Are true Italians of long-time African descent?

Question

The history of people is a long and hard study. Many people have told me the Italians have derivations and features that relate them to Africans because they are long-time descendants of Africa. Although this may be opinionated or fact I would appreciate an answer. whatever u can tell me, i would appreciate it. i have no intentions of offense by this question. this may be a touchy subject to some people.thx

Answer 1

There is a very small presence of North African, not sub-Saharan African (black), DNA found in some Italians. The actual percentage being less than 1%. That would still be Caucasian, however. (Sub-Saharan DNA is virtually nonexistent.)
The same would apply to the Iberian Penninsula (Spain & Portugal), where the total percentage would less than 4%. Most North Africans who consider themselves Arabs, have mainly Berber ancestry. Berbers are the aboriginal Caucasoid people of North Africa.
True, the Moors did invade Italy but they were not black, for the most part. They were an Arab/Berber mix. Hannibal was a Carthaginian of Tyrian-Phoenician descent. In modern terms, that would make him a Tunisian of Lebanese descent. The Greeks, however, were the biggest influence on Sicily.
Different ethnic groups contributed to early Italian/Sicilian culture but none were more influential in Sicily than the Greeks. Anyway, skin color has nothing to do with race, which is actually defined by craniofacial anthropometry.

Answer 2

Yes its true even though some feel its not true it is I got tested and found out I have Italian and German in me. Also for the second time I heard one brag how the sun doesn't do much harm to there skin and ours is the same way.

Answer 3

What you say does have basis in truth. Italy is not that far from the norhtern african coast and there are many dark skinned Italians with black features. It was once rumored the Pietro Menia was really black, but his features were very northern european.

Answer 4

You should ask the African anthropology professor at Rome University...Dr Leroy Giovanetti

Answer 5

Anthropology
"Italy, one of the most clearly demarcated geographical units in Europe, is a country of considerable [sub]racial variability. Although the Mediterranean race is strongly represented in it, Italy belongs only partially to the Mediterranean world, for much of it is more typically Alpine racial territory. ... The primary racial impulse of the early Neolithic, however, is known. This was the immigration of small Mediterraneans in great numbers, coming largely if not entirely by sea; these first food-producers were followed by more competent navigators, Atlanto-Mediterraneans, who settled chiefly in the north and in the islands, and Dinarics from the eastern Mediterranean in search of metal. Some of the Dinarics penetrated the Alpine Valleys while others settled in the Po Valley and in central Italy. The movement of highly cultured peoples from the east into Italy continued into historic times, and included the settlement of the Etruscans in Tuscany, and of the Greeks in Sicily and in the southern end of the peninsula.

"...through her role as mistress of the world, Rome accumulated and assimilated a heterogeneous population. That this population was by no means purely or even predominantly Mediterranean is shown by the study of the skulls of Pompeians, victims of the eruption which turned their city from a metropolis into a museum. These crania, with a mean cranial index of 80, represent a population which had acquired a [sub]racial character of its own despite its mixed origin, and in which the Alpine element was the most important. ... A series of 100 modern crania from Bologna, with a mean cranial index of 83.5, is almost purely Alpo-Dinaric, with the latter element in a position of prominence. The Dinaric race is common in northern, but not southern Italy, and this distinction has been true since the Bronze Age.

"In other words, the southern Italians are a blend for the most part of Alpines and small Mediterraneans, while among the northern Italians the most important dolichocephalic strain is the Atlanto-Mediterranean. The association of relatively great blondism with brachycephaly merely indicates that both Alpines and Dinarics are characteristically mixed or intermediate in pigmentation. The few unaltered Nordics still found in northern Italy and in aristocratic families elsewhere are far outnumbered by Atlanto-Mediterraneans. ... The binding element which is common to all sections is the Alpine, which has reemerged from obscure beginnings through a superstructure composed of Dinaric, Nordic, and various kinds of Mediterranean accretions."
(Carleton S. Coon, The Races of Europe)



Genetics
Combined data from two large mtDNA studies provides an estimate of non-Caucasoid maternal ancestry in Italians. The first study sampled 411 Italians from all over the country and found five South Asian M and East Asian D sequences (1.2%) and eight sub-Saharan African L sequences (1.9%). The second study sampled 465 Sicilians and detected ten M sequences (2.2%) and three L sequences (0.65%). This makes a total of 3% non-white maternal admixture (1.3% Asian and 1.7% African), which is very low and typical for European populations, since Pliss et al. 2005, e.g., observed 1.8% Asian admixture in Poles and 1.2% African admixture in Germans.
(Plaza et al., Ann Hum Genet, 2003;
Romano et al., Ann Hum Genet, 2003)

* * *
Similar data from the Y-chromosome reveals Italians' even lower non-Caucasoid paternal admixture. Both studies obtained samples from all over the mainland and islands. No Asian DNA was detected anywhere, but a single sub-Saharan African E(xE3b) sequence was found in the first study's sample of 416 (0.2%), and six were observed in the second study's sample of 746 (0.8%). The total is therefore a minuscule 0.6%, which decreases to 0.4% if only Southern Italians are considered and 0% if only Sicilians are considered. Again, these are normal levels of admixture for European populations (e.g. Austrians were found to have 0.8% E(xE3b) by Brion et al. 2004).
(Semino et al., Am J Hum Genet, 2004;
Cruciani et al., Am J Hum Genet, 2004)

Answer 6

yes we italians descend from north africans in little part, but at the same time also from celts, germans, arabians, spanish, french, greeks, vikings, etc
fortunately we are a mix of races from thousands years, and we don't distinguish ourselves about the darkness of skin, we are all italians

Answer 7

Every human is ultimately of African descent.

Answer 8

All old worlders are mixed-up.
This question has no meaning for Europe.
Genetical derivations are many and most of them backdate to prehistorical ages

Answer 9

Discovery had a documentery on EVE (adam and eve)and they traced her back to Africa so if that is true we would all be of African desent.

Answer 10

Yes. Hannibal invaded Italy so there was some mixing.