The River Niger as a Barrier in the Spread Eastwards of Hæmoglobin C: a Survey of Hæmoglobins in the Ibo

Abstract

HÆMOGLOBIN C is associated with West Africa rather than with Africa as a whole. It differs in that respect from hæmoglobin S, which is distributed throughout that continent south of the Sahara and north of the River Zambezi. Within West Africa the highest incidences are found in northern Ghana, where Dagomba, Moshie and Dagarti were seen to include 28, 22, and 16.5 per cent, respectively, of people with hæmoglobin C (ref. 1). Similar high incidences were found in the French territories bordering northern Ghana². East of Ghana hæmoglobin C is still found at an appreciable incidence as far as Western Nigeria in the Yoruba. Thus Allison³ saw hæmoglobin C in 6 per cent of 104 Yoruba resident in Ghana, and Walters and Lehmann⁴ in 7 per cent of 940 inhabitants of a Yoruba village 40 miles north-east of Lagos. Garlick and Barnicot⁵ examined 305 Yoruba school-children in Ibadan and found hæmoglobin C in 6.5 per cent.