison
- †Gonçalves et al., Y-chromosome lineages in Cabo Verde (2003).
- †Brehm et al., mtDNA portrait of the Cape Verde archipelago (2002).
- †Beleza et al., The admixture structure and genetic variation of Cape Verde (2012).
- †Verdu et al., Parallel trajectories of genetic and linguistic admixture (2017).
- †Laurent, Fortes-Lima et al., Cabo Verde genome-wide studies (2023, eLife).
- †Community DNA haplogroup and Genetic Group reports for Senegambian and Upper Guinean peoples.