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Comment by MollyR | Hacker News Reader

I thought a significant portion of north africans are genetically arab.

It's actually not very clear what North Africans would have looked like prior to the early Muslim conquests of the 600s. The entire Mediterranean-North African-Middle Eastern region has been conquered and reconquered so many times that trying to pin down the population to an ethnic category is (even more) difficult.

You have to remember, lots of conquests occurred in the last 2000 years. Prior to Islam (circa 600 CE), Arabs didn't spread out much from Arabia. Turkey, Palestine, North Africa, Egypt, etc..., none of them were Arab prior to the conquests. Heck there weren't even Turks in Turkey (Turks come from central Asia).

Anyhow, North Africa consisted of Phoenicians (Semitic people, ethnically close to Assyrians who spread out along the north coast of Africa and elsewhere during Classical Antiquity), Greeks, Romans, Egyptians and Africans.

Wow there is a lot misinformation around here. You mention Phoenicians, Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, but you forget to mention the the indigenous population of North Africa, the Berbers. We're still here people we've been here since before the Phoenicians and Romans. Northwest africa (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia) is to this day majority berber (amazigh). Romans occupied north Africa, Byzantines, Vandals, Arabs and Turks, and eventually the French, but there was not a population replacement. Recent genetic population studies of the Maghreb have proved this (try google). Romanization and then eventually Arabization was a cultural process. The majority population of North Africa is still Berber and about 40-50% continue to speak Berber.

These results are not a surprise as North African kingdoms were very well integrated into the Roman and Byzantine empires. The Romans used to call us the Numidians in the east (eastern Algeria) and the Mauri in the west (west of Algiers to Morocco). The word Moor is derived from Mauri.. The daughter of queen Cleopatra and Mark Antony was married to one of our kings (Juba). Also the oldest medieval skeleton recovered in the south of france is of berber stock, there was even a Roman emperor of North African origin (Septimius Severus).

Anyway, we didn't go anywhere, we're still here, but the way we identify has changed for some of us. Just as the Italians no longer call themselves Romans.

Literally the last word of my first post.

Or should I have listed the specific histories of every part of North Africa from pre-history until the Arab conquests?

And of course, Berber identity has changed throughout the years, after the Arab conquests and Islam spread, Berber and Arab identities mixed, and that gave rise to the current ethnic makeup of the region today.

You mean the part where it says "Africans?" That's not specific enough. Africa is vast and many different ethnicities and when people say Africans they instantly think of black africans. Egyptians are also africans, but you mentioned them. This region developed separately from sub-saharan africa because the sahara is a natural barrier which limited migration.

What is an African but someone from Africa?

Exactly, the same as an Egyptian.

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