Interethnic physiological and pathological diversities in southern African populations

Abstract

The African continent accommodates a diversity of races--Arabs, Berbers, Nilo-Saharan, Bantu, Pygmies, as well as immigrant white and Indian populations, especially in Central, East and Southern Africa. In these populations and sub-populations, differences prevail in physiological variables, in biological disorders, in measurements made by laboratory and associated means, and in disease patterns. A salient question is: which differences will persist, and which become modified or even disappear as a result of progressive urbanisation, a rise in prosperity, and changes in lifestyle, particularly when these occur in populations previously poor or who have lived in a rural traditional manner.