(Long Story Short, We?re ?Black? but ?)
- Eritreans, Ethiopians, Somalis, Habeshas, Sudanese-South Sudanese , Horn of Africa people, and other East Africans are ?Black.? No one in these cultures and countries use the term ?Black? to identify themselves though, it is actually a Western and Eurocentric concept. Most people in these areas and cultures use their pan-ethnicity, country, national origin, and/or ethnicity (when appropriate) to identify themselves.
- One reason why recent Eritreans, Ethiopians, and other Horn/North-East African immigrants don?t use the term ?Black? is because they do not want to be associated with the false stereotypes on Black-African-Americans perpetuated by Western Media.
- Another reason could be because African Americans and West Africans deny our African/Black ancestry, culture, and heritage, because we do not look like the stereotypical African person perpetuated by the West. West Africans and African Americans dominate the perception of what it means to be Black.
- Some White-European-Americans, Black-African-Americans, Europeans, and West Africans believe that Africa is one homogenize place where all Africans look the same and have similar features. Even though Africa has a wider diversity than any other continent in the World.
- Most West Africans and African Americans have ?kinki/nappy? hair while Most (not all) Horn of Africa peoples have both ?kinki/nappy? hair as well as curly (or even sometimes curlier or straight) hair. Because the stereotypical West African look is more dominant in Western Culture, most people automatically assume we are not Black (also because this concept of ?Black? rarely exists in these cultures, some people will mistakenly go along with this Western and Eurocetric idea).
- While if you see a German or Ukrainian with blond hair, then see an Irish person with red hair, then you encounter an Italian with black hair, you automatically say they are all White/European. Why can?t you use this same concept on Africa and Africans.
- On another note Eritreans, Ethiopians, and some other East Africans, and Horn of Africa people have completely different cultures from the rest of Africa, to the extent that some Westerners forget that they are even in what Westerners (Mostly European-American people but also African Americans ) think Africa would look like.
Source: J. Kolo (@BunaTime) | https://twitter.com/bunatime?lang=en [Disclaimer: The person in the picture may not be from the Horn of Africa or Northeast Africa, this is just a Meme GIF that shows the sentiment held by many Habesha peoples when their Blackness or Africannnes gets questioned.].
[ To share, copy and paste the title and link:
Are Eritreans, Ethiopians, Habeshas, Somalis, Horn of Africa people, and other East Africans ?Black ?? (Long Story Short, We?re ?Black? but ?) [ https://medium.com/@habeshaunion/are-eritreans-ethiopians-habeshas-somalis-horn-of-africa-people-and-other-east-africans-9400dfbd616e ] .]
Videos That Explain This Much Better:
The title of the Video bellow ?I?M NOT BLACK | Helen Haile? is sarcastic (she believes we are Black)
The title of the Video bellow is ?Are East Africans Considered Black? Somali & Sudanese | Susu & Hibs?
The title of the Video bellow is ?East Africans Aren?t Black? Really??
The title of the Video bellow is ?WHAT ARE WE IF WE?RE NOT CONSIDERED BLACK ? ? East African Edition?
The title of the Video bellow is ?Being Black In America | Ethiopian-Eritrean American Perspective | Black Experience | Call To Action?. The video is about the Black Experience in America from the perspective of an Ethiopian-Eritrean American as a 1st generation Ethiopian and Eritrean immigrant to the United States:
Being Black In America | Ethiopian-Eritrean American Perspective | Black Experience | Call To Action (By: Lila Talks)
This video is about my experience of being black in America, as a 1st generation Ethiopian and Eritrean. I share intimate stories about my upbringing, struggles with belonging, and finding my identity. Lastly, in my call to action segment, I share #3 things each person can do now to advance our understanding of the black community-at-large to strengthen unity amongst all black people and the human race in order to fight systemic racism, stereotypes, and biases. Change cannot occur without understanding each other. Peace & Love
#LilaTalks #BeingBlackInAmerica #BlackExperience #Blackness #BLM #African #EastAfrican #Eritrean #Ethiopian #DMV #DC #NorthernVA #Virginia #Norfolk #ODU #abyssiniabaptistchurch
Thank you!
Lila, Coach, LilaTalks.com
The title of the Video bellow is ?CAN BLACK PEOPLE BE RACIST??. In other words can the various Black/African ethnic groups be racist to each other or to other races and how does the System of Racism in the United States and Around The World affect people. Many issues are discussed in this video from multiple perspectives with somewhat differing conclusions:
CAN BLACK PEOPLE BE RACIST? (By: Miskeen Central)
FULL EPISODE OUT NOW!! SUBSCRIBE & JOIN THE MOVEMENT! Hit the bell to stay notified on EVERY UPLOAD!!
COMMENT BELOW for a SHOUTOUT on the next episode!
Exec. Prod ? Shewa Studios LLC
Disregard keywords miskeen central,miskeens,miskeen podcast,talk habesha,habesha dating,habesha,addis ababa,love grass,love grass ethiopia,eritrean,ethiopian,oromo,tribalism,Dark Skin,habesha men,habesha relationships,habesha women,habesha men are trash,can black people be racist
The title of the Video bellow is ?Are Habesha people Black??. It talks about the the confusion caused by the term ?Black? ? ?Is Black a skin color or is Black a culture, because we have a different culture from African Americans, Black people are not a monolith?, but we still care about and are thankful for all the things African Americans have done in order to fight for our rights in the West and also talks about how we all still go through the same racist system and society that hates and oppresses all Black peoples?.
Quotes from the Comments Section of this video:
??????? 12 months ago
I believe its a western system and it doesnt come from africans, so if we want to know who is part of the black group we should ask the creators :whites. We can debate all day but in the end its not our invention?so we have to ask them. I believe in our system we are african, habesha,our nation and our tribes. Thats the non-western african identity. Our skin goes from brown to black as people can clearly see. Its Important to not lose your own system. Because those who name you own you. Name yourself. ?
Ekrame Woldey 2 days ago
there is teddy afro music called menilik tekur sew means [King] Menilik [a] black man. we call our self black man but when ppl say i?m not black i?m habesha they wanna refer the fact they are not colonized and they don?t call them self by the name white ppl give them. believe me they are not talking about color of skin but rather self determination and having proud name called habesha. it?s there way of being proud to be Ethiopian. they know they r black in color but they r not black in sense of white ppl call them black.
Ethio Nate 1 month ago
To Selamawit Abebe: A lot of Ethiopians/Eritreans don?t claim there black because they say it was a word made by the western system . There basically saying ?I?m not going to let someone from the western system label me when there not even from the same place as me?.
The title of the video bellow is ?HABESHA people that don?t think they?re BLACK / ??? ???? ??? | Helen Haile?, by Helen Haile is about how the racial term ?Black? is used differently, the confusion it creates between Western and Non-Western Cultures, and how all Black peoples no matter their cultural or ethnic heritage are affected by racism in the West and that they should work together to fight for each others rights. This video also explains to Habesha peoples (Eritreans and Ethiopians) that when the move to Predominantly White Western Countries that they will be labeled as ?Black? and will eventually face racism.
?Dear habesha community, people in this country see you as black and will not hesitate to put a bullet in you & your family members. Correct the ignorance in your households. These are our people that are dying, we are not even slightly superior. Accept it before they show you.? ? By: habesha mother / ? (@biiiftu) [https://twitter.com/biiiftu/status/1266527681811607553]
Quotes from the Comments Section of this video:
Robeal T 2 months ago
I SEE NO PROBLEM with Africans who prefer to be referred to by their national identity as opposed to simply being labeled Black. To be considered Black is to simply be of African descent and Africa is not a country; it?s a continent with 50 + countries, hundreds of different cultures, ethic groups and history of origins. To simply label all Africans as being ?Black? is to ignore all those differences and act as if they?re the same when they?re not.. Nobody in Africa refers to themselves as ?Black? because they never created the term; the ?White? man in America did. The irony is that to be considered ?White?in America is to be of European descent and NOBODY IN EUROPE (British, Italians, Spanish etc.) CALLS THEMSELVES WHITE AND NOBODY ELSE DEMANDS THEY REFER TO THEMSELVES AS WHITES. It?s only diaspora Africans who try to place an umbrella term over all of our heads in order to be appease those Africans who lost their direct connection to an African identity because they were stripped of it due to the tragedy that was slavery. I also understand that a racist doesn?t care what kind of African you are; and that?s why ALL AFRICANS should be outraged over these cop killings and systematic racism here in America. BUT MISS ME WITH THE WHOLE ?YOU?RE NOT ERITREAN, YOU?RE BLACK.? People need to stop pressuring others to think they have to discard their national identity in order to be down for the cause.
[ primoxxl7 11 month ago THANK YOU! I have been saying the same thing for years! Don?t try to cancel out my culture, my being to reduce me down to a color in a crayon box, due to your ignorance.]
Aster Berhane 2 months ago
Helen, growing up in Eritrea there was Christians and there was Muslims, no knowledge of different races and yes used to hear about the existence of white people. when I moved to the UK my first racism experience was not from whites but from a group of Nigerian girls, the ring leader [falsely claimed and] said [that, in some sort of way] I was Arab because African people [according to the Nigerian girl?s racist Western-centric and Bantu-centric perception] don?t have light skin and long hair like mine, my Ethiopian friend told me she was being racist because I didn?t understand where she was coming from, never heard of the word racist or racism prior to that, so it?s not only people of horn of africa that are racist to other Africans, we get it to, even to this day I still hear West Africans refer to us as ?you people?.
TheFhdude 2 months ago
To @Amena and Elias: ?. Tbh, habeshas in general think they are black but they also think they are different than AA [African Americans] or West Africans. In fact when they speak about a black person, they always mean a non-habesha aka AA [African American] etc. When they say ?she married a black guy? it means the girl married a non-habesha black guy. This is so wide spread. They talk about ?african music? which means non-Habesha African music. Most of them say that not as bad thing but as something that is distinct from [their own] Habesha [culture]. [British people use the same wording when they say ?the Europeans? or ?those Europeans,? when they actually mean non-British Continental Europeans, the British are not denying their Europeanness they just refer to non-British/non-Irish Europeans in that way.]. It is all a bit complicated. AA have gone through a lot, and ignorant people from all races [including other Black people groups] hate on them for no reason. We as black also get racism but I think not as harsh as them [African Americans]. We should all stand against any form of racism and have sympathy for our fellow humans. In this regard we as black share the same discrimination. But Identity is more than that in my view. As you said Africans including Habeshas identify themselves more with tribes, religion, culture and country than color. And I think people should be allowed to identify themselves as they have always did minus hating on others or discriminating others. I don?t know if imposing western style identity on our community is the way to go. Habeshas should be allowed to identify themselves as such with their unique culture and traditions.
Fula Sports 2 months ago
West African here, unfortunately colonialism did us so bad some of us bit the bait of these racist European historians who said certain tribes like mine (Fulani) weren?t black because of our intelligence! Also the worse is when many of us try to ascribe Arab ancestry but even those Arabs were a dark skinned people ! Not the ones we see [in modern day Middle East] today?.. In terms of east African Somalians and Ethiopians I just give them the benefit of the doubt and realize colonialism colonized our minds too.
nita bineta 2 months ago
Africa is the most diverse continent in the world. It?s unfortunate how some Africans try to claim outside origins because they have been told [by others that] they look different from the [so-called] ?true africans?. The features others like to claim as non-African are actually amongst the oldest features [that originate among African peoples]. In fact others have these features because of their African ancestors [that migrated out]. We [all the various African peoples with all of our different features] gave rise to these other races. Don?t forget that. Black and proud.
Dragon 1 week ago (edited) American movies have all of the Black Kings and Queens of Africa [portrayed] as White people . And have the Black people [portrayed] as slaves. This is because the colleges/universities and schools [in America and the West] do not teach [the history]/black history [of] different countries ? [enough] . So when Hollywood make the movies dealing with black history they white wash them [they whitewash our cultures].
This is a collage of 4 photo that show 4 women fro Northeaster Africa or the Horn of Africa (specifically an Ethiopian, Eritrean, Sudanese ? possibly including a South Sudanese ? , and a Somali women). :
Ethiopians, Eritreans, Sudanese/South Sudanese, and Somali people are Black. [Source: https://www.pinterest.com/beamlakshimelis/ethiopian-beauty/]
For more pictures of Habesha peoples (a.k.a. Ethiopians and Eritreans) click the link to the ?What do you mean by Habesha? ? A look at the Habesha Identity (p.s./t: It?s very Vague, Confusing, & Misunderstood) | @habesha_union [ https://medium.com/@habeshaunion/what-do-you-mean-by-habesha-a-look-at-the-habesha-identity-habesha-union-habesha-union-43f22ab8bc35 ]? Article and scroll down to the bottom to see the photo gallery.
=
[Update 1.3.2019 (from Instagram Comments)| We (Habesha ??? people/Horn Africans/East Africans) are of course Black but the term ?Black? as an ethno-racial identity is a western (mostly but not always American) political construct. Using the term ?Black? as an ethno-racial identity in a small East African town is impractical because everyone is Black, people would uses more culturally appropriate terms like a persons individual ethnicity, nationality/national origin, a pan-ethnicity, the province they come from, or the general region they come from, (this is all dependent on the context of the situation), if you don?t come into contact with Westerners (Europeans and Black & White Americans alike) regularly, you wouldn?t have an experience with labeling yourself or being labeled by the socio-political constructed identity ?Black?. Horn Africans who live in the West have to adapt to this new concept of a Black identity (like I have accepted), while the ones who live back home would rarely come into a situation where they may meet someone who thinks of race/ethnicity as Black-White binary (equating Blackness & Dark skin solely with African American culture). Sometimes some people don?t know that Black people (those with ancestors from Africa) come in many different types of features and not all Black/African populations look the same. The same way some Russians look different from tanner southerners Italians or that some Irish people have Red hair while some Italians have black hair or some Germans have blond hair. Some Africans have kiniki/nappy hair while other Africans have curly hair. Some people (some Whites, African Americans, and some West Africans) try to deny us (Horn Africans; Somalis, Amhara, Tigray, Afar, Saho, Oromo, etc.) our Black Africa heritage and identity by saying that just because we look slightly different that we must have some sort of Arab or (this is far fetched but some people actually believe this) or that we have some sort of White European blood in us, and then start to question if we?re Black, while in fact we are Black Africans (even though some people don?t always encounter that term as a personal racio-cultural identity).
I hate it when people say we aren?t Black / Black enough.:
Can these people stop with this fake thing saying that Northern Ethio-Eritreans (Amhara, Tigray, etc.) are mixed with Arab when they are not. Y?all, you guys should also know that ignorant West Africans, African Americans, and White people (Europeans/European Americans) believe that Somalis, Oromos, etc. are mixed with Arabs as well when they are not. Just search up ?Are Somalis Black?? on Google, there are a bunch of ignorant people that believe that Horn Africans/East Africans (Amharas, Somalis, Anuaks, etc. alike) are mixed with Arab or White/European when in actuality we are Black and that Black Africans come in different features just like White Europeans come in different features dependent on which region of Europe they come from. Ethiopians look different from Nigerians the same way Russians look different from tanner southern Italians but both Russians and Italians are considered White while for Somalis, Ethiopians, Eritreans, and Sudanese/South Sudanese people, our Blackness comes into question.
(2) ?Why do you think people view East Africans as non-blacks?: ?In terms of our physical features we [sometimes] differ from most other African countries so may be its this? But then you need to ask what black is and its definition. It?s like saying Chinese people aren?t the real Asians because they aren?t Indians. Since when did black mean one shade of skin, one type of facial feature [, or] one type of hair texture.?? (Article title: ?YOU?RE NOT REALLY BLACK? | DAUGHTER OF THE HORN ; https://daughterofthehorn.blog/2016/03/13/youre-not-really-black/)
[Quote From Instagram: @habesha_union to @alefehelen & @_brook_y ]: No, we know we are Black, the West Africans and ~1890s Racist White European German Anthropologist (like Hiob Ludolf, Edward Ullendorff, Eduard Glaser, etc.) try to say we?re not Black when we actually are. {?Black? as a race or personal identity is a completely foreign concept for most average Ethiopians, Eritreans, Somalis, Sudanese/South Sudanese, and FOBs (Fresh Off the Boat: a North American English informal slang term for ?recent immigrants?) who haven?t lived in the West or who haven?t come into contact with Western Media.}, {And the idea that ?Ethiopians are mixed with Arabs? is an unsubstantiated false claim made by German Anthropologist in the ~1890s (like Ludolf & Uledorf) at a time when White people thought that Africans/Black people were ?uncivilized non-human savage animals? and that Ethiopians didn?t fit into their stereotypes so the tried to make everyone think that Horn Africans aren?t Black instead of admitting to their mistake and even some Horn Africans believed them let alone West Africans and White people.} Then they end up indoctrinating Horn Africans (Somalis, Ethiopians, Eritreans, /Habesha/, etc.) making us doubt our own Blackness/Africanness.?
[Quote From Instagram: @yelenyim ]: ?This shit is embarrassing af!!!? ?Habesha? similar to Hispanic/Latino is about a shared culture/region? it is not about race!!!! ??WE?RE??FUCKING??BLACK??Even with [supposed (but unsubstantiated)] admixture from Arabs, some with Jewish ancestry we tend to be mostly [if not all] sub-Saharan African?. when considering the population as a whole this is very apparent. Obviously there r exceptions but they r rare. So please stop bringing shame to us all with all this ?I?m black not Habesha? bs and understand that you?re both.?
[@habesha_union addressing @lydia_michaellllll and @ladyelsabel]: ?Y?all know that these Ancestry DNA tests always confuse/can?t differentiate between East Africans (specifically Horn Africans) and Middle Easterners/Western Asians (specifically Arabs). One of the reasons why is because they have limited data on Horn Africans and they compare Nilo-Cushitic (Northeast Africa-Horn of Africa) .
[ ? ? Quote from some on on Instagram: ?Today?s generation of Eritrean and Ethiopian in the diaspora whom grew up in the Western Hemisphere do identify as ?Black?. But it?s mainly for political reasons. It?s to feel connected to a struggle that?s romanticized and fetishized.? ? ?
(Most of these statements ? https://www.instagram.com/p/BrqWxBPFfgA/ ? comes from the comments section of BunaTime (@habeshacomedies)?s video post asking people to comment on this video. While others come from Elsabel @ladyelsabel an Eritrean of London, England, United Kingdom-UK?s post ? https://www.instagram.com/p/BsK2wVKgnMZ/. ) ].
[Edit 2/21/2019: Comment taken from YouTube (link bellow)
By @habts02 (YouTube):?This question is ridiculous. What is your definition of ?Black???? Please understand that ?Black? is a COLOR, and not a nationality or ethnic group!!! Race is a construct created by Caucasians. Non-Westerners do not understand and/or embrace this. It?s Americans that use color or ?race? to identify themselves, and most African-Americans identify themselves as ?Black?. Look through the bible, and notice that you will NEVER see people identified by ?black?, ?white? or ?yellow?. The rest of the Non-Western world identify by your nationality or ethnic group. It is ridiculous to ask an African or anyone else this question. If you ask an Asian how they identify you will never hear ?Yellow?. They will tell you Korean, or Japanese, etc? If you want to identify as ?Black? then that is your prerogative, but ?race? is not used or even understood in the rest of the world.
Then you?re asking him if Ethiopians and Eritreans are ?mixed? and not original Africans because they most are not as dark as some other ethnic groups? African-Americans are ?mixed?. Your questions are very rude and intentionally divisive- ?Why did Ethiopia and Eritrea war?? ?Are you mixed?? ?Why are Ethiopians the most arrogant?? ?What are you stereotypes against Africa-Americans?? You want him to say he considers himself Arab, that he has no respect for African-Americans, that Ethiopians are arrogant and that as an Eritrean he hates Ethiopians- none of which he did. The bottom line is that ?Black? is NOT YOUR nationality, but if you choose to label yourself as such we will not chastise you, nor tell you that you lack knowledge of self and have an identity crisis. Africans know that we are labeled as Black when we come to America, but we know that is a way of wiping out our true identities which are linked to our ethnic groups, nationalities, language, cultures and customs. The real issue/question is- Why is it sooo important for African-Americans to hear Africans identify as Black and not state our countries? Caribbean people don?t have this issue. When Africans meet they ask each other where they are from and are never offended by their answers: Nigerian, Ghanaian, Ethiopian, etc.?
By @SylviasWorld (YouTube):
?I think Africans don?t see themselves generally as Black because their national and tribal identity is what defines them and it?s a foreign concept to be honest. The concept of Black in the west is BECAUSE there are lots of different races, so everyone has to have a compartment. Even Chimamanda Adichie said the same that she only heard the term Black when she came to America. I don?t think any Black American can really talk about and impose themselves as the custodian of who is black and who is not due to race mixing because most have a non African ancestor due to slavery no matter what skin tone they are today. In Africa Black means dark actually and not Black as a race as it does in the west.?
By @yorsalem ambasajer (YouTube):
?lol this is funny . i am fully eritrean ( i know my grandparents names and their grandparents names and so on and they are all eritrean names not arabic) . but i am light skin with long curly hair so i get mistaken for being mixed and my sister is brown with really long hair and when she straightens her hair she gets mistaken for being asian . my grandpa is light skin like me with green eyes . but his eyes pop out cause it looks unusual. Because of the climate in eritrea and ethiopia our skin tones vary even within our family. we are black . habesha is just a term to unite ethiopians and eritreans however some people mistake it for being a race .?
? ? ?
by Habesha Union (YouTube):
?Most of West-Central-Southeast Africa are mostly Bantu. There are pockets of Khoisan in South Africa. Most of the Horn of Africa/Northeast Africa (south of and excluding most of Egypt) is either Cushitic or Niolitic. In North Africa among the native Africans there, there are the indigenous Berbers, Copts, and a few others that in modern times are mixed Colonizing Arabs. Then you have African-Americans, Afro-Carbians, and Afro-Latinos who are mixed with African, European/White, Native American, and maybe even some Asian admixture. The Bantus, Cushitic Peoples, Niolitic Peoples, Berbers, Copts, Khoisan, among a few others that I might have missed are indigenous to Africa. Bantus aren?t the only Africans or Black peoples, that notion is racist, Bantucentric and Eurocentric.?]
The title of the video bellow is ?What DNA ancestry tests can ? and can?t ? tell you?, by Vox. The video explains how DNA ancestry tests work.
This is the video description:
I [Vox employee in the video] took a DNA ancestry test. It didn?t tell me where my ancestors came from? Subscribe to our channel! http://bit.ly/video-lab At-home DNA ancestry tests have become hugely popular in recent years. More than 26 million have taken one of these tests. If their marketing is to be believed, they can help you learn where your DNA comes from, and even where your ancestors lived. But the information that can be inferred from your DNA is actually much more limited than testing companies are letting on. And that has lead consumers to misinterpret their results ? which is having negative consequences. Further reading: The limits of ancestry DNA tests, explained https://www.vox.com/science-and-healt… Was I part British, part Dutch, a little bit Jewish? The oddness of DNA tests. https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation… White nationalists are flocking to genetic ancestry tests ? with surprising results https://www.scientificamerican.com/ar… Direct-to-consumer racial admixture tests and beliefs about essential racial differences https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/… The human genome diversity panel browser http://hgdp.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/gbro… Vox.com is a news website that helps you cut through the noise and understand what?s really driving the events in the headlines. Check out http://www.vox.com. Watch our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/IZONyE Follow Vox on Facebook: http://goo.gl/U2g06o Or Twitter: http://goo.gl/XFrZ5H
[Update 10.18.2019 Comment from YouTube:
The ?mix? is ancient, probably before the white skin mutation accured in the fertile crescent or people from the extreme North came down. It?s not like Somalis or Habeshas are mixed with a ?white? people, if that?s what you think. We just share this DNA with people who happen to be white now-today.
The mix doesn?t need to be emphasised because it?s ancient & has existed in the region for thousands of years but it?s important as it provides further specificity and allows us to distinguish between different groups that inhabit the same geographic region.
People just don?t want to see a vague ?East-Africa? or ?West-Africa? or ?Middle-East? or ?South-Asia? region?. they pay for these tests hoping there?ll be well defined regions, countries or populations.
:::::::::
The problem is, there are two camps and they?re equally annoying (and wrong). Camp 1 says that if you don?t look like a Bantu you?re NOT a true African (which is a false and a racist statement). Camp 2 are White and Arab wannabe?s. These two groups are ridiculous beyond comprehension (and are both inaccurate, disingenuous, and racist).
::::::::
Ancestry (DNA Tests) is (are) not accurate for people from the Horn. It basically tells people from the Horn that they?re half Middle Eastern and half south eastern Bantu, which is (a) wrong (unfounded and totally untrue statement)!
? ? –
Nope their reference sample [for East Africa and Northeast/Horn Africa]is based on only 17/18 people from the South-East Africa region (Kenya most likely) who are evidently admixed as Kenya & South-East Africa received migrations from multiple groups including Indigenous Hunter gatherer groups, Cushitic pastrolists, Nilotic groups and Bantus. The Barchart belows illustrates the other regions found in the results of those 18 people tested. For example 44% of those included in the sample had some percentages of Cameroon-Congo which is associated with the Bantu expansion out of that region. 39% carried South-central Hunter-gatherer Ancestry which is linked to the ancient inhabitants of that region such as the Khoi-san. In addition to this, 17% of those included in the sample carry some Middle-eastern ancestry which is an indication of Cushitic admixture in South-East Africa owed to Ancient Agro-Pastoralists from the Horn of Africa.
blacksovereign.com
AncestryDNA have no reference sample for the Horn of Africa. The region is never highlighted and they?ve not created a reference sample for it. The South-Eastern Bantu result is simply a reflection of the Cushitic contribution to the South-East African gene pool. Groups such as the Masaai have up to 50% Cushtic admixture and some Bantu Kikuyu people have up to 20% . South-Sudanese people are also experiencing a similar thing, there are no samples for Sudan and as a result many (Nilotic) Sudanese people receive the South-Eastern Bantu result which again is wrong and is simply a reflection of Nilotic migration into South-East Africa, Many groups in South-east Africa such as the Luo people and also the Masaai have some Nilotic ancestry.
:::::::::;
Sample size doesn?t [is not the only thing that] matter at all. Ancestry[DNA] when analyzing East Africans takes as a reference (to whom to compare) Bantu peoples and Middle Easterners. Ancestry doesn?t recognize East Africans [specifically Horn Africans] as a separate group but looks at this population as [a] mixed group between [the Bantu subgroup (who are not representative of all Black Africans) of] ? and Middle Easterners [most likely Arabs]. It is their approach which they adopted from scientific research of this area. 23andme takes different approach. It takes as a reference a Somali person. A Somali is a representative of all East Africans and equals to almost 100% East African. Then 23andme compares all other East Africans to a Somali person. .
? ? ? ? ?
Surely then South-Eastern Bantus who have significant genetic contributions from multiple multiple multiple different people groups (Bantu, Nilotic, Cushitic, Khoi-san) are then super super mixed and shouldn?t be used as a reference sample as they?re far from pure.
Somalis & Horn of African are said to carry one ancestral African component (Ethiopic) and one ancestral ?non-African? component (Ethio-Somali) compared to the 5 (Bantu, Nilotic, Khoi-san) + Cushitic (Ethiopic&Ethio-Somali) all found in South-East African Bantus, logically making it far more problematic to use South-East African Bantus as a reference population for all of East Africa [for even those who aren?t even Bantu].
? –
Wrong, look at the people on the Swahili coast if you want to see the result of a mix between Arabs and Bantu people. They don?t look like Horners at all.
? ? –
We are not denying that there is West Eurasian DNA in our blood, but it?s not the same as the Arab DNA (of Arabs today nor the recent Bantu-Arab admixture of the Kenyan Swahili Arabs during the Arab Slave Trade that happened in South-East Africa) , that mix in our blood happened before humans learned to farm( over 10000 years ago) JUST to give you a perspective. IF anything, the Arabs look like us (Horn Africans) and when that?s said, there is a clear difference between the MiddleEastern-Semitic and the HornAfrican-Cushitic-Ethiosemitic features.
We?ve been around since pre-historic times, We?ve been around before some people in Eurasia developed the white skin, but you want to lump us together with Bantus or Arabs? Fuck off!! with the Ancestry DNA numbers, We are NOT a mix of Bantus and Arabs, End Of! .
? ? ?
Ethiopians and Eritreans are consistently scoring (+20?30%) Middle-East & North-Africa. It has nothing to do with slavery :-/ ?.. Ethiopia was never invaded by any foreign force or conquered?. In fact it was them ?Kingdom of Aksum? that conquered Arabia for sometime.
Moreover, the Semetic languages spoken in Ethiopia don?t derive from ?Old-Arabic? and are said to have actually existed in the region 2000?3000 years ago??. ?contemporary Ethiosemitic languages of Africa reflect a single introduction of early Ethiosemitic from southern Arabia approximately 2800 years ago?, and that this single ancient introduction of Ethiosemitic underwent ?rapid diversification? within Eritrea and Ethiopia.?
Therefore it can be concluded that Ethiopian & Eritreans can attribute their Middle-Eastern/North-African percentage to an ancient admixture event which occurred around 2,800 years ago between Cushitic people, Ethiopian & Eritreans are indigenous to the Horn of Africa.
::::::
Your North African isn?t due to slavery. It?s really just how these results are made. To be honest, you?re pretty much 98% African (East and North), which makes sense for Ethiopians.
:/:://////:::
People don?t realize our genetics go back thousands of years. Even if you knew your great great great grandparents ?didn?t mix so much?, they only reflect a small percentage of what has been collected in our DNA over hundreds of generations. We are echoes of our very ancient ancestors. No human is 100% anything. We have been traveling and mixing all our existence. I think everyone should do thEse DNA kits and the kits also need to better explain human migration.
::::::::
North African doesnt mean your Arab, Ethiopians and Somalis are actually the original black ancient Egyptians and this has been scientifically proven
::::::
let me explain this to you all about this genetic matter ? firstly the term Africa was first used to indicate only Tunisia and parts of Libya. the usage of Africa to mean the entire land mass is recent and that is part of the confusion.
secondly the genetic evidence shows that north and east Africans who belong to the E haplotype are related to semites who have the J haplotype and they were the same group but split in the levant and semites (J) spread into iraq/iran (Mesopotamia) the levant and the Arabian peninsula while the E haplotype spread through north and east Africa. thirdly they are both share something other than common ancestry they also share a language connection as they both the Semitic branch and african branch are in the language group called afro-asian language family and this goes back to berber/ancient Egyptian/ Nubian languages. I hope this clears up some confusion.
but of course there are tribes that are from inside the continent
:::::
As you correctly pointed out there were much earlier episodes of migrations into the Horn of Africa which accounts for the majorty of admixture in Cushitic people and Horn of Africans. Below are extracts from a research paper (2014) that explores the topic of Early Back-to-Africa Migration into the Horn of Africa.
When analysing the African & Non-African ancestral components of the Horn of Africa, scientists found their results supported the hypothesis of distinct African ancestry with a long history in differentiated HOA populations . ?The African (Ethiopic) ancestry is tightly restricted to HOA populations and likely represents an autochthonous (indigenous) HOA population.? As for the non-African ancestry in the HOA which is dubbed the (Ethio-Somali) component, scientists found it to also be ?significantly differentiated from all neighboring non-African ancestries in North Africa, the Levant, and Arabia.? They estimated it to have ?diverged from all other non-African ancestries by at least 23 ka,?. (23,000 years ago)
What is the source & nature of this non-African ancestry ? Researchers found that although the Horn of Africa shares a close geographic proximity to Arabia, the non-African ancestry in HOA ethnic groups isn?t closest to ethnic Arabs. ?we would expect the highest levels of pairwise gene identity to be between HOA and Arabian populations, but this is not the case. The highest levels of shared gene identity are between HOA populations and the Levantine Palestinian and the North African Mozabite population samples?. Scientists also made the discovery that ?the Arabian lactase persistence allele that arose 4000 years ago and is present in high frequencies in Arabian populations (>50%)? is virtually non existent in the Horn of Africa. ?This Arabian allele is also almost absent in the Somali (1.6%)?.
Their research was pretty conclusive and supports past findings and their hypothesis that ?gene flow from Arabia within the last few thousand years cannot explain the non-African ancestry in HOA populations.? As for when they believe this back migration occured based on their research and other previous findings they state: ?Taking into account published mitochondrial, Y chromosome, paleoclimate, and archaeological data, we find that the time of the Ethio-Somali back-to-Africa migration is most likely pre-agricultural.?
http://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1004393
? ? ? ? ? ?
The research has been done and documented, archeological proof, genetic and linguistic. The admixture in the region was ancient and involved ancestral groups different to those present today. Ancient people were free to migratr around the world?there were no borders or boundaries. People weren?t restricted to their respective continents hence why there?s so much variety and diversity in the world. Ony Ignorant people take this diversity and label it as ?Invasion, slavery or blah blah when infact most of it is ancient??..What?s funny is most people falsely labelling this diversity are African diaspora descendants of slavery or people from a region with a history of being enslaved?. they think it?s the same story with every admixed region not realising that virtually every human population is a product of ancient admixture, migration and differentiation to some degree.
Infact most indigenous populations appear to look somewhat admixed or intermediaries between different groups?.. The Khoi-san of Africa appear admixed, Australian aborigines appear to be admixed and Ainu people of Japan also appear admixed?. but all are indigenous populations.
__________
It?s only AncestryDNA that give Horn of Africans 35?55% Middle-Eastern & 10?15% North African? because they have no samples for the region.
On 23andme a Somali might get 98% East African, why ? because 23andme actually have Somali samples in their database. So that 98% Simply means you?re share alot of autosomal DNA and match with other Somalis in the database.
I?ve seen a North African take an AncestryDNA test and were only 24% North African the rest predominantly Europe and Middle-East. On 23andme they were +90% North African. Again, it?s because AncestryDNA only samples Mozabites who are one isolated group and not representative of all North Africans, whereas 23andme actually has samples from more or less every country in North Africa.
I?m guessing they just don?t have enough samples from Eritreans/Ethiopians in the database?. they have multiple ethnic groups which may not be accounted for in the sample?.. but when 23andme get more samples, then they too would be +90%.
____
They have Masaai samples and samples from other East Africans.
You do realise?.. just because a Kenyan or Ethiopian or Somali person all score +90% on 23andme, it doesn?t mean they share the same Ancestry. Just shows that an individual shares ancestry with atleast one sample population used for that region?.They?re not testing how much of your DNA comes from the region, just how closely you much up against others in their sample.
For example 23andme have a North-African/Middle-East Sample?. a pure Saudi could get +90% North African and a Mozabite Algerian may get 90% North African?. It doesn?t mean they share the same Ancestry. It?s because 23andme?s North African sample include the Arabian peninsula.
http://www.forumbiodiversity.com/showthread.php/43508-my-Saudi-Arabian-mother-s-23andme-test-results
? ? ? –
What?s black DNA? can you proof that the ancient people who had to come together to form the Cushitic/Somali people were black and white thus making Cushitic people a black and white mix. Bare in mind the Semitic-Cushitic ?mix? happened in pre-historic times, the mutation that caused the white skin in Europeans, modern day Middle Easterners, and non-African semitic peoples, happened after the Cushitics were already mix (without the white skin gene). You?re pushing an agenda. What?s your point? You keep repeating a mix that happened literally 10s of thousands of years ago to split the identity of a people. By these standards the whole fucking world is mixed. We are not Bantu or Arabs, nor are we a mix of both,nothing against either of them, but that?s just how things are, WE ARE HORN AFRICANS.
? –
in fact the Askum Empire (an African Empire) conquered Southern Arabia, and the area known today as Yemen. This is where the outside DNA come?s from.
Also, most North Africans today of ? All Races ?, carry the Ancient Black African Haplogroup ( Y ? Male E1b1b ). Which has Origins in East Africa dating back to 22,500 BC.
::::::::::::::
comments from video ?https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VtfbNYQKStI? ].
? ? –
?98% East African but I have 130 neanderthal variants? How?? ? By: u/im-so-special
(https://www.reddit.com/r/23andme/comments/9ike6y/98_east_african_but_i_have_130_neanderthal/)
MelissaMee (1 year ago): Because your ancestors were the ancient Humans that went back to Africa after they left (see back to Africa migrations). They supposedly mixed with Neanderthal. It?s not uncommon to see Neanderthal DNA among Africans (especially East Africans). The common idea that Sub-Saharan Africans don?t carry Neanderthal DNA is wrong.
TOK715 (1 year ago): That whole area (Mediterranean side of Africa) has been mixing with Europe and the middle east for more than 4 thousand years, 6000+ probably, that?s plenty of time to pick up neanderthal DNA. I guess sub Saharan Africans are likely to have far fewer, though still probably some. Very interesting though, thanks for sharing!
? ? –
[Update 10.19.2019
Part 1:
- In Response To The Question: ?Are Somalis a combination between Bantus and Arabs/Caucasians/non-Africans?? (Ancestry/Ethnicity Estimate DNA Testing Issues for Nilo-Cushitic/Horn African peoples, Part 1). : https://medium.com/@habeshaunion/in-response-to-the-question-are-somalis-horn-africans-northeast-africans-eritreans-2be71f54a763
https://miro.medium.com/max/5200/0*iL9LWfcMjSOtGyFn
Most-if-not-all Ancestry/Ethnicity Estimate DNA Tests misrepresent Nilo-Cushites (Nilo-Cushitic peoples: Nilotic peoples & Cushitic Peoples (including Ethiosemitic-speaking Cushitic peoples), Horn Africans-Northeast Africans) as ?a combination between Bantus and Arabs [or] Caucasians.? One thing for sure is that most of them don?t test/look for Nilo-Cushitic markers, (1) because they have limited data, (2) it was originally meant for European Americans (U.S. White Americans) descended from colonists, indentured servants, and those various European ethnicities that asimilated with limited traces into the White population, so they can find out/corroborate weather their ancestors came from a certain part of Europe that they have lost a connection with/forgot about (as Ancestry/Ethnicity Estimate DNA Testing Companies advertise, for some European Americans it can not only tell them about their ancestors? ethnicity but can supposedly also pinpoint from which village or town in a specific European countries? province their ancestors come from; this has not been adequately verified though) and secondly meant for African Americans (U.S. Black Americans) descended from West-Central African peoples sold into slavery via the Transatlantic Slave Trade (with some populations going through Central-South America & Latin America before reaching the United States), (3) in most cases it can?t tell the difference between an East African and a West Asian, (4) it doesn?t even consider Nilo-Cushites as a unique group of peoples but brands them as ???Southeast Bantu + Middle Eastern?? = a bunch of random people who say they come from an imaginary place called the Horn of Africa.? On Ancestry DNA?s map of Genetic Group Estimates, they didn?t even highlight the Horn of Africa (more specifically any place from Central Sudan to as far south as Somalia), the map makes it look like the place is uninhabited and dosen?t even give it a Genetic Group Estimate name. In the picture bellow, the part of the map circled in red should be the Nilo-Cushitic Genetic Region (I had to circle this myself, because they never took this area into consideration, when it comes to DNA Genetic Ancestry Group Estimates)
THE AREA CIRCLED IN RED IS SUPPOSED TO INCLUDE NILOTIC AND CUSHITIC PEOPLES AS AN ANCESTRY CATEGORY (WHICH THESE COMPANIES HAVE IGNORED).
NILOTIC AND CUSHITIC PEOPLES SHOW UP AS BI-RACIAL BANTU-ARABS BECAUSE THESE ANCESTRY DNA COMPANIES ARE CUTTING CORNERS, DON?T HAVE ENOUGH DATA FOR THE HORN AFRICA/NORTHEAST AFRICA REGION, AND HAVEN?T MADE A DISTINCTION BETWEEN NILOTIC-CUSHITIC PEOPLES (MISTAKING THEM AS BI-RACIAL BANTU-ARANS) IN CONTRAST TO OTHER PEOPLE GROUPS THUS ONLY RECOGNIZING THEIR GENETIC SIMILARITIES TO OTHER PEOPLE GROUPS IN THE REGION (LIKE THE BANTUS TO THE SOUTH AND ARABS TO THE NORTH & EAST).
Ancestry DNA Map of Africa. The part of the map circled in red should have been Nilotic-Cushitic Peoples instead of a blank space left there by the Ancestry DNA (commercial DNA testing company).
Ancestry DNA Map of Africa. The part of the map circled in red should have been Nilo-Cushitic instead of a blank space left there by the Ancestry DNA Testing Company.
In response to comments:
This may be true, I?ll give you the benefit of the doubt when you say ancient admixture, but generally speaking these commercial DNA Tests are supposed to show only recent ethno-genetic marchers. For example Southern Europeans (in this example, this double standard is visible in Italians) have a huge amount of admixture that is way more recent than Horn Africans? ?Ancient Admixture?. But with this Italians having a lot more recent Arab, other Middle Eastern, and Magrabi/North African proper (Berbers, both Arabized NAs and non-Arabized Black North African populations) admixtures but are still categorized as Italians and Southern Europeans. While, when it comes to Horn Africans (genetically speaking Sudanese/South Sudanese are included), there are no categories (possibly for a lack of Data, they partially admit to this), Horn Africans are categorized as biracial Southwestern Bantu & Arab. There are no catagories parameters like ?Horn African,? ?Cushitic?, ?Nilo-Saharan,? ?Nilo-Cushitic,? ?Somali,? ?South-Central Ethiopian,? ?Highland Ethio-Eritrean,? ?Lowland Ethiopian-Eritrean,? etc. In retrospect, Italians with fairly more recent admixture, are considered Italians within their own right, even to the extent that these Commercial DNA tests can name exact ethnic groups like Sicilian, and while ethnic Sicilians have the most non-European admixture among all other Italian ethnic groups. For their lack of data and commercial monetary profit interests, these commercial DNA tests can?t tell the difference between Nilo-Cushitite (Horn Africans/Northeast Africa south of Egypt ? the area between Sudan to the north and Somalia to the south), and Southwestern Bantu of Kenya, Uganda, etc. and Arabs of Yemen, Saudi Arabia, etc., while it can easily tell the difference between a Northern Italian and an ethnic Sicilian (and other Southern Italians), plus when it comes to the British Isles, they can even pinpoint exact villages let alone a geographic region, ethnolinguistic groups, country, or ethnic group, which it can?t even do for Horn Africans. Also with this Ancient Admixture talk, ethnonationalist African Americans and West Africans have used this minuscule notion as a way to deny that Horn Africans are truly African or Black enough.
On the other hand 23andMe?s 2019 update is a lot more accurate than Ancestry DNA when it come to Horn Africans.
?23andme and DNA tests for Eritreans and Ethiopians? ? By: Cheshire Cat (Link: https://www.lipstickalley.com/threads/23andme-and-dna-tests-for-eritreans-and-ethiopians.2348949/)
I know one of the more controversial topic is whether Eritreans and Ethiopians have admixture or if they?re considered black or other such questions that I rarely encountered until I came to LSA tbh.
Now a bit of background. I belong to several online habesha groups and a couple of people took the 23andme test which they displayed. We were not impressed with the results because for a continent as vast as Africa, to have only three subgroups was pathetic and not impressive.
Contrast that with the fact that we know who our ancestors are due to traditions like recording births in family bibles, all kids (including yours truly) being drilled into their heads to recite and know paternal family 7 generations back, your village, etc. We knew the 23andme tests weren?t going to tell us anything that we didn?t already know.
I read that 23andme managed to get larger datasets due to getting more genetic info from under-served regions and they updated their categories to be more granular.
More recently, a Business Insider segment popped up on my timeline regarding commercial DNA testing companies for Eritreans/Ethiopians.
The producer and host of the segment, this Eritrean American man, contrasted his father?s knowledge of his family ancestry with the results from Helix and 23andme. His father was interviewed (and was such a habesha dad) and also re-iterated what I said above about already knowing family history and lineage.
I checked other 2 other habesha?s 23andme results and the same thing (see number 2 and 3).
All three have very very high African DNA, like over 95%. Highest that has ever been seen with these sort of tests. Also entirely Eritrean or Ethiopian.
The DNA tests confirms what we knew about ourselves.
1.) Click on link below for video. Not sure how to embed. The producer?s 23andme result is at 2:49 although the entire news segment is cool to see.He was 94.6% Eritrean Ethiopian.
I tried 23andMe and Helix to find out which DNA test would guess my ancestry more accurately
2.) Another Eritrean Ethiopian showing his updated results (via Twitter). His old results said 35% Arab 65% East African. His updated results now show it?s 99.7% Eritrean/Ethiopian.
3.) Eritrean Ethiopian redditor?s result from 23andme. His result is 97.8% Eritrean/Ethiopian.
?Great video, my results are also pretty similar I got it done a couple years ago and originally it had me as 35% Arab but now with the update to the data base [it has me] I?m almost [at] 100% Sub-Saharan African ?? ? Solo (@Atse_Solo) [Source: https://twitter.com/Atse_Solo/status/1090715268261822471 ] .?I tried 23andMe and Helix to find out which DNA test would guess my ancestry more accurately? ? An Article Video from Business Insider (https://www.businessinsider.com/dna-test-african-ancestry-accurate-23andme-helix-eritrea-east-africa-2019-2 ). Keep in mind that the part of the subjects ansestry has more recent Asian ancestry not generally found among most Ethiopian-Eritreans or other Horn Africans. This is just to show how DNA Tests work.
From stellamaris: Glad to hear they updated it. There?s no way my family is mixed, my father has 22 generations of his family down to one place. It just happens to be that Ethiopian/Eritrean people have extremely old DNA and that these DNA tests don?t have much of our DNA tracked appropriately.
From Cheshire Cat: I think this is a pretty new angle actually as 23andme is confirming that we are not mixed. Something that us Eritreans and Ethiopians knew but for some reason so many people refuse to accept.
Exactly. I thought of posting this info as I believe it would validate what we as Eritreans and Ethiopians already knew. These hotly debated conversations and debates about what we are just amused me in the past because we know who we are and it?s good that those commercial DNA testing companies have finally caught up to what we always knew.
If people wish to think otherwise, they are free to do so as it?s no skin off my nose.
I?ve never tested with any DNA testing company but the guy in my first example, the businessinsider.com link, he tested with two companies; Helix and 23andme. Helix gave him very broad results like 50% East Africa, 30% South west Asian, 11% Northern African, 7% Asia Minor and 2% Mediterranean. Not far off from the old 23andme results actually. It?s just way too broad and doesn?t ring true. Helix probably doesn?t have enough data yet.
From Kalashnikov: We Ethios and Eris don?t have to defend who we are to anyone, especially to people who have living white and other relatives as we speak lol. You and I know that in our communities, not a single person claim to be anything but whatever ethnicity they are. If we in fact were mixed, it happened thousands of years ago, hell the majority of us never even seen outsiders until recently let alone to claim them. So my point is that although it?s kinda good to see our unique and ancient markers finally being recognized, we have nothing to defend. We are who we are, unapologetically. Those who are hell bent on proving our mixedness are those who struggle to accept human diversity and documented historic migration. In addition, those obsessed with this DNA bs are those with extreme insecurities and want to bring everyone down with them. The majority of the black diaspora is of Central and West African heritage and were only exposed to only to that [type of Black people] and had concluded that was what all Africans look alike. Though race isn?t something I readily identify with since it isn?t something important in my everyday life, I?ll be damned if someone will tell me who I am and trying to project their 21st century nonsense on to our ancestors from 3,000+ years ago, please!
Kalas, don?t waste your energy.
Umm? because we are 10 miles away from the [Arabian] Gulf and are obviously gonna be more related to them than say Bantu languages. That?s in addition to the fact that during Sabean Empire [of South Arabia], ? [South Arabian Gulf States] were under [African Control ? the African Civilization that Controlled South Arabia was the Kingdom of Axum which was the predecessor state of Ethiopia and Eritrea // The Axumite empire of Ethiopia and Eritrea (an African Civilization) had colonized Yemen and most of western South Arabia]. [the peoples of South Arabia at that time (which were genetically and phenotypically similar to Black people) were] our closest relatives. We also speak Ethiosemitic languages (similar to the pre-Arabic, South Semitic languages of the native non-North Arab peoples of Yemen and other parts of South Arabia) as well as Cushitic Languages (with Semitic, Cushitic, and Omotic languages being part of the Afro-Asiatic Language Family that originated in Eastern Africa), which are related to but are farther away in relation from say Arabic or Hebrew which are also Afro-Asiatic Languages. In the Horn of Africa, Nilotic languages of the Nilo-Saharan Language Family are spoken along with the major Afro-Asiatic Languages.
From Yingyang: I don?t know why Horners [Horn Africans] bother with these tests. They?re intended for New World people to see how they match up to modern populations outside the Americas, not for us.
But if our people insist on taking them, 23 and Me is definitely more accurate for us than some of the others simply because they actually have our DNA samples as a reference point. Otherwise, they?ll just be off point and match you up with whatever similar samples they have.
I?ve seen some where they have the African component as South Eastern Bantu and we know for a fact that our population?s presence in the region preceded the Bantu migration so that cannot be accurate.
Nah, the Ethiopian/Eritrean category includes Ethiosemetic, Cushitic, Omotic, Nilotic language speakers of those regions as there is little to no genetic variation between the them. ? There?s no bright line genetic distinction ( there is very little genetic variation) between those who speak Ethiosemetic languages vs those who speak Cushitic languages in Ethiopia.
?The Ethiopian similarity with the Yemeni detected throughout the genome could be explained as an Ethiopian contribution to the Yemeni gene pool, consistent with that observed with mtDNA.?[177]
?Aksum in late antiquity played a considerable international role. As a power controlling the African shores of the Southern Red Sea, it served as an intermediary between the Byzantine ? Arabic trade routes and the Indian Ocean ? and thus became an interesting potential ally to Byzantium. To give one example : several sources mention the wish of the East-Roman emperor Justinian to control the route to India via the Red Sea in the 6th century [9]. With the help of its ally Aksum [Ethiopia-Eritrea], the Persian incursions into Southern Arabia were then, in fact, halted ; South Arabia was occupied by the Aksumites and trade routes were secured? [ https://journals.openedition.org/cy/33 ] .
New African & East Asian Details in 23andMe?s Latest Ancestry Composition Update (Published: August 21, 2018) ? By: 23andMe under 23andMe how to, Ancestry Reports [ https://blog.23andme.com/ancestry-reports/new-african-east-asian-details/ ]
?Prior to this update, our Sub-Saharan Africa region had just three subgroups, belying the tremendous genetic diversity within the continent,? David said. ?Humans were diversifying In Africa for hundreds of thousands of years before anyone left to colonize other parts of the world.?
These changes are currently available for customers [under the new more accurate update] on the latest version of the company?s genotyping chip. Our team is working to make this update available for all customers soon.
The addition of these new reference populations comes on the heels of 23andMe?s update earlier this year. That update increased the number of countries and regions included in Ancestry Composition from 31 to 151. The company is constantly striving to help customers access, understand, and benefit from the human genome. The updates are a step forward in achieving these goals.
The updates were made possible by three rich data sources: the African Genetics Project, for which 23andMe provided DNA kits to individuals with four grandparents born in the same African country; customer-supplied information; and the 1000 Genomes Project, a public repository of diverse human sequences.
For 23andMe, this is just the beginning of a series of updates that will increase the number of populations covered by Ancestry Composition over time. ?The Global Genetics Project is an ambitious initiative that will fuel future updates,? said Poznik.
?We have a list of around 60 countries that we?ve identified as top priorities,? he said. ?These are countries with fairly large populations but that aren?t well-represented in our database. We?re giving away kits to people with ancestries from these countries because we?re eager to collect data that will enable us to improve our product for other people from these regions.?
The title of the video is ?Asian & African? | Analyzing My 3 DNA Test Results Vs. Family Stories? ? By: Magalee Explores. These are the 23andMe Results for an Ethiopian-Indian/Pakistani Women across the different iterations of the 23andMe Updated DNA Ancestry Data.The title of the video is ?MY ANCESTRY DNA RESULTS!!!? ? By: Gracie D Forever. These are the 23andMe Results for an Ethiopian.The title of the video is ?SOMALI BUUXA MA?IHI?| WELIBA QABIILKI BUU SOO SAARAY!!? ? By: AJ & Fadna. These are 23andMe Results for Somalis-of-Somalia.The title of the video is ?ERITREAN TAKES A DNA TEST **SHOCKING RESULTS** ???? ? By: SuperGebar. These are the MyHeritage DNA Results for an Eritrean.
Comments from the Video ?ERITREAN TAKES A DNA TEST **SHOCKING RESULTS** ???? ? By: SuperGebar:
Comment By D B: Ethiopian Jewish DNA means Agaw/Bilen/Northern Cushitic and generic Habesha (Ethiopian-Eritrean) DNA. That Asian DNA is rare though, that?s probably your ancestors from the Axumite empire traveling and trading around the world and bringing wives back home to Africa.
The title of the video is ?ETHIOPIAN GENETICS RESULTS | 23ANDME? ? By: ThatGirlWossen.
Comments from the Video ?ETHIOPIAN GENETICS RESULTS | 23ANDME? ? By: ThatGirlWossen:
Review Sam: Horn Africans do not have Arab ancestry. Not sure where you are getting that from. The only group that has recent Arab ancestry are Afro-Arabs. Horners have ancient Middle Eastern DNA dates back 10.000 years ago. They (Horners) have been relatively homogenous for 10,000 years or longer (in contrast to African Americans with recent European/White ancestry). You have to keep in mind that 23andme just started getting Horner DNA when she took this test. I can guarantee she is 99% or higher Sub-Saharan African with more samples coming from Horners as of today. I have seen many DNA results of Horners and its ranges from 99.5% -100% SSA.
K Right Carr: Great results! I like?and disputes Western academia classification of Ethiopians as ?Dark Caucasians.? Clearly, you have an overwhelmingly predominant African genome. On top of that, your mtDNA L2a1 is a pan-African mitochondrial DNA haplogroup. It is the most widely distributed mtDNA haplogroup on the African continent ? East, West, South, and North. Congratulations, my sister!
? ? ?
Part 2: Controversial topic that needs addressing
*(TRIGGER WARNING: Open)
Habeshas are Black (and we kind of need to use that term when living in the West, because that?s what the Whites refer to us and we also need to make African Americans happy because they have more power than us and we need their help for our own survival in America. In order to be politically correct in America we have to adhere to Western Eurocentric concepts of race, and most people (both Black and White Americans) want everyone with dark/black/brown skin to use the term ?Black? as a racial identity, even if your own culture and ethnicity doesn?t use skin-color terminology to signify race and culture.
It?s not bad to call yourself Black, but understand that the term ?Black? as a race or personal identity is a Western and Eurocentric socio-political constructed identity that is a completely foreign concept for most average Ethiopians, Eritreans, Somalis, Sudanese/South Sudanese, and other Horn Africans (or even other Africans with limited-to-no colonial history) that generally don?t come in contact with that many Westerners (Westerners as in Europeans as well as Black & White Americans alike) on a regularly basis. Most people in these areas and cultures use their pan-ethnicity, country, national origin, and/or ethnicity to identify themselves depending on the context instead of arbitrary notions of skin colour as is used by Europe, Black & White North America, West-Central-Southern African Countries with a History of European Colonization, and other parts of the West or Western Society that hasn?t been mentioned (and bizarre exceptions where skin color based classifications persists outside the West like in Muslim-majority Arab Countries and Israeli society that retains some elements of similar forms of racism Jews had faced in Europe under Nazi oppression).
*(TRIGGER WARNING: Close)
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ]
[Update 6/16/2020:
Abstract from Goshu Wolde Tefera?s Journal Article on RACIAL AND ETHNIC IDENTITY WITHIN THE ETHIOPIAN DIASPORA IN THE UNITED STATES AND THEIR POLITICAL ENGAGEMENT IN ETHIOPIA: THE CASE OF THE WASHINGTON, DC METROPOLITAN AREA published at Syracuse University.
This research looks at ethnic and racial identities of Ethiopians in the Washington DC metropolitan area in relation to efforts aimed at upward mobility and regarding their political involvement within their country of origin. It is based on eight interviews with Ethiopian immigrants, a historical analysis, as well as my involvement with the wider
Disapora community through my internship with the Government of the District of Columbia Mayor?s Office on African Affairs (MOAA) during summer 2015. This allowed me to interact with local community groups and leaders, as well as observe public events held by members of the Ethiopian Disapora. The findings indicate that racial and ethnic identity can influence upward mobility as well as political engagement. It argues a sense of Ethiopian nationalism or ethnic affiliation is expressed in part through affiliation with, and display of, particular versions of their home country?s flag, providing a public yet low-key way of political engagement. World Systems and Marxist theories are used to show that ?race? is one of the major markers of identities in the United States, where the mode of production is capitalism. Ethiopians? self-identification in terms of race and ethnicity does not matter necessarily because the state and the system of production in the United States locate them along a racialized spectrum of belonging. Since class is mediated by race, racial identity is not something they want to take on but it is forced up on them. As part of the larger population of Black immigrants, Ethiopians find themselves lumped into a certain category by the dominant society and thus bond along racial, regional or ethnic lines. As I observed during my internship at the MOAA, although Ethiopians tend to associate more amongst themselves socially, they appreciate their collective identity in the work place and other public spaces. The study also attempts to explore the connection between racial and ethnic identity and political engagement, particularly the politics of nationalism. Lastly, it draws on the broader implication of Ethiopia?s Pan-African consciousness claiming that the country?s development is closely connected to its ability to make a common cause ? not just at political level ? with African nations regionally, continentally and globally.
Work Cited
Tefera, Goshu Wolde, ?RACIAL AND ETHNIC IDENTITY WITHIN THE ETHIOPIAN DIASPORA IN THE UNITED STATES AND THEIR POLITICAL ENGAGEMENT IN ETHIOPIA: THE CASE OF THE WASHINGTON, DC METROPOLITAN AREA? (2016). Dissertations ? ALL. 505.https://surface.syr.edu/etd/505 ]
[Update 6/19/2020:
Being Habesha in a Black and White World: A Racial Identity Crisis ? by: Abigail Mengesha (https://medium.com/@habeshaunion/being-habesha-in-a-black-and-white-world-a-racial-identity-crisis-by-abigail-mengesha-6fa834132482)
By Abigail Mengesha:
Racial identity was never a problem when I lived in Ethiopia. I recognized and understood my ethnicity, and that was enough. However, once I moved to the United States to receive higher education, questions regarding my racial background and the meaning of the term ?Habesha? resurfaced. This spark in curiosity can be credited to my exposure to the American Black/white binary model of race, the stereotypical portrayal of Blackness, and my striving to find a place in the various communities of the United States.
Habesha is a collective term for the native inhabitants of Ethiopia or Eritrea. Habesha is neither a race, nor an ethnicity, nor a nation. It is a way of living, a state of mind, and a collective of various cultures. It doesn?t have a common language or religion. Most young or Ethiopian or Eritrean Americans use the term to refer to themselves and others in a way that eliminates the distinctions between different tribes and ethnic groups, while also prompting pride and a discourse of a grander and united Habesha identity. So, the contemporary definition of Habesha is equivalent to ?Latino? ? a broad term, but also one that still recognizes its various ethnical and cultural constituents.
In the homeland, Habesha has never been associated with anything other than Ethiopian and Eritrean. However, whenever my people move to the United States of America, its racial component becomes hard to decipher within the racial binary construct of the dominant culture. I have experienced this sense of confusion firsthand and have noticed it in other Ethiopian and Eritrean immigrants as well. I have noticed the way they try to assimilate the American constructions of race at certain times and generate counter-narratives at others, in an effort to defer the racial stereotypes and oppression that arise from identification with an undifferentiated Black identity. Some of these counter-narratives posit exclusive ethnic identities or hybridity, while others maintain purely national ? Ethiopian and Eritrean ? identities.
The stereotypical image of Blackness in the United States is largely responsible for the construction of an undifferentiated and structural identity. This ahistorical portrayal is maintained and fashioned by the popular Western media, which solely associates Blackness with African Americanness. Since Blackness is believed to be a direct opposition to Whiteness, rather than a diverse race that embodies numerous, distinct cultures and ethnicities, Habeshas tend to fear being branded with this label. I experienced this same fear whenever I felt the stereotypical obligation to speak in Black slang [African American Vernacular English], love Kendrick Lamar, and know how to twerk in order to feel Black. This resulting uneasiness forces other Ethiopians/Eritreans and me to identify ourselves as just Habesha, instead of Black. Consequently, our actions could be perceived as a way to distance ourselves from our Black roots, even though that isn?t the case. Our alienation from the African American community is a result of how we are viewed by its members. Being considered ?foreign? tends to annihilate our sense of belonging in this fraction of American society. I experienced this firsthand when, during my first two weeks on Cornell?s campus, I was called ?exotic? by a male African American after telling him that I was from Ethiopia. His comment shocked me to the core.
It wasn?t like my other experiences of being mistaken for a Cuban girl when I wore my hair wavy or an Indian girl when I straightened it. This one somehow felt like a betrayal. How could a fellow Black person believe that my identity was something other than Black? I was indignant: ?Why would you think that I?m exotic?? And he gave me my answer: ?Because you are from Ethiopia.? This last comment exposed how my Habesha identity alienates me from the African American community. And this revelation was proven and then made concrete as my stay on campus lengthened. In a matter of days, I got mistaken for a biracial and a Non-black by other Black people because of the texture of my hair and the shade of my skin. In their eyes, I was completely foreign, and that was completely dumfounding. Nevertheless, as much as I was foreign to Blacks, I was still Black to whites, and this left me in a very interesting place.
As the days turned into weeks, I searched for a group into which I could fit; I was convinced that Cornell?s community contained a space outside of America?s binary categorization. I found that I resonated with fellow international students and well-travelled people, since like me, they had been exposed to various cultures, ethnicities, religions, languages, and philosophies that weren?t bound by racial boundaries. As a result, they weren?t used to the dualistic Black/white distinction portrayed in the States. They acknowledged the different aspects of what it means to be Black ? that it was something more than identifying as an African American. These people accepted me for being a Black Habesha.
The prejudice associated with being Black has estranged Habeshas from their Black history. The term ?Black? is viewed as a rigid representation of a specific culture ? in this case, the African American culture ? when in reality, it is a broad spectrum of diverse ethnicities, cultures, religions, and languages. The restrictions associated with being Black in American society are societal constructs built from stereotypes that view me as a girl who is neither ?Black enough? nor ?white.? Consequently, I identify as a Black Habesha because I refuse to let the overgeneralized definition of ?Blackness? scare me away from accepting my true identity. I couldn?t imagine being Habesha without being Black, since my racial and cultural identities are interwoven components that serve as the building blocks of my individuality.
- From: Mengesha, Abigail. ?Being Habesha in a Black and White World: A Racial Identity Crisis.? Kitsch, Kitsch, 18 Jan. 2017, www.kitschmag.com/2017/01/18/being-habesha-in-a-black-and-white-world-a-racial-identity-crisis/.
Don?t come at my blackness: Addressing misconceptions of ethnicity (by: Betty Araya of the Hofstra Chronicle — Hofstra University)
I was with some friends a couple weeks ago when one of them made a comment along the lines of I?m ?not black enough.? This demonstration of ignorance is not new to me; however, after making a conscious effort to leave my small town in Alabama for New York, I thought I could avoid it. No offense to my friends, I?m sure they had no idea the nerve they hit with their highly subjective and offensive opinion, and in their defense, I handled the situation the only way I?ve ever handled it ? passive aggressively doing the fake half smile, and internally stewing. So, I really didn?t give them an opportunity for redemption. Now, I have accepted my fair share of racism from white people but blame it on my overwhelming optimism; I?ve always felt like they had no idea what they were saying. I give them the benefit of the doubt and attribute their superiority complex as a trait passed down for generations, but when a black person comes at me? Then I get mad. Then I tilt my head sideways.
For example, the classic, ?You talk like a white girl.? So, a white man thinks proper grammar is a characteristic of a fair complexion. Shocking. But when a black person says I talk like a white girl ? Are we really saying proper grammar is a white characteristic? Are we really about to do that? No.
I came to America when I was four and learned English through ESL. I speak English the way I was taught by the American school system, and the lady who taught me happened to be white, but that is completely irrelevant. The way someone speaks (slang, dialect, etc.) is based on where they grew up. If I grew up in a predominately white town and went home to an Ethiopian household where I never spoke English, then I would most likely sound like the kids I go to school with. My accent and choice of words have nothing to do with who I am, where I came from or my soul. I am black.
Beyond the way I talk, I was ridiculed for the way I chose to dress. How can someone dress like a skin color? The music I listen to? I grew up on Teddy Afro and Ethiopian Orthodox church music. My ?classics? will be different, because I am from a different culture. The African American culture I have grown to appreciate was because of my own desire to learn it, not because I was born into it. I love good southern cooking, but my idea of comfort food is injera. That is not because I?m not ?black enough;? it is because I am not African American. I am African. Skin color and race are two different things. What brings people of color together and connects us despite our different cultures is the way we are all treated by the white man. It is the fact that our hair gets called nappy, and we are told that we are ?pretty for a black girl.? It is because our men are told to never question an officer, and we are a victim to the newest form of slavery ? mass incarceration. It is the fact that up against a white man, our credentials have to be twice as high to get half as far. It is the fact that for hundreds of years, we have been at the mercy of an imperialist mindset. It doesn?t matter if you?re dark-skinned, light-skinned, brown, African, Indian or Latina. You walk into a room, you are a person of color. Despite the fact that an African American might see me as too white, to a white person, I will always be a black.
I don?t believe in the term ?colorblind,? because I will forever claim my skin color. In my perfect world, skin color would simply be a part of our unique beauty rather than a significant part of our identity. But due to the current status of people of color in this world, that is not the case. However, if a European were to grow up in Ethiopia his whole life, I would never deny him the title ?Habesha? (a blanket term for those of Ethiopian and Eritrean decent). The various cultures we come from and practice should be a way for us to add to our intercultural social network. A way for us to learn from one another and bring new ideologies to the table. It should not be a way for us to separate ourselves from one another. There are enough invisible borders and scars from past genocides that accomplish that enough. At the end of the day, we are all people. We all came here the same way, though it might be at different locations, and we will all leave this world the same way, though it may be in different social classes. But since it is inevitable that I will be judged by the way I carry myself, I just want to make one thing clear. I. Am. Black.
- From: Araya, Betty. ?Don?t Come at My Blackness: Addressing Misconceptions of Ethnicity.? The Hofstra Chronicle (Hofstra University). www.thehofstrachronicle.com, https://www.thehofstrachronicle.com/category/hofstra/2018/10/9/dont-come-at-my-blackness-addressing-misconceptions-of-ethnicity. Accessed 19 June 2020.
? ? ? ? ? ? ]
[Update 8/10/2020:
Black or African American? ? By: Elahe Izadi of DCentric-WAMU 88.5 (American University Radio)
(Link: http://dcentric.wamu.org/2012/02/black-or-african-american/index.html)
Quotes from the Comment Section:
Frenchie (9 years ago):
As a Haitian-American from Miami now living in DC, I prefer to be called Haitian-American lol. However, I do realize that ethnic differences are not immediately obvious to others so the term black, although limited in its ?one-drop? American context, is preferable when having to choose between 2 evils. I prefer not to be called African-American because it doesn?t correctly encompass my history or background. Additionally, there continue to be tensions between ?member of the African diaspora, ?exotic? blacks and African-Americans ?regular? blacks. That often painful and tense history continues to prevent black immigrants from feeling as if African-American can ever be an all-inclusive term and, thus, makes ?black? our default.
Guest (8 years ago):
This is purely an American phenomenon because America fetishes ?race? (for obvious reasons).
The equal of ?African American? is the term ?European American?. Yet, we do *not* call White People ?European American?. We call them White. We refer to them by their RACE.
Why, then, is it ?wrong? to call Black People ?Black?? Especially since ?Black? is equal to ?White? as a racial descriptor? Is there something wrong with being Black?
We can?t possibly know every White Person?s ancestry so we simply call them ?White?. We don?t call them ?European American? for a simple and obvious reason: not all White People are from Europe.
We refer to all people by their *COUNTRY OF ANCESTRY*, not their *CONTINENT OF ORIGIN*.
Hence, German American, Australian American, Icelandic American. How useless, innacurate, and offensive would it be to erase difference with ?European
- From: Izadi, Elahe. ?Black or African American? | DCentric.? DCentric-WAMU 88.5 (American University Radio), http://dcentric.wamu.org/2012/02/black-or-african-american/index.html. Accessed 10 Aug. 2020.
Excerpts from ??My race is Habesha?: Eritrean refugees re-defining race as pan-ethnic identity in post-apartheid South Africa? -By Amanuel Isak Tewolde [Excerpts for Black Racial Classification are found bellow while Excerpts for Habesha Identity are in this link: https://medium.com/@habeshaunion/what-do-you-mean-by-habesha-a-look-at-the-habesha-identity-habesha-union-habesha-union-43f22ab8bc35 ]
Abstract:
Scholars studying race and racial classification in post-apartheid South Africa have paid little attention to how African refugees navigate the South African racial classification scheme and how they self-identity in the face of their everyday encounters with imposed racial classification in South Africa. This paper addresses this research gap by exploring how first-generation Eritrean refugees self-identify in the context of an imposed South African racial classification system. The result reported here forms part of a broader research study that explored how Eritrean refugees in South Africa self-defined in the face of racialization. The broader study identified various themes but this paper only reports on those who defined their race as Habesha in the face of their experiences with racial classification. I argue that by defining their race as Habesha, participants re-defined race as a pan-ethnic identity dissociating racial identity from physical appearance and skin colour. Some refugees who never self-identified in terms of phenotype-based racial categories are nuancing traditional [westerncentric-influenced] definitions of racial identity in post-apartheid South Africa.
Research Article:
Most African refugees in South Africa originate from societies where social differentiation is based on, inter alia, non-racial systems such as clan, ethnicity, tribe, religion and language groups, (Vandeyar, 2012). When African refugees arrive in South Africa they encounter a classification system that is structured around race which is at odds with the classification systems they were familiar with back home. The South African racial system is structured along four major racial categories, namely Coloured, Indian, White and Black. Refugees must therefore find their racial place within this quaternary classification scheme that was initially invented to classify South African nationals (Abdi, 2015; Vandeyar, 2012). For example, Eritrean refugees in South African originate from a social classification system that is based on ethno-linguistic differentiation and when they arrive in South Africa, they confront a phenotype-based racial classification system that is incompatible with their home country?s classification system.
Scholars note that South African society is a race-conscious society where race-based identification is entrenched and socio-economic stratification is largely structured around racial groups (Hino et al., 2018). Academics such as Mar (2014) and the late Alexander (2006) contend that official use of apartheid-era racial categories further cement race-consciousness and race-based division among South Africans. As Hammett (2010) argued, South African nationals still classify themselves and others in terms of the traditional White, Black, Coloured and Indian racial categories.
A few studies have examined racialization experiences and self-identification of Eritrean refugees in their race-conscious host countries (e.g. Arnone, 2011; Habecker, 2012). In her study of how Eritrean youth immigrants define themselves in Italy, Arnone (2011) found that her participants self-defined both as Black and as Eritrean. They self-defined as Black because the Italian society racializes them as Black/African. Habecker (2012) examined how Eritreans in the US self-identified in a context where the American society sees them as Black due to their African origin. Habecker (2012) found that her participants ? rejected defining themselves as Black and self-identified as Habesha.
Immigration and acculturation scholars also argue that the degree of compatibility between a host and a home country?s identity categories shape the degree to which refugees or immigrants adopt or reject social categories of the host society (Arriaza, 2004; Berry, 1997; Kusow, 2006; Rodriguez, 2000). If the social classification systems in refugees? home countries are different from those of the host society, the refugees or immigrants might have a difficult time easily adapting to the identities of the host society (Arriaza, 2004; Kusow, 2006). If there is convergence between classification systems of the host and home countries, however, immigrants are more predisposed to adopt the identity label of the host country they are familiar with. For example, a person defined as White in the US might easily fit into White classification in South Africa due to the availability of a ?White? category both in the US and South Africa. On the other hand, an immigrant of Kunama or Nara ethnicity in Eritrea might find it difficult to identify as Black in the US, despite their generally African features, due to the unavailability of a ?Black? category in Eritrea.
Ethnicity-based social distinction in Eritrea is not based on phenotypic characteristics such as skin colour or other bodily features but on linguistic and cultural distinctions. Therefore, people use cultural and linguistic markers to differentiate between the different ethnic groups. There is wide phenotypic variation within most of the ethnic groups in Eritrea, such as the Tigrinya; therefore members of an ethnic group are not necessarily phenotypically homogenous (Woldemikael, 2005). Some of the ethnic groups in Eritrea are linguistically and culturally related to other ethnic groups. For example, the Tigrinya of Eritrea and the Tigre of Ethiopia speak the same language and exhibit almost the same cultural traditions and the Amhara of Ethiopia also share similar cultural traditions with the Tigrinya ? .
When apartheid was established in 1948, racial classification became more institutionalized and policed and four racial categories, namely, White, Black, Coloured and Indian/Asian (Christopher, 2002) were created. These four apartheid categories are still in use among ordinary South Africans and on administrative forms long after the apartheid system has ended (Hino et al., 2018). The post-apartheid state maintained apartheid racial categories to correct past racial inequalities and injustices through affirmative action programmes.
Social meanings attached to the four racial categories reflect definitions given to each category during the apartheid era (Christopher, 2002).
As part of a larger research project, some participants defined their race as Habesha rather than neatly fitting into the traditional four South African racial categories. In the broader study, other Eritreans defined themselves racially in various ways such as Black and Coloured and non-racially in national, ethnic and cultural terms, but this paper does not discuss such themes. Participants did not associate race with phenotypic appearance or skin colour pigmentation but with a pan-ethnic group identity. The participants encountered racial classification both on official forms that asked them to check ?their? race and in everyday life where they were classified as Black, Indian and Coloured. Even though racial categories were imposed on the participants, they did not adopt ascribed identity labels but instead conflated their Habesha cultural identity with a racial identity. Asgedom constructed a Habesha pan-ethnic identity as his race even though he was often classified as Black by South Africans in everyday life.
?? Black South Africans speak to me in Xhosa. I mean, when I meet them for the first time, they think I am Black. I think, maybe they think I must be Xhosa like one of them. Even on the street when random strangers ask me for directions they speak to me in Xhosa. It didn?t happen once or twice but it happened so me many times ? It is obvious, I look Black like them. You can look at my hair and my facial appearance. My hair is very similar to that of Black South Africans. Not only that, but also my general appearance is like them. My skin colour isn?t too dark as you can see. It is lighter like Xhosa people, but my hair is like other Black South Africans. Maybe they look at my hair type and conclude that I must be Black. But I don?t see myself as Black even though South Africans perceive me as Black. My race is Habesha and I don?t define myself as Black. Black and Habesha are not the same thing because we Habesha people are not Black but our own race. I mean, we Eritreans and Ethiopians define ourselves as Habesha not as Black or any other race because we are different.?
Even though Asgedom was constantly racialized as Black due to his physical appearance, he did not subscribe to a socially assigned racial identity. People drew on his physical appearance such as hair texture and facial features to ascribe a racial label of Black such phenotypic characteristics did not carry any racial meaning to Asgedom. He did not see an association between his phenotypic characteristics and Black identity. Asgedom constructed a novel racial self-definition as Habesha. By self-racializing as Habesha, an identity that does not refer to skin colour, he eschewed standard [western] definitions of race that are based on surface phenotypic distinctions such as skin colour. By re-formulating Habesha cultural identity as his racial identity, he turned the ethno-cultural social category into a race. Asgedom made a comparison between Black identity and Habesha identity and by doing so treated the two identities as racial constructions; he did not view Habesha identity as purely cultural but instead conflated it with race. Another participant, Eyasu, also redefined Habesha pan-ethnic identity as a racial group identity:
?On many occasions, Black South Africans mistake me for Indian and Coloured. ?Are you Indian?? is the kind of question that I always confront when I meet people in this country. Not only that, other times many people perceive me as Coloured also. For example, last week, when I went to East Gate shopping mall to buy something, a White clerk at a shop spoke to me in Afrikaans thinking that I was Coloured, I suppose. Of course she couldn?t think I was White because I don?t look White. As you know, I am in between. I mean people think I am mixed as Coloured people, and that is why they speak to me in Afrikaans ? This could be because my physical appearance confuses them. I mean, to some I might look Indian, but to others I might appear Coloured. But honestly speaking, up until now I don?t know why they tend to see two races in me, I mean in one person; very surprising, ya? ? I can?t really say I classify myself as Indian or I am Coloured just because I am perceived as such by South Africans; to me my race is Habesha because anyone can identify Habesha people just by looking at them. I mean, we can have this Habesha look that anyone can easily identify us as Eritrean or Ethiopian because of our appearance, you know. If people here can classify me as Coloured race because in South Africa I look Coloured, we Eritreans and Ethiopians identify each other as Habesha just by looking at the physical appearance, you know. I mean Habesha is also a race. So I define my race as Habesha not as Coloured, Black or Indian: these classifications do not adequately capture my real identity, you know.?
For Eyasu, the construction of Habesha pan-ethnic cultural identity as a form of racial identity emerged in reaction to his everyday encounters with experiences of racialization as Coloured and as Indian. Eyasu was classified both as Indian and Coloured due to his physical appearance but he did not self-identify as Coloured or Indian. Instead of fitting into the four standard South African racial categories, Eyasu usurped the South African racial classification order by inventing a Habesha racial identity.
Habesha peoples (Ethiopians and Eritreans) exhibit a wide range of differences in physical characteristics and skin colour. Habesha self-identification is often based on shared cultural traditions rather than similarity in racial phenotype.
?
Participants self-identified as being of the ?Habesha race? and by doing so rejected self-definition in terms of the standard South African racial categories. The Eritreans who defined their race as Habesha lived in urban neighbourhoods where many non-White communities such as Eritreans, Ethiopians, other African refugees and Black South Africans live. These are spaces where Eritreans and Ethiopians reside and socially interact and often use the collective Habesha cultural identity to define themselves.
Related Articles:
- What do you mean by Habesha? ? A look at the Habesha Identity (p.s./t: It?s very Vague, Confusing, & Misunderstood) | @habesha_union [ https://medium.com/@habeshaunion/what-do-you-mean-by-habesha-a-look-at-the-habesha-identity-habesha-union-habesha-union-43f22ab8bc35 ]
By: Habesha Gaaffaa-Geeska Yafrika, PhD., [Habesha Union (???)], ? ? ? The Habesha Union and Habesha Union System of Universities & Schools| ???:[?????] ?????, etc. [FOR THE ModernRealLife Pan-Ethnic #Habesha CULTURE+HISTORY+COMEDY] From Around The World [via: @habesha_union][Inspired by:BunaTime @habeshacomedies] ? ? instagram.com/habesha_union | medium.com/@habeshaunion | unu.academia.edu/HabeshaUnion | linkedin.com/in/habesha-union | linkedin.com/company/habesha-union-system-of-universities-schools/about .
