Origins of the Nguni Breed

The earliest cattle in Africa for which we have good evidence, arrived from the Near East, and were managed by pastoralists in northern Africa by about 7400 years ago. They extended across a much wetter and more hospitable Sahara Desert. As the Sahara began to dry, the local pastoralists and their cattle moved south in search of grasslands. Their cattle were the ancestors of southern Africa’s modern cattle. But they are not the only ancestors. The humps of southern Africa’s living cattle show they also have indicine ancestry. When those Indian cattle arrived in Africa remains unknown. It is likely that once indicine cattle were introduced, they became valuable to local pastoralists and farmers because indicine cattle are drought resistant and disease tolerant. Interbreeding between local taurine cattle and newly arrived indicine cattle would have contributed to a more robust cattle gene pool.

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In past genetic studies of southern African cattle, all the mitochondrial DNA – that is, DNA inherited from the mother, and only the mother – derives from Near Eastern taurine cattle. In contrast, the nuclear DNA – the DNA inherited from both parents – shows signs of origins in both taurine and indicine cattle. There are three possible explanations for this surprising pattern. First, only male indicine cattle were brought to Africa, so maternal lineages of indicine cattle were never introduced to the continent. Second, some features of the maternally inherited mitochondrial DNA of indicine cattle was less well adapted to the African environment and a combination of natural selection and the artificial breeding selection practiced by famers resulted in its rapid removal from the gene pool. Lastly, the 1890s rinderpest panzootic killed so many sub-Saharan cattle that, by chance, maternal lineages from India were removed from African cattle populations.

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To learn more about the origins of the Nguni and its rich history, we recommend reading Chapter 4 of The Nguni breed of cattle: Past, present, and future (Scholtz, Gertenbach, Hallowell, 2011).

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