Financial Times 03.7.2020

12 FT.COM/MAGAZINE MARCH7/82020 FT.COM/MAGAZINE MARCH7/82020 13

HowAfrican

DNA could

change

theworld

The continent’suntapped genomic

datacould spurascientific

revolution,transforming howwe

treatdisease.Why have we ignored

it forsolong?Neil Munshireports.

IllustrationbyDiana Ejaita

M

orethan 7,000 years

ago,during the

last GreenSahara

period, when the

vastnorth African

desert was rain-fed

andlush,achildwas

bornwithextraordi-

nary powers–andtheseedofacurse.

Lockedinside the childwas ageneticmuta-

tionthat ga ve aheightenedimmunitytomalaria.

Over the following259generations,the disease

would become the deadliest in human history.

Indianscribesofthe Vedicperiodcalledit“ theking

ofdiseases”.MalariahastenedRome’sfall.Itkilled

upto300millionpeopleinthe20thcenturyalone

–onein every20deaths.

Thechildsurvivedbecauseofachangeinhaemo-

globin, the molecule inredblood cells thatcarri es

oxyg en, which was then passedontoits descend-

ants.The mutationpersistedbecause it was a

means of survival in malarial sub-Saharan Africa.

But itspotencyheld adark secret.Sometimes,

whentwoofthosedescendantsprocreated,their▶