Ancient West African foragers in the context of African population history

We generated genome-wide DNA data from four children buried roughly 8000 and 3000 years ago at Shum Laka (Cameroon), one of the earliest archaeological sites within the probable homeland of Bantu languages [1–11]. One individual carried the deeply divergent Y chromosome haplogroup A00, which is found today almost exclusively in the same region [12, 13]. However, all four individuals’ genome-wide ancestry profiles are most similar to West-Central African hunter-gatherers, implying that present-day populations in western Cameroon, as well as Bantu speakers across the continent, are not descended substantially from the population represented by these four people. We infer an Africa-wide phylogeny that features widespread admixture and three prominent radiations, including one giving rise to at least four major lineages deep in the history of modern humans.