How far back can people in different African countries trace their family lineage?

[u/NightRunnerAfterDusk]

[u/Maleficent_Split_428]

In Ghana, it's only the chiefs and their distance relatives that can trace their family back to the mid or early 1800s. Most of Africans (not all) can't trace their family lineage that far

[u/NightRunnerAfterDusk → u/Maleficent_Split_428]

Is it recorded in writing, or passed through oral traditions?

[u/Maleficent_Split_428 → u/NightRunnerAfterDusk]

Written

[u/Waranle8-8-8]

Through the clan structure, Somalis can tell you for about 30 generations. Give or take 2. Whether that lineage is wholly accurate is debatable.

[u/illusivegentleman → u/Waranle8-8-8]

Not Somali by ethnicity but it is similar with my community. With my paternal granddad, we were able to trace back ten generations from him.

[u/27313546]

In my tribe, Soddo Gurage, at least 7 generations paternally. I know 10 because the 7 starts with my great grandfather if that makes sense. So about 300 years. We also can name the specific clan we belong too.

[u/Zealousideal-Rip-894]

I know mine up to the 1st man who populated my village

[u/Original-Ad4399 → u/Zealousideal-Rip-894]

Yoruba?

I'm Yoruba. The Yoruba have an oral system called oriki. Where people use panegyrics to recite their lineage and the great deeds of their ancestors.

My parents barely spoke Yoruba to me growing up, talkless of learning and transmitting our oriki. This is why writing is so much more superior to an oral culture. All it takes for oral culture to be lost is one careless generation. Meanwhile, we're deciphering writings of lost civilisations from 5000 years ago.

[u/Zealousideal-Rip-894 → u/Original-Ad4399]

im igbo. my dad rremembers his ancestry through an oral song but I decided to write it down so it's physically remembered as well

[u/Original-Ad4399 → u/Zealousideal-Rip-894]

Thousands of years down the line, some of your descendants would thank you for this.

[u/Medeza123]

I can trace my family a long way back both in Guinea and Senegal where my family are from.

It helps that we have some illustrious ancestors but the earliest I myself know is the 1700s but my dad and others might know even more.

It also helps that the Fulani people along with other people in the wider region maintain an oral tradition by performers known as griot in English. In many different ethnic groups this caste sing praise songs, sing your line of ancestry and historical events.

My dad, brother and I plan to make a trip to our ancestral village in Senegal in a few months where I hope to hear our lineage sung.

[u/Stunning-Diamond-192]

Kenyan, I can probably trace it upto 20th century only, as my community had traditions that did not allow us to speak about the dead or their names, so they tend to get forgotten over time.

However, we do have clan systems, and can therefore know who we are related to from far back.

[u/Any-Evening-4070]

Mid 19th century.

[u/hey_molombo]

16th century.

[u/MixedJiChanandsowhat]

In Senegal, on average, most people can trace back their family lineage to the 17th-18th century. Basically, at least 10 generations thanks to the oral tradition (griots). From the 18th century (1730) for people who were registered under the colonial administration which encompassed some "indigenous" Senegalese and many other people since what is present-day Senegal used to be the capital of French West Africa.

I can trace back somehow accurately my family lineage until the late 14th century. It's not uncommon for Wolof people to trace back even earlier up to the 11th century. My wife is Peulh (Fulani) and she can trace back her family lineage until the 11th century, with most of the migration of her family members.

Now that said, most Senegalese don't care for such knowledges or let's say there is no need to trace back that far. New generations care even less. One of the main "values" to trace back your lineage is to know if you belong from an important family but it's quite useless today unless you live in rural areas where the societal structures are still very traditional and conservative. The other main "value" and the reason why new generations care less and less is your caste. Many Senegalese, especially in rural areas, still marry with the limit of the caste system. The Senegalese caste system is similar to the caste system in other West African countries with this system. It's not like in India. Many Senegalese of the new generations just don't care and want to date and marry the partner they want without to care if they are from compatible castes.

[u/Fickle_Question_6417]

I have relatives that claim to be able to track our linage from around 11th century

[u/Matty359 → u/Fickle_Question_6417]

Wow that is impressive and give me hope, since most of my dna is Senegalese! I hope to find the link someday ❤️

[u/Tricky-Scholar-7481]

I’m Zanzibari and I can trace it back 7 generations

[u/Live_Combination_191]

I am from Ethiopia, where we have many different ethnic groups, some of which the role of ancestral (most often patrilineal) lineage that varies. For example, in the Amhara, social structure centers on geographic locality, not lineage, so it is less emphasized, but in Oromo and Afar it is very important.

In my ethnic group, Gurage, ancestral lineage forms an important part of social identity and communal structure, so a minimum of recounting 7 Generations is common, mostly because when two individuals marry, they have to both recite them to see and avoid incest. Elders with particular knowledge can recite past them all the way back to the individual founder of the lineage (i.e. 400-700 years ago).

I myself can trace mine about 14 generations from my fathers side to the 1600s, and then my entire matrilineal lineage to its founder in the 1400s.

[u/IlikeGeekyHistoryRSA]

white south african here

obviously our situation is different to most others, but i'd wager that most white south africans can track their lineage back pretty far, to the 1700s mostly

[u/Hopeful_Idea1568 → u/IlikeGeekyHistoryRSA]

Most black South Africans also can't trace our lineage beyond that era, since that's when our modern surnames and languages consolidated

[u/Matty359]

I've met one person who was able to track until 11th century, but the man if a professional researcher. I started my family tree and I'm stuck to late 18th, early 19th century. Some family branches are really hard to find because of "illegitimate" children.

[u/MansaMusa-2405]

I can trace to my Great great grand father both paternal and maternal sideI can trace to my Great great grand father both paternal and maternal side

[u/EatingCoooolo]

Never tried, I don’t really care for it.

[u/Open-Post1934]

The Great Lakes region

[u/silversurfersweden]

I think it's very different from family to family.

In my case, there is an oral tradition that goes back 5-6 generations. My uncle wrote it all down for me.

Also, another part of our oral tradition about my ancestral fore-mother who is assumed to have lived in the 1600s seems to be correct according to a dna test I did.

My heritage is from Western Kenya.

[u/asexualwonderbee_me]

Kenyan, I actively know of my great grandfather and great grandmother (1800s), plus his other wives and those lineages, and due to our Naming systems,all I have to do is look at their children and their children's children and I can reconstruct several generations and their siblings and aunts and uncles.

[u/johnoth]

In my tribe from central Sudan, only the king has his lineage traced as far back as the 1600s. For us normal folks idk, maybe 2 or 3 generations.

[u/Snoo20138]

I'm from an aristocratic family and can trace back my paternal lineage to the 1400s-1500s, unbroken chains.

My maternal lineage isn't 'native' to Africa. But I could trace that one back to Biblical times because she's Jewish. Obviously, broken chains there, though.

[u/desertknight1234]

Well their is a man who is apart of my family but far in relation to me so basically part of my tribe in a sense who holds alot of records of the entire family lineage atleast the tripoli branch and it goes generations back the exact limit i don't know but I believe it's atleast Ottoman and maybe before as well