Ethnicity Guesser

Based on historical distributions from ~1500 years ago. Estimates appearance, not DNA ancestry or personal identity.

Phenotype

Sudano Guinesid Phenotype - Face Features & Origin

Transitional type between Sudanid and Guinesid, common in West Africa. Its reference coordinates sit near 8.0° N, 1.1° W in West Africa. Rather than a single portrait, the Sudano Guinesid composite below is a statistical average, and the surrounding sections — traits, distribution, research history, references — give that average its context.

Average Face

What you see below is a statistical construction of the Sudano Guinesid reference population. Faces recorded from the Sudano Guinesid sample were overlaid and merged; the result keeps the features most members shared and discards personal variation. It reads like a Sudano Guinesid portrait, but it works like a histogram.

Sudano Guinesid phenotype average face composite

Composite source: Human Phenotypes — Sudano Guinesid

Geographic Distribution

Geographically, Sudano Guinesid anchors to 8.0° N, 1.1° W (West Africa). That is the point where historical anthropologists judged Sudano Guinesid most concentrated, not a hard edge; modern migration and intermarriage have long since softened whatever boundaries once existed.

Reference center: 8.0° N, 1.1° W — West Africa. Historical distribution documented circa 500 CE; modern distributions differ substantially.

Physical Characteristics

Dark brown skin, kinky hair.

  • Variable features
  • Either tall and mesoskelic or medium height and brachyskelic, usually mesomorph
  • Dolichocephalic, mildly hypsicranic with a strongly platyrrhine, sometimes funnel-shaped nose
  • The face is relatively large with big lips, but thinner than in Sudanid proper
  • Body hair weak
  • Prognathous

Historical Background

Transitional type between Sudanid and Guinesid, common in West Africa. Although it is just a contact type, it is sometimes separated from the two main varieties, because it is very numerous and the dominant element in many ethnic groups. Found from Senegal to Mali, Ivory Coast, Benin, Nigeria, and Western Cameroon. Common in Mandinka, Mandjak, Fon, Dyula, Ekoi, Gurma, Balanta, Baga, Mankanya, Yoruba, Yalunka, Karaboro, Wamey, and many others.

Research History & Naming

The passage below traces who first defined Sudano Guinesid, which rival names competed with it, and how later authors consolidated or disputed the classification — the raw material of any serious phenotype reference.

Named and defined as Soudano-Guinéen by Pales (1953) , who compared metrics of hundreds of West African ethnicities. Also addressed by Chabeuf (1959) , among others.

Comparison With Nearby Phenotypes

The five phenotypes whose documented centers lie closest to Sudano Guinesid, ranked by great-circle distance. They are the types players most often confuse with Sudano Guinesid in the quiz, precisely because their distributions overlap.

PhenotypeRegionDistanceDistinguishing trait
Sudanid (proper)West Africa455 kmDark brown, sometimes ebony black skin, usually kinky hair.
Guineo CamerunianWest Africa494 kmUsually dark, sometimes medium brown skin.
BoboWest Africa497 kmDark brown, sometimes black skin, usually kinky hair.
GuinesidWest Africa779 kmUsually dark brown skin, sometimes light brown.
West CongolesidWest Africa1,468 kmDark brown, sometimes black skin, kinky hair.

Sudano Guinesid in the Game

Sudano Guinesid is one of the faces that can appear in Classic Daily and Challenge Mode. When it does, the winning pin lands near 8.0° N, 1.1° W in West Africa — and because the scoring decays with distance, recognizing the region matters more than pixel-perfect placement.

Play Classic DailyPractice in Challenge Mode

Sudano Guinesid Phenotype FAQ

Where does the Sudano Guinesid phenotype come from?
Historical sources center the Sudano Guinesid phenotype on 8.0° N, 1.1° W (West Africa). Treat that as a rough anchor: the type appeared across a wider surrounding area — its nearest documented neighbors, Sudanid (proper) and Guineo Camerunian, sit 455 and 494 km from the reference point — and its present-day distribution no longer matches the historical map.
What does the Sudano Guinesid phenotype look like?
The composite emphasizes recurring traits: dark brown skin, kinky hair. The full trait list for Sudano Guinesid appears in the physical characteristics section above.
Is the Sudano Guinesid phenotype a race or a nationality?
No — and the Sudano Guinesid naming history above shows why. Sudano Guinesid was defined, renamed, and regrouped repeatedly by different researchers, which is the opposite of how a fixed racial category would behave. A phenotype is a recurring bundle of visible traits recorded across a population; the Sudano Guinesid label says nothing about where any individual's ancestors were born.
How does Sudano Guinesid appear in the game?
When the Sudano Guinesid face comes up in Classic Daily or Challenge Mode, you pin the world map where you believe the type is historically most common, and the score decays with your distance to 8.0° N, 1.1° W. The nearest documented type, Sudanid (proper), lies about 455 km away, so regional placement usually carries most of the score.

References & Literature

The Sudano Guinesid phenotype entry above is compiled from the 2 academic references. Readers are encouraged to consult the original Sudano Guinesid sources for verification and deeper context.

  • Pales, L. and T. de St-Péreuse. 1953. Raciologie comparative des populations de l'Afrique occidentale.Bull. et Mém. de la Société d'anthropologie de Paris X. 185-497.
  • Chabeuf, M. 1959. Anthropologie physique du Moyen-Congo et du Gabon méridional. Bull- et Mém- de la Société d'anthr- de Paris. 10, 2, 97-185.

Related Phenotypes

Other human phenotypes whose documented centers lie in the same part of the map as Sudano Guinesid.

  • Sudanid (proper)

    West Africa · 455 km away

    Sudanid proper. Widespread savannah type named after the Sudan region of West Africa. Found in its purest form among Mossi, Lobi, Dagaaba, S...

  • Guineo Camerunian

    West Africa · 494 km away

    West African type, the shorter-skulled counterpart of Guinesids. May constitute the transition to Congolesids. Common in forest regions of C...

  • Bobo

    West Africa · 497 km away

    Sudanid variety with shorter skulls than Sudanids proper, and several other unique features that set it apart from other neighbouring groups...

  • Guinesid

    West Africa · 779 km away

    West African forest type native to the littoral of the Gulf of Guinea. Extends from Guinea all the way to Cameroon and sporadically even to ...

  • West Congolesid

    West Africa · 1,468 km away

    African forest type, intermediate between Congolesid, Guinesid, and Sudanid, but with a variety of unique features. Common in Southern Camer...

Further Reading

Background articles from the blog that explain where the Sudano Guinesid type fits, how these composites are built, and what a face can and cannot tell you.