Why do some Italians have heavy African features?

Question

I look at some of them and think if they were a little darker they could pass for African

Answer 1

well, there is a plausible reason upon it. 3000 years ago, first than rome was build up and celtic people invaded northern italy, the population of peninsula was totally made by greek settlers on the coasts, phoenician and other middle east population settled the other parts of peninsula. The same etrurian were told to be descendants of lydian people (and so called by latin "lydii") coming from the actual turkey and syria..and so the most of the "african" features you noticed. After that, people from Illyria (about the ex Yugoslavia) joined to the meltin pot, and so did fierce highlanders on the mountains inside (appennines) called samnites, which origins are almost unknown. What happens after is half a mess. At the age of rome, hannibal, the african leader of punic people invaded Italy with an army of about 300.000 lybians and hispanics. Then celtics people joined to the party. I save you what happened some century after. Roman empire falls and gothic people (from sweden) ransacks the whole peninsula, often settling in the cities after having killed or enslavered italic dwellers (the same happens in england with saxons invaders). Almost in the same period saracens (the moors) take sicily, sardinia, apulia, and try to get naples. They don't succeed in this last..so they kill the whole insula of capri. This happens three times till 1500 a.d. That's about why in Italy you can see many people with middle east or african (or taliban, why not..) features as curly black hair, plump lips and others..But I don't take this much seriously: I'm very very like the buddy in the avatar, but the city in which I live, near naples, was founded by the normans (these dreamers call the founder rainulph drengot) in the middle age, so if you come here you would see for the 70% tall carrot or blonde people with green or blue eyes..I am from the resting 30%. Cheerio.

Answer 2

The Moors conquered the Iberian peninsula at one time and that is not far from Italy. It is likely due to some African genetic heritage.

Answer 3

Maybe because they have Italian and African blood mixed.

Answer 4

well, look at where italy is and then slide south and see what lies off the mediterrean sea. proximity counts. also, the more southern in italian location the more influence. the sicilian island has been cris-crossed by northern africans for years so what else is new?

Answer 5

Italy is one of those countries that is at the crossroads of Europe and Africa so I would say that more than one of the above answers to this question would be correct. Romans did bring back slaves from Africa. I suspect that Africans had probably been making their way to this part of Europe for many thousands of years so we cant rely entirely on recorded history and have to consider slow trickle migration over thousands of years. If Gypsies could make their way to Scandinavia all the way from India it certainly would not be a far fetched for Africans from as far south as the Congo delta to make their way up to Italy. I would also like to add that as a well know Anthropologist I have proposed a theory that many if not most Empires have risen to great status after being formed by the convergence of two or more cultures and DNA stock. Thus the rise of the Roman empire may  have been preceded by a convergence period where two or more cultures and stock merged. Recorded history is not always very accurate sometimes cold hard physical evidence disapproves how we read recorded history.

Answer 6

the romans made frequent trips to africa--they brought back more than animals.

Answer 7

The moors invaded and took over italy so some have them as ansesters

Answer 8

I don't know, but if the first answer is correct that would explain why I have rhythm.

Answer 9

Dont see it.

Answer 10

A better question:  Why do some Africans have heavy Italian features?

We're all capable of expressing a variety of genetic variation.   Genetic tendancies in a given area don't preclude the same phoneme from expressing in a different area.  Aside from various plausible answers (proximity, slave trade, invasions, etc.), we could just shrug and say "Why not?".  Spaniards, American Plains Indians and the Japanese all have a tendancy to express straight black hair, darker skin and (in my experiece) more almond shaped than rounded eyes.  Is there any reason for this other than there are only so many ways a given body part can be shaped that similarities among regions of people are inevitable?