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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group
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To: Bilow who wrote (156837)1/23/2005 11:06:59 AM
From: neolib  Read Replies (1) of 281500
 
Thanks for the post on smallpox. Regarding the Bushmen & Hottentots, vs "Blacks" that were resistant, you are missing one important point.

The Bushmen are very ancient in S. Africa. The Hottentots came later, down the western coast, but their origin (how far north they started) is not known. They are both quite different from the Bantu tribes. The Bantu tribes clearly had quite a bit of contact with Arabs further north in Africa. This most likely accounts for their higher immunity.

In the Cape region of S. Africa, it was European smallpox that clobbered the Bushmen & Hottentots (along with weapons). It is possible that further east and north Bantu introduced diseases also caused problems for these two groups.

I don't know how stable smallpox is. Its possible that a European strain may have been enough different from existing African strains to cause problems, like the cold viruses, but given cowpox is used for immunity to smallpox, without causing sickness, that might not be the case.
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