A 4,000-year genomic history of Bantu speakers from the Congo rainforest
The Congo rainforest was the heartland of the Bantu Expansion, yet its demographic history remains partially understood. We inferred past population dynamics using genomes from 960 sub-Saharan Africans, including four newly sequenced ancient individuals from Iroungou cave and 176 present-day individuals from Gabon. Bantu-speaking populations began differentiating ~4,000 years ago, preceding explosive population growth by a millennium. Distinct southward dispersals contributed to the ancestry of Bantu speakers in Gabon and elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa, with the ~700-year-old Iroungou individuals providing the closest genetic proxies for the latter. Both Bantu speakers and hunter-gatherers from the Congo rainforest experienced a major demographic crisis ~1,500 years ago, coinciding with an archaeological hiatus. These findings illuminate early Bantu dispersals and the subsequent, unexplained collapse of rainforest populations.
Authors
- Javier Prado-Martinez (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5402-2721)
- Rébecca Grollemund (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6795-5571)
- Lluís Quintana‐Murci (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2429-6320)
- Guillaume Laval (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0845-1909)
- Patrick Mouguiama-Daouda (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2678-9938)
- Bridget Chak (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3589-4748)
- Dang Liu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7805-889X)
- Cristina Pomilla (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2581-8365)
- Christine Harmant (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2949-772X)
- Étienne Patin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9911-4459)
- Fanny Mendisco (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5555-1932)
- Matthew E. Hurles (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2333-7015)
- Maguelonne Roux (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3775-0003)
- Marie‐France Deguilloux (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0006-7527-0664)
- Sacha Kacki (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8765-2586)
- Geoffroy de Saulieu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7182-9436)
- Jean-Marie Hombert
- Oğuzhan Parasayan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2797-0475)
- Diyendo Massilani (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2661-4468)
- Luis Bruno Barreiro (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9456-367X)
- Marie‐Hélène Pemonge
- Richard Oslisly (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3676-0848)
- Manj Sandhu
- Liz Young
Institutions
- Université de Bordeaux (FR)
- Institut Pasteur (FR)
- Universitat Pompeu Fabra (ES)
- Université Lumière Lyon 2 (FR)
- University of Zurich (CH)
- Wellcome Sanger Institute (GB)
- Omar Bongo University (GA)
- Yale University (US)
- University of Chicago (US)
- Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies (ES)
- National Agency for National Parks (GA)
- Imperial College London (GB)
- University of Missouri (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
- Published
- 2026-10-28
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.10.27.762084
- Primary Topic
- Forensic and Genetic Research
- Type
- preprint
Funders
- Wellcome Trust
- Agence Nationale de la Recherche
- Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
- National Institutes of Health