Africa is the cradle of humankind. All humans are descendants from this common pool of ancestors. Africa and its multitude of ethnolinguistic groups are therefore fundamental to learning more about humankind and our origins.

A human genome refers to the complete set of genetic information found in a human cell. We inherit our genomes from our parents. Studying the variations in different people’s genomes gives important clues to how genetic information influences people’s appearance and health. It can also tell us about our ancestry. To date, very few African individuals have been included in studies looking at genetic variation. Studying African genomes not only fills a gap in the current understanding of human genetic variation, but also reveals new insights into the history of African populations.

My colleagues and I, who are all members of the Human Heredity and Health (H3Africa) consortium, contributed to a landmark genetics study. This study focused on 426 individuals from 13 African countries. More than 50 different ethnolinguistic groups were represented in the study – one of the most diverse groups of Africans ever to be included in such an investigation. We sequenced the whole genome of each of these individuals – this means we could read every part of the genome to look for variation.

https://theconversation.com/major-new-study-unveils-complexity-and-vast-diversity-of-africas-genetic-variation-150090

The insights gained from this is very significant when studying the origins and migration patterns of Nigeria's diverse ethnic groups. According to the sourced news article and the original sourced article (https://h3africa.org/index.php/2021/02/02/major-new-study-unveils-complexity-and-vast-diversity-of-africas-genetic-variation/ ): "One of the key outcomes was the discovery of more than three million new genetic variants. This is significant because we are learning more about human genetic diversity in general, and discovering more differences that could be linked to disease or traits in the future.
This study also adds details to what is known about the migration and expansion of groups across the continent. We were able to show that Zambia was most probably an intermediate site on the likely route of migration from west Africa to east and south Africa. Evidence supporting movement from east Africa to central Nigeria between 1,500 and 2,000 years ago was also revealed, through the identification of a substantial amount of east African ancestry in a central Nigerian ethnolinguistic group, the Berom."

While the primary use-cases for these genome studies is the underlying studying of diseases, it is very informative how analyzing unique genetic markers within one ethnic group in Central (or any other part of Nigeria) can be applied to better understand how the same ethnic group has migrated from a place of origin over time by comparing them to similar markers the way h3africa study has done.

Can this type of study be used to assert or disprove one's indigeneity too in the future? There seem to be positives!