Analysis of the heritage and genetic diversity of influential Afrikaners

[摘要] Previous studies have claimed that the Afrikaner population of South Africa containsapproximately 7% non-European DNA. It is thus ironic that Afrikaners practiced racialseparation and discrimination against non-Europeans, which was formalized in theApartheid policy years. As racism is not dead in South Africa, conservative individuals ofboth sides of the racial spectrum often have trouble believing in the chequered heritage ofAfrikaners. Since pedigree data of early Afrikaner individuals are available, this studyattempted to construct pedigrees of several prominent Afrikaner individuals includingformer Apartheid leaders to establish the truth about Afrikaner genetic composition.Analysis of these pedigrees suggests that the Afrikaner population is heterogeneous withtwenty two of the individuals studied having non-European ancestry but with eighthaving none. The latter tend to have high proportions of French DNA and largerinbreeding coefficients which suggests that the French tended not to admix with others.Finally, this study illustrates that most inbreeding is the result of distant commonancestors.

[发布机构] University of Pretoria