Sex-Specific Genetic Data Support One of Two Alternative Versions of the Foundation of the Ruling Dynasty of the Nsox in Cameroon

In this study we shed new light on the origins of the Nsoʹ, a prominent ethnic group in the Grassfields of Cameroon. The alternative oral histories of their ethnogenesis have been the subject of fierce debate among historians and anthropologists. These oral histories have been well documented and the group have a unique social class system, which enabled the formulation of hypotheses that could be evaluated by analysing genetic data. We show that sex-specific genetic data favor a specific variant of the oral history of the Nsoʹ in which the royal family traces its descent from a founding ancestress who married into an autochthonous hunter-gatherer group. The distributions of Y chromosome and mitochondrial DNA variation in the Nsoʹ in general and in the ruling dynasty in particular are consistent with specific Nsoʹ marriage practices, suggesting strict conservation of the royal social class along agnatic lines. This study demonstrates the efficacy of using genetics to augment other sources of information (e.g., oral histories, archaeology, and linguistics) when seeking to recover the histories of African peoples.