scholarly journals Pleistocene origin and colonization history of Lobelia columnaris Hook. f. (Campanulaceae: Lobelioideae) across sky islands of West Central Africa

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miguel A. Pérez‐Pérez ◽  
Wen‐Bin Yu
Keyword(s):  
Central Africa ◽  
Sky Islands ◽  
Colonization History ◽  
West Central ◽  
History Of

scholarly journals It Never Happened: Kinguri's Exodus and its Consequences

1998 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
pp. 387-403 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Vansina
Keyword(s):  
Central Africa ◽  
West Central ◽  
History Of ◽  
Radical Revision ◽  
Vast Area

The later precolonial history of a vast area in west central Africa between the Kwango and the Lubilash rivers starts with—and is dated by—the tradition of exodus of Kinguri and his companions from the heartland of the Lunda commonwealth. For the last two decades, however, several scholars have claimed that this tradition is merely a later addition to the older body of the traditions told by a dozen or so different peoples in west central Africa. Yet so far no one has examined where and when and how the Kinguri exodus tradition could have grafted itself onto the traditions of so many peoples over such a vast area. If true, this claim also requires a radical revision of the accepted history of western Lunda expansion. To examine the claim and its consequences is the aim of this article, which begins with the earliest written report of the Kinguri's exodus story.

Traditions of Genesis and the Luba Diaspora

1977 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 183-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Q. Reefe
Keyword(s):  
Central Africa ◽  
Early History ◽  
Oral Traditions ◽  
Early Nineteenth Century ◽  
Story Line ◽  
Origin Stories ◽  
West Central ◽  
History Of ◽  
And Function ◽  
Different Origin

Origin stories are an important genre of central African oral traditions. Historians have long been intrigued by these stories, for their plots tell of the beginnings of societies and of the founding of ruling dynasties. It has been possible to cross-check the information in the oral traditions of many of the societies of west central Africa against data in Portuguese written records dating to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. These documents have helped to direct investigators towards the best assumptions to make when analyzing the oral traditions of west central African societies. However, writing the early history of the savanna societies in the very middle of central Africa (in southern Zaire and northern Zambia) has always been hampered by the absence of written documents which describe the area much before the early nineteenth century. Historians studying the early political history of these societies have been forced to link the events and characters of origin stories to each other without any anchor in written documentation.Recently, doubts have been raised about the nature and function of origin stories. It is no longer clear that the first step in studying the early history of central African savanna societies is to compare different origin stories with each other, as one would a group of written documents, in order to establish a consistent historical story-line or narrative. Rather, questions raised about the nature of origin stories have brought out the point that the first step in writing the early history of this area is to resolve methodological and historiographical issues, before the historical essence can be distilled from these tales.

A History of West Central Africa to 1850

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
John K. Thornton
Keyword(s):  
Central Africa ◽  
West Central ◽  
History Of

scholarly journals Pleistocene origin and colonization history of Lobelia columnaris Hook. f. (Campanulaceae: Lobelioideae) across sky islands of West Central Africa

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miguel Perez Perez ◽  
Wen-Bin Yu
Keyword(s):  
Phylogenetic Analyses ◽  
Divergence Time ◽  
Central Africa ◽  
Sky Islands ◽  
Lowland Forest ◽  
Colonization History ◽  
Bioko Island ◽  
Climatic Oscillations ◽  
Chloroplast Genomes ◽  
Sky Island

We aimed to infer the phylogenetic relationships of populations of Lobelia columnaris using chloroplast genomes and estimate the divergence time to reconstruct its historical colonization on the sky islands of Bioko and Cameroon. Specifically, we aim to answer the following questions: (1) What is the phylogenetic relationship among Bioko Island and Cameroon populations? (2) Are the older populations found on the older sky islands? (3) Does the colonization history reflect the age of the sky islands? We assembled novel plastomes from 20 individuals of L. columnaris from five mountain systems. The plastome data was explored with phylogenetic analyses using Maximum likelihood and Bayesian Inference. The complete plastome size varied from 164,609 bp to 165,368 bp. The populations of L. columnaris have a monophyletic origin, subdivided into three plastome-geographic clades. The plastid phylogenomic results and age of the sky islands indicate that L. columnaris colonized first along the Cameroon Volcanic Line’s young sky islands. The earliest divergent event (1.54 Ma) split the population in South Bioko from those on the mainland and North Bioko. The population of South Bioko was likely isolated during cold and dry conditions in forest refugia. Presumably, the colonization history occurred during the middle-late Pleistocene from South Bioko’s young sky island to North Bioko and the northern old sky islands in Cameroon. Furthermore, the central depression with lowland forest between North and South Bioko is a current geographic barrier that keeps separate the populations of Bioko from each other and the mainland populations. The Pleistocene climatic oscillations led to the divergence of the Cameroon and Bioko populations into three clades. L. columnaris colonized the older sky island in mainland Cameroon after establishing South Bioko’s younger sky islands. The biogeography history was an inverse progression concerning the age of the Afromontane sky islands.

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