2023-08-28 00:45:43
Imagine not having the three middle toes on your feet. Because that’s how most of the members of a African tribe called Doma, which is in an arid region in northern Zimbabwe, in the districts of Urungwe and Sipolilo, close to the Zambezi River Valley.
The condition that affects the African tribe is scientifically called Ectrodactilia. It causes a change in the shape of the feet and/or hands, which now have only two big fingers. The limbs are still facing inwards.
advertising Some of the deformations caused by Ectrodactilia | Photo: Reproduction/Social networks
The deformation affects one in four children of the tribe. Due to this physical characteristic, its members were nicknamed “ostrich feet”.
What the African tribe says about the mutation that deforms the feet
The most experienced leaders of the Doma, whose meaning is “sons or descendants”, explain the physical condition based on local myths.
According to the group’s belief, bird-like beings came from the stars and crossed DNA with primitive Earth women, to generate their offspring.
These ancestors would have established the first colonies in a region of the solar system called Liitolafisi. Such a perspective makes the community not see the deformation with bad eyes.
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There are reports that the formation of the members’ feet helps them to climb trees more easily. The group is the only one that does not make a living from agriculture in the country.
The first accounts of the Doma were described by Jan Jacob Hartsinck, director of the Dutch East India Company, in 1770. It was not until the mid-20th century that the history of the African tribe — and the deformity of its feet — began to become known.
Researchers say otherwise
Scientists argue that the genetic mutation affecting the African tribe is related to the fact that the group lives in isolation and prohibits marriage with outsiders.
This would have an impact on the manifestation of the deformity, given that one of the main causes of Ectrodactilia It is a dominant genetic mutation on chromosome 7.
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Being dominant means that the expression or onset of the disease requires only a single copy of an abnormal gene.
Understand the story | African tribe draws attention to genetic mutation that deforms feet
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