Genome studies of Bantu, Khoi and San – This is not about race; this is about unfounded claims on agricultural land in South Africa! For three years Front National (FN) has gone to great lengths to prove from history that blacks, the Khoi and the San actually have no foot to stand on that they have any particular claim against “white settlers”, land occupation or “colonialism”.

FN articled on Slave History, proving that the Coloured population did NOT come from the Khoi, but instead from white slaves, Bengals, Batavians and Angolans; as well as historical prove that black Bantu tribes only arrived seventy years after the whites in Southern Africa. We tried to convince sceptics that illiterates like Malema, Zuma and Maimane actually believe in a myth of “Africa for Africans”, while history tells a completely different story.

Front National’s claims are now scientifically proven by a major study on DNA and genomes done by respected scientists and published in scientific journals; proving that the black tribes of Southern Africa have almost nothing in common with the Khoi and San. Nobel Prize laureate Desmond Tutu was one of the participants tested for the DNA and genome study.

The study by a number of academic institutions (listed at the bottom) concluded that the genetic structure of the indigenous hunter-gatherer peoples of southern Africa, the oldest known lineage of modern human, is important for understanding human diversity. Studies based on mitochondrial1 and small sets of nuclear markers have shown that these hunter-gatherers, known as Khoisan, San, or Bushmen, are genetically divergent from other humans.

They presented the complete genome sequences of indigenous hunter-gatherers from the Kalahari Desert and Bantu from southern Africa, as well as protein-coding regions from an additional three hunter-gatherers from disparate regions of the Kalahari. They reported 1.3 million novel DNA differences genome-wide.

The Bushmen (San) seem to be more different from each other than an European and an Asian. The San, for instance, shared 87% of novel SNP’s with chimpanzees compared to the European sample’s 6%.

Of interest for the South African historian and anthropologist, the study showed that the H2 haplotype may represent the ancestral sequence and structure that was present in African populations before its increased frequency in European and Middle Eastern populations.

The scientists identified 27,641 distinct amino acid substitutions compared to the human reference sequence. “We observed SNPs reported to be associated with enhanced physiology, associated with increased metabolism, increased sprint and power performance; and in the taste receptor gene TAS2R38 conferring the ability to taste a bitter compound (phenylthiocarbamide), which may reflect a need in hunter-gatherers to avoid toxic plants”.

None of the above correspond with either the European or Bantu. Within-Africa analysis separates Bushmen from the divergent western and southern African populations.
Variable relatedness of the Xhosa to Yoruba may suggest past admixture and/or historical diversity within this broadly defined population.

For us the most important finding of the scientist does NOT lie in the DNA differences between Khoi, San and Bantu; or whether the Bantu actually drifted south from the Congo – we know that from reliable historical sources. The most important finding, according to us, is: “These physiological and genetic differences may guide future studies into the much debated question of whether population replacement, rather than cultural exchange, has driven the expansion of agriculture in the southern regions of Africa”.

THAT is the crux of the matter as far as land distribution is concerned in South Africa: the Khoi, San and Bantu did NOT partake in agriculture or land acquisition because of their culture, but because they fled other marauding tribes from the equator!

Front National is not interested in the differences the scientists had proven, or in any racial mapping – we are interested in the conclusion: THE BLACK AFRICAN, KHOI AND SAN HAVE NO HISTORICAL RIGHT ON ANY ARABLE LAND in South Africa because, contrary to what the ANC, EFF or DA advocate, IT HAS NEVER BEEN PART OF THEIR HISTORY.

Stop spreading the lie that agricultural land was stolen by white settlers. Stop your land grabs based on fables and myths!

INSTITUTIONS PARTICIPATING IN THE STUDY:

Pennsylvania State University, Center for Comparative Genomics and Bioinformatics, 310 Wartik Lab, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA
Cancer Genetics Group, Children’s Cancer Institute Australia for Medical Research, C25 Lowy Cancer Research Centre University of New South Wales, High Street, New South Wales 2031, Australia
University of Washington, Department of Genome Sciences, and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Foege S-413-C, Box 355065, Seattle, Washington 98195-5065, USA
Roche Diagnostics Corporation, Indianapolis, Indiana 46250-0414, USA
The Human Genome Sequencing Center, Baylor College of Medicine, One Baylor Plaza, Houston, Texas 77030, USA
Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA
University of New South Wales, Randwick, New South Wales 2031, Australia
Department of Biological Statistics and Computational Biology, 101 Biotechnology Building, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA
University of Limpopo, Turfloop Campus, P/Bag X1106, 0727 Sovenga, South Africa
Washington University in St Louis, School of Medicine, The Genome Center, 4444 Forest Park Boulevard, St Louis, Missouri 63108, USA
Broad Institute of MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and Harvard University, Cambridge Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142, USA
Sperling Foundation, Eugene, Oregon 97405, USA
National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institutes of Health, 5625 Fishers Lane, Room 5N-01Q, MSC 9400, Rockville, Maryland 20892-9400, USA

Read the original article by Hannes Engelbrecht on Front Nasionaal SA – blad

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