Herders from the Green Sahara
By Cesar A. Fortes-Lima, Viktor Černý, Carina M. Schlebusch
Modern genetic data from Fulani populations illuminate ancient migrations, adaptations, and interconnections shaping Africa’s drylands.
This Article From Issue
July-August 2025
Volume 113, Number 4
Page 232
The young Fulani man opens his mouth, patiently granting me the 30–60 seconds I need to collect cells from his inner cheek onto my swab. He is one of hundreds of Fulani across sub-Saharan Africa who, following consultation with their chiefs, have volunteered and consented to provide the DNA samples we need to better understand their origins. The Fulani are the largest group of pastoralists (nomadic or seminomadic livestock herders) in Africa. They are a group marked by distinct cultural practices, useful survival adaptations such as lactose tolerance and malaria resistance, and a prehistory reaching back 10 millennia to when the Sahara was green and wet.
QUICK TAKE
- The Fulani are the largest pastoralist group in Africa, spanning 25 million people in populations scattered across sub-Saharan regions from the Atlantic Ocean to Lake Chad.
- Cultural and genetic factors, including genes for milk digestion, have made this ethnolinguistic group resilient, resistant to pathogens, and adaptable to changing conditions.
- Recent genomic findings trace a 10,000-year ancestry shared by the Fulani and the North African Amazigh, highlighting large migrations prior to the formation of the Sahara Desert.
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