Nyanzan sea people are of African descent, better adapted to the actinic light reflected from the planet-wide ocean. Lubbers, dwellers in the single city, are pinkskins.
Jinxians
In Larry Niven's Known Space future history, Jinxians have very dark black skin not from African descent but from centuries of living under Sirius.
Martians
ERB's black Martians are not descended from Terrestrials and should look alien, not African.
Star Trek...
...gets in on the act. There is a black Vulcanian. Does Vulcan reproduce every Terrestrial racial variation? There is also a fully humanoid race divided between those who are black on the right and white on the left and vice versa and who become extinct in a genocidal war. Blatant social commentary. In a prose adaptation by James Blish, if not also in the original script, one of these guys describes his sworn enemy as a reflection in a bad mirror, the point being of course that each of them is a reflection in a very good mirror.
Of these five fictional races or groups, only the Nyanzans and the Jinxians are remotely plausible.
10 comments:
Note that the ‘Red Martians’ are the mestizos of Barsoom - they’re explicitly described as the mixed offspring of the white, black and yellow races. In the first few books John Carter remarks that they remind him of American Indians in terms of physical appearance.
Kaor, Paul and Mr. Stirling!
Paul: The original colonists of Nyanza were said to have three fourths of their ancestry from black Africans. Which means there were Caucasian genes as well. But the environment of Nyanza would favor natural selection "expressing" more African features.
Mr. Stirling: I never thought of that before, that the red Martians of Barsoom were Mestizos, but it makes sense.
Ad astra! Sean
The Nyanzans seem to have some boer/Afrikaner in their mix, judging by some of their names.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I noticed that too, esp. with the "pinkskins." And of how they, not the blacks, were at the bottom of the social heap.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: the pink skins ar3 from Germanic, a planet settled by guess what group. I meant among the Nyanzans proper.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Then I should probably reread "The Game of Glory," because it's plain I'm missing something. I do recall mention of how people descended from the original colonists of Nyanza had enough Caucasians among them (about 25%) that features typical of that subset of humanity could be seen in later generations. Such as straight hair and aquiline noses.
Ad astra! Sean
There are some specifically Boer-Afrikaner names, too.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
I remember those too! So, some Boers were among the original colonists of Nyanza.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: in fact, "white" Afrikaners are almost all of mixed descent -- they're just -predominantly- of European blood (a bit over 90%, according to DNA analysis).
There's an old South African joke: "In 1652, Jan van Riebeek landed in Cape Town with several hundred white men and one white woman. Nine months later the "colored problem" was born." -- using "colored" in the South African sense of 'mixed race'.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Not in the least surprising! I recall you saying that large scale migrations tend to be mostly male, which means if other men want a woman, they can't be too fussy or choosy.
Ad astra! Sean
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