Re:

[slick]

Thank you , Faelcind. Which subrace would blacks from Barbadoes belong to? I have traced my genealogy back to Barbadoes, England, Scotland, and the United States so far. I am from South Carolina and I found out that I am descended from slaves that were taken from Barbadoes to the Americas. Would the people of Barbadoes be Palaenegroid or Sudanid? I have read that most blacks in Barbadoes can trace their ancestry to Sierra Leone, Ghana, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, and Cameroon.

[pconroy]

slick said:

Thank you , Faelcind. Which subrace would blacks from Barbadoes belong to? I have traced my genealogy back to Barbadoes, England, Scotland, and the United States so far. I am from South Carolina and I found out that I am descended from slaves that were taken from Barbadoes to the Americas. Would the people of Barbadoes be Palaenegroid or Sudanid? I have read that most blacks in Barbadoes can trace their ancestry to Sierra Leone, Ghana, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, and Cameroon.

If you're partly descended from Barbados slaves, then it's possible that you have some Irish blood in your veins also, as the Irish were the first slaves in Barbados.
If you're from South Carolina, I'm sure you're familiar with the Sea Islands and their Black population who have retained many cultural artifacts:

Most of Gullah vocabulary is of English origin, but the grammar and major elements of pronunciation come from a number of West African language, such as Ewe, Mandinka, Igbo, Twi and Yoruba. The name, "Gullah", itself probably derives from "Angola" (and possibly from the large number of slaves who arrived from that part of Africa in the early 1800s). "Geechee" -- another name for the language and culture of black Sea Islanders -- comes from a tribal name in Liberia. Traditions, language and myth stayed longer with the coastal Carolina Gullahs, who were allowed a greater latitude of self-sufficiency and were relatively isolated on the Sea Islands.

www.co.beaufort.sc.us/bftlib/gullah.htm

Here an article on Barbados:
www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1546/is_n5_v10/ai_18053754

I'm interested in the fact that you are researching your roots, as IMO too often Black Americans don't do this, as they are put off by the stigma of slavery. Well I for one have no problem with slavery and feel that almost every ethnic group were slaves at one time or another.

BTW, a somewhat interesting story, when I worked as a doorman during college here, I met a Twi guy from Ghana, whose name was Bossman Osei. I asked him why his first name seemed to be European, but he couldn't explain it, just saying that it was a family name passed down for generations in his family.
Later, when I was studying African history I learned that one of the most notorius slave traders in West Africa, who traded extensively with the Ashante and Twi of Ghana, was a Dutchman called Johnny Bossman!!

[Faelcind]

Well given those as the options to classify I would say Paleonegrid. Sudanids are genereal classified as being from east central africa. The European and American slave traders did not exploit east central africa. That area was exploited by the arabs.

[Abubakari]

Faelcind said:

To me you look distinctively different from west africans, which are the orginal black type in the new world

What makes you think west Africa is where the "original" black type first dwelled? There is no evidence to support this. This simply the stereotypical "true" Negro type which has been shown to be false.


S. Keita, "A response to Brace et al.'s 'Clines and clusters versus race' (Yearbook of Physical Anthropology, 1993)" -


The clusters made in this kind of research are suspect because although australian-melanesian data cluster with Africa, their DNA differs and places the former clearly in Asia. He listed a number of errors in the above mentioned publication, among them misrepresentations of statements made in certain publications by B. Trigger and the present writer, although he did not give more details, I forgot to ask him in what way my views had been distorted and which of my publications he was talking about. He showed many examples of African facial profiles indicating a great variability and denying the claims of some Africans (ie. Nigerians) to represent the true African prototype. He criticized as well the biased use of the language in definitions like for instance writing about "sub-Saharan" populations which has also other cultural implications, so to be consistent they should also use "supra-Saharan" instead of "north African" or other such nomenclature.

www.geocities.com/juanjosecastillos/english.html

[Abubakari]

GhostOfRecluse said:

Slick,
I read once that a man traveled to Nigeria and found the Igbos to be similar to African-Americans. On the other hand, Hausas he found to be darker, stockier, with slantier eyes and higher cheekbones. The Hausas sound like Gareth's description of the Sudanid and the Igbos sound like the Bantuid. The traveler that I mentioned claimed that everyone could distinguish Hausas from Igbos without fail.

On a personal note: I've always found that African-Americans who matched the Sudanid description to be particularly tough, hard-working, and intelligent.
Perhaps Hausa culture is more bourgeois and it carried over to that group of slaves in the Americas.

One word: Bullshit!!!!

[Melnorme]

Said
Mai
Hi.

[Abubakari]

GhostOfRecluse said:

But I really object to my flattering characterization of Hausas being called bullshit. Look, just because some Igbos I know see the Hausas as a group of theocratic, fascist ignoramuses doesn't mean that they're all like that.

I am a Hausa, thats why I said BULLSHIT!

[Faelcind]

I am not really sure what point you are trying to make Mai. It is well known that the majority of the african descended populations in the americas came from the west coast of africa. My point is no dependant on west africans being a single race or sub race or even there being such a thing as races all you have to accept is that east africans on average look different enough from west africans that you could distinguish betweent the two. In my experience this is true and Yunis does not look like a typical african american.

[Melnorme]

Faelcind said:

In my experience this is true and Yunis does not look like a typical african american.

Heh.
Damn it Mai, would you prefer that this difference in appearance be due to white admixture in African Americans?

[Abubakari]

Faelcind said:

I am not really sure what point you are trying to make Mai. It is well known that the majority of the african descended populations in the americas came from the west coast of africa. My point is no dependant on west africans being a single race or sub race or even there being such a thing as races all you have to accept is that east africans on average look different enough from west africans that you could distinguish betweent the two. In my experience this is true and Yunis does not look like a typical african american.

The fact that west and East Africans look somewhat different still doesn't account for your statement that West Africans represent the original[true] Negro, there is variation in both West and east Africans.

[Abubakari]

Melnorme said:

Heh.
Damn it Mai, would you prefer that this difference in appearance be due to white admixture in African Americans?

African-Americans can look like anything, there is no 'typical' African-American' phenotype.

[Abubakari]

Look at my picture, I'm West African, but I have a somewhat elongated face with sub-Saharan features. What African subrace would you say I am?

[Faelcind]

Did I say true? No I said orginal type sorry if that implied that is was consistent type. There are ways in which west africans are fairly consistently different from east africans but you are absolutely correct that west africans are extemely diverse phenotypicall and so are african americans. Yunis does not look like he would easily fall into that range of varition to me. You on the other hand do. You look very typical west african to me and would not look out of place among african americans aside from being darker then normal.

[Abubakari]

Faelcind said:

Did I say true? No I said orginal type sorry if that implied that is was consistent type. There are ways in which west africans are fairly consistently different from east africans but you are absolutely correct that west africans are extemely diverse phenotypicall and so are african americans. Yunis does not look like he would easily fall into that range of varition to me. You on the other hand do. You look very typical west african to me and would not look out of place among african americans aside from being darker then normal.

Check out the responses I got on this thread


www.brazzil.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=16676

[Abubakari]

Faelcind said:

Did I say true? No I said orginal type sorry if that implied that is was consistent type. There are ways in which west africans are fairly consistently different from east africans but you are absolutely correct that west africans are extemely diverse phenotypicall and so are african americans. Yunis does not look like he would easily fall into that range of varition to me. You on the other hand do. You look very typical west african to me and would not look out of place among african americans aside from being darker then normal.

You say typical West Africa but what type? Saharan, Sudanic, Forest type?