Egyptians

The endless debate about whether Egyptians are genetically Arab or North African has finally come to an end, folks. After more than a decade of analysing DNA samples from hundreds of people, the National Geographic Genographic Project (NGGP) has concluded that, contrary to common beliefs, we, Egyptians are not Arabs as most of us believed!

National Geographic’s Genographic Project has kicked off in 2005, and started to analyse hundred of DNA samples, in order to create a graph that shows the global genetic makeup of each nation. And Egypt’s results were quite shocking and intriguing as well!

According to NGGP,  68% of the indigenous population is North African, 17% are from Southwest Asia & Perisan Gulf, 4% are from Jewish ancestry, 3% are of East African origins, another 3% from Asia Minor and 3% are South European. Quite a mix, right?

“This reference population is based on native Egyptians. As ancient populations migrated from Africa, they passed first through northeast Africa, then to southwest Asia. The Northern Africa and Arabian components in Egypt are representative of that ancient migratory route, as well as later migrations from the Fertile Crescent back into Africa; with the spread of agriculture over the past 10,000 years, and migrations in the seventh century, with the spread of Islam from the Arabian Peninsula,” the NGGP study declared.

Egyptians’ reactions to the news was quite surprising as well, all the social media platforms erupted with people congratulating each other other for not being Arabs!

It got us thinking, why did the news draw such a reaction from us, Egyptians? Weren’t we proud to be considered Arabs? Share your thoughts with us and let us know what you think.