# Why do people from Ethiopia/Eritrea look different to those from neighboring SubSaharan countries? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 13, 2015, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-from-ethiopia-eritrea-look-different-to-those-from-neighboring-subsaharan-countries/722415 "2015-06-13T04:24:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Final\_Legacy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f0a364/32.png) [@Final\_Legacy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Final_Legacy)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2015, 9:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-from-ethiopia-eritrea-look-different-to-those-from-neighboring-subsaharan-countries/722415/21 "2015-06-14T09:26:01Z")
Admixture results: Tigray/Amhara/Afar are Ethiopian ethnic groups [![](https://i.imgur.com/AaZ1x6S.jpg) ](https://i.imgur.com/AaZ1x6S.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2015, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-from-ethiopia-eritrea-look-different-to-those-from-neighboring-subsaharan-countries/722415/22 "2015-06-14T11:14:45Z")
> [@sonder999](#): > > Omg all these PC non-sense from people who have no idea what they are talking about. > > Simple aanswer is, they are different. Somalis and Ethiopians are highland Africans, they are Afroasiatic, suggesting a different origin from Bantu-speakers. Well, sure. But it’s not like Ethiopians are unique in this regard. Africa is holds the vast majority of humanity’s genetic diversity. The Bantu expansion was a big deal for Central Africa and crowded out local indigenous groups, but it definitely didn’t turn the entire continent into a sea of generic Bantu people except for Ethiopia. Those indigenous groups are often still around, as are other a number of groups of African origin that are as different from each other as a Swede is different than a Thai. Add in continuous contact with the Middle East and the Mediterranean (and things like Madagascar’s settlement by people from Borneo), and you get a hugely diverse continent. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2015, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-from-ethiopia-eritrea-look-different-to-those-from-neighboring-subsaharan-countries/722415/23 "2015-06-14T12:11:55Z")
> [@sonder999](#): > > Omg all these PC non-sense from people who have no idea what they are talking about. > > Simple aanswer is, they are different. Somalis and Ethiopians are highland Africans, they are Afroasiatic, suggesting a different origin from Bantu-speakers. How about specifying which previous answers are nonsense? And “they are different” is not an answer to “why are they different”. ---
**Author:** ![Ramira](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ramira/32/344_2.png) [@Ramira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ramira)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2015, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-from-ethiopia-eritrea-look-different-to-those-from-neighboring-subsaharan-countries/722415/24 "2015-06-14T12:54:42Z")
> [@naita](#): > > How about specifying which previous answers are nonsense? > > And “they are different” is not an answer to “why are they different”. It is perhaps worth knowing the poster[also believes it is “PC”](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=757897) to tell him his worries that a certain car type can make him look gay are very silly to be polite. the quality of the intervention’s logic and information can be understood better. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2015, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-from-ethiopia-eritrea-look-different-to-those-from-neighboring-subsaharan-countries/722415/25 "2015-06-14T13:25:24Z")
> [@Final\_Legacy](#): > > I don’t think they’re even comparable. Whilst the North-South divide has more to do with minor skin tone differences, with Ethiopians, it’s like they’re facial features are alien to the rest of subsaharan Africa/East Africa. > There were times I mistaken an Ethiopian workmate for an indian There’s not necessarily a direct correlation between the amount of outward differences between two populations and the amount of genetic variation causing it. Also, doing this ‘by eye’ may be very subjective - like trying to compare accents - your own perception significantly biases your subjective measurement of ‘difference’ ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2015, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-from-ethiopia-eritrea-look-different-to-those-from-neighboring-subsaharan-countries/722415/26 "2015-06-15T14:25:39Z")
> [@orcenio](#): > > Oh and the main reason as to why people from Ethiopia/Eritrea/Somalia look different to those from other SubSaharan countries could be that SubSaharans aren’t identical (not in culture, nor language, nor history, nor ethnicity). > > I make this mistake all the time, but Africa is not a country. It’s really due to a legacy of our own western history that we always refer to Africa as “Africa.” It’s simply easier for us (westerners) to group everyone from the “black areas” of Africa as one people/group/etc when, in reality, that is the furthest from the case. > > Really the only thing that Africans all share is the recent history of being carved up and colonized by their European neighbours to the north (who kinda liked doing this 'round the globe) Right. The question in the OP is very similar to asking why Swedes don’t look the same as Greeks. They’re all Europeans, right? ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2015, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-from-ethiopia-eritrea-look-different-to-those-from-neighboring-subsaharan-countries/722415/27 "2015-06-15T15:14:08Z")
> [@Final\_Legacy](#): > > Doing more research today. This only covers Ethiopians. I wouldnt know much about Somalis DNA haplogroup research is quite interesting, but it’s also interesting that haplogroups don’t really map up well to traditional concepts of “race”. For example, my own y-haplogroup, R1b, is [is common in Spain, France, and the British Isles](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haplogroup_R1b#/media/File:Haplogroup_R1b_(Y-DNA).PNG), but is also quite common in Cameroon! By contrast, haplogroup E, which is [mostly found in Africa](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haplogroup_E-M96#/media/File:Haplogrupo_E-ADN-Y.GIF), was (as north-African subtype E1b1b) [possessed by Lyndon B. Johnson, Napoleon, the Wright Brothers, and a well-known racist German dictator](http://www.eupedia.com/europe/Haplogroup_E1b1b_Y-DNA.shtml). It’s quite possible that the paternal ancestor of the Wright brothers entered what is now England as a Roman soldier of Berber or Egyptian background who was himself far more closely related to cousins in sub-Saharan Africa than he was, say, to a Viking. ---
**Author:** ![Final\_Legacy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f0a364/32.png) [@Final\_Legacy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Final_Legacy)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2015, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-from-ethiopia-eritrea-look-different-to-those-from-neighboring-subsaharan-countries/722415/28 "2015-06-27T13:43:43Z")
> [@robert\_columbia](#): > > Right. The question in the OP is very similar to asking why Swedes don’t look the same as Greeks. They’re all Europeans, right? The thing is, even tho most Europeans are diverse in looks, they still look somewhat related. Not to mention usually in Europe, theres a gradual change in phenotype as you move from one location to another. Whilst in East Africa,the change is very drastic as you saw with the kenyan-Ethiopian comparison. These people are only seperated by a border yet they look completely different. Oromo Ethiopian [![](https://i.imgur.com/nQdIyFg.jpg) ](https://i.imgur.com/nQdIyFg.jpg) Kenyan Luo [![](https://i.imgur.com/dYwrAs7.jpg) ](https://i.imgur.com/dYwrAs7.jpg) Compare that to a German and A french [![](https://i.imgur.com/QzV23ne.jpg) ](https://i.imgur.com/QzV23ne.jpg) [![](https://i.imgur.com/A72rsJ3.jpg) ](https://i.imgur.com/A72rsJ3.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![even\_sven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dfb087/32.png) [@even\_sven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/even_sven)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2015, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-from-ethiopia-eritrea-look-different-to-those-from-neighboring-subsaharan-countries/722415/29 "2015-06-27T17:03:14Z")
Well, Europe doesn’t have anywhere near the genetic diversity found in Africa. It’s a seriously diverse place. Your average American just doesn’t see a lot of it, probably because we don’t meet that many Africans from various parts of the continent. It’s not really a bright line between Ethiopia and everywhere else. Ethiopia itself is very diverse, and other areas near Ethiopia are also diverse. And that level of diversity is common. In the small town I lived in in Cameroon, maybe a dozen ethnic groups with origins from Senegal to Sudan lived together. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-people-from-ethiopia-eritrea-look-different-to-those-from-neighboring-subsaharan-countries/722415.md?page=1)