ABSTRACT
In the usual racial classification of African peoples, the populations of North and West Africa would never be combined, but with regard to hemoglobin these populations are quite similar. Throughout North Africa malaria has been endemic, but it is rather sporadic due to the aridity of the climate and the strong influence of local environmental factors on the epidemiology of the disease. In the populations of North and West Africa that have been subjected to malaria and hence have abnormal hemoglobins, there is great variability as to which abnormal hemoglobin is present. The large Arab and Berber urban populations in Algeria have both hemoglobin S and C in small and approximately equal frequencies. In North Africa there are some association beween “Negroid” populations and high frequencies of hemoglobins S and C. In West Africa very low frequencies of hemoglobin S are found in enclaves along the western coast.
