Wadoma: amazing ostrich people

The indigenous peoples of Africa are colorful and very interesting, especially for residents of other continents. But there is one mysterious tribe, meetings with which for a long time even their neighbors avoided. This is a Wadoma tribe that lives in Zimbabwe. The scientific world has long doubted the existence of mysterious ostrich people, as other nationalities called the vadoma, although mention of them is found in the descriptive works of the ancient Greeks. Their existence was confirmed by strange footprints in the sand, resembling at the same time traces of people and traces of ostriches, eyewitness accounts of rare encounters, and frequent references to mythology and folklore of local residents who considered ostrich people to be sorcerers and treated them with awe and reverence.

Outwardly, they are no different from other representatives of the African race: they have black skin, curly hair like tar and characteristic features. They are very friendly, welcoming and sociable. But the soles of their feet have a very strange structure. Most representatives of this tribe usually do not have three middle toes, and the thumb and little finger form something similar to the letter V. This deviation is called ectrodactyly and, as scientists believe, is the result of genetic mutations. Wadomes themselves do not suffer from such a defect in any way, they move normally, lead an active lifestyle and can even quite cleverly climb trees, thanks to such peculiar legs. Vadoma is a very developed tribe, whose representatives have extensive knowledge in the field of pharmaceuticals and medicine, and they connect their origin with the red star Litolafisi, that is, with the planet Mars.

But how did it happen that such strange structures of the lower extremities are observed in this African tribe? Scientists believe that the whole thing is the isolation of the tribe and the rules that prevail there. According to the laws of this society, men can only marry women of the Wadoma tribe. Compliance with this rule is strictly monitored by the elders. So it turned out that, in view of their relatively small number, incestation thrives in this people, which led to genetic disorders. According to scientists, less than a thousand people are not enough to maintain a full gene pool. However, over the past few decades, Wadoms have gradually abandoned their retreat and are gradually moving closer to the surrounding tribes. As a result of marriages of two-fingered wadomes with healthy representatives of other nations, two-fingered children are born, which confirms the persistence of this genetic mutation. The gene that causes this syndrome is dominant, that is, with a high degree of probability it manifests itself in children if one of the parents is its carrier.

But wadom people are far from the only owners of such legs. Ectrodactyly is also found in other inhabitants of the globe, but is most common among small isolated tribes of the African continent. Studies of these peoples may be useful to scientists involved in genetic diseases.