DNA study opens a window into African civilisations that left a lasting legacy

By Nancy Bird, Postdoctoral research associate, UCL

Pre-colonial African history is alive with tales of civilisations rising and falling and of different cultures intermingling across the continent. We have now shed more light on some of these societies using the science of genetics.

In a study published in Science Advances, my co-authors and I used DNA information from people from the present-day continent to shed light on important civilisations that existed before colonialism. Genetic information from blood samples was extracted by machines. Once the…

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