Haplogroup E-U175

Geographic distribution

Modern frequencies of E-U175 peak in Nigeria, Cameroon, Benin, Togo, Ghana, Ivory Coast and parts of the broader West African region. It is also abundant across Central Africa — particularly in the Congo Basin, Gabon, Angola and surrounding regions — due to later expansions tied to Bantu populations. The lineage is prominent among groups such as the Yoruba, Igbo, Edo, Fon, Akan, Bantu-speaking communities of Central Africa and many coastal West African populations. Through the trans-Atlantic African diaspora, E-U175 and its downstream lineages form a significant share of African-American, Afro-Caribbean and Afro-Brazilian paternal ancestries. Subclade distributions show high geographic structuring, with certain downstream branches concentrated among Niger–Congo speakers of the forest–savanna belt and others linked more strongly to Central African and Bantu-associated expansions.

Ancient DNA

• No directly sequenced ancient samples have yet been securely assigned to U175 itself, largely due to DNA preservation challenges in tropical West Africa. However, several Iron Age and Late Holocene individuals from the broader region are consistent with the phylogenetic depths expected for ancestral forms of U175-derived lineages.
• Demographic modelling suggests that the radiation of U175 and its early daughter branches began before the major Bantu expansions, indicating that the lineage existed within West African populations that later acted as demographic sources for large-scale southward and eastward migrations.
• The structure of U175 downstream diversity corresponds with archaeological horizons involving early ironworking, agriculture intensification and increasing interregional connectivity across the Nigeria–Cameroon axis between 3000 and 1500 years ago.

Phylogeny & subclades

E-U175 exhibits a complex, multi-layered phylogeny characterized by dense branching and major star-like expansions. Two dominant downstream clades – E-Z1725 and E-Z2336 – account for a large fraction of its present-day diversity and geographic spread. U175 sits above an array of internal splits that differentiate West African forest–savanna populations from groups that participated in the major Bantu expansions. Certain branches show deeply divergent structures that point to early Holocene roots, while others appear to have undergone intense demographic growth in the last 2,500 years. The topology of the U175 tree highlights repeated pulses of expansion, localized founder events and long-distance migrations.

• E-Z1725 (major downstream clade with extensive internal branching across West and Central Africa)
• E-Z2336 (large radiation found in West Africa and Bantu-associated populations)
• E-Z17252 and minor sub-branches with regional distributions
• Rare basal E-U175* lineages
• Numerous fine-scale subclades identified through high-coverage sequencing projects

Notes & context

E-U175 is one of the most socially and demographically important haplogroups in Africa. Its lineage structure interacts with linguistic, archaeological and ethnographic evidence for the spread of Niger–Congo languages, the formation of early West African chiefdoms and the later transformations linked to Bantu-speaking movements. Many modern African populations carry U175-derived paternal signatures that reflect both deep regional continuity and more recent historical expansions. Because of its size and internal complexity, U175 plays a central role in reconstructing African population history and understanding how paternal lineages moved, diversified and interacted during the Holocene.

References & external links

• YFull YTree – E-U175
• Tishkoff et al. – Genetic structure and history of Africans
• de Filippo et al. – Genetic evidence for the Bantu expansion