Talk by Carina Schlebusch

Southern Africa have a rich genetic heritage that has been influenced by various waves of migrating people from other parts of Africa and the rest of the world. From historical documents, we know that southern Africa was originally inhabited by San hunter-gatherers and Khoe herders. Over the last 10,000 years, large population movements associated with the invention of farming practices, occurred in various parts of the world. The invention of farming had a marked impact on population demography, socio-culture and health of human societies, including the populations of southern Africa. In southern Africa we know of at least two waves of farming people that migrated south from other parts of Africa. Most recently, the arrival of colonists from Europe and the influence of the slave trade, introduced non-African genetic variation in the existing southern African gene pool. All of these events contributed to differing extents to the intricate genetic make-up of southern Africans and will be reviewed in this presentation.