By Lara de Matos
"Genetics is like a deck of cards: you can shuffle the cards as many times as you want, but eventually, all the figures and numbers in that deck will pop up at one point or another."
The analogy (as presented by acclaimed South African geneticist Professor Himla Soodyall, during a presentation marking the recent launch of the History channel's forthcoming documentary Skin Deep) is one with which Sandra Laing is all too familiar.
Thanks to the buzz generated by the feature film version of the documentary, called Skin, after its numerous award-winning turns at a number of international film festivals last year, Sandra's story has swiftly gained momentum worldwide.
Still, many people remain perplexed by just how it was that a woman with such distinctly coloured-cum-African attributes could have been born to white parents - themselves descended from Caucasian family trees.
Or so they thought.
As Soodyall elucidates though, it's not only possible, but quite probable, in light of the fact that recent scientific findings reveal that every person on this planet - irrespective of outward appearances - is ultimately interlinked, thanks to this eons-long meshing of our chromosomes.
Most of us are vaguely aware of our lineage dating back to our great-grandparents.
Soodyall's genetic-testing methods allow us to determine our ancestry from as far back as 150 000 years ago. And what her studies have revealed would undoubtedly see Hendrik Verwoerd and his fellow pro-apartheid ilk turn in their graves.
"The fact is virtually every lineage in Southern Africa became mixed after the arrival of the Europeans in 1652, who procreated with people of ostensibly different racial backgrounds, including the local Koi women, as well as slaves of Asian heritage brought into the country at the time," she explains.
"So while Sandra's parents and the rest of her family may have all been 'pure white' in their outward appearance, they obviously carried recessive genes from these African ancestors going back to the 1600s, which finally 'manifested' themselves in Sandra."
Skin Deep, Sunday on History Channel at 8.30pm.
Source : http://tonight.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=349&fArticleId=5320965
"Genetics is like a deck of cards: you can shuffle the cards as many times as you want, but eventually, all the figures and numbers in that deck will pop up at one point or another."
The analogy (as presented by acclaimed South African geneticist Professor Himla Soodyall, during a presentation marking the recent launch of the History channel's forthcoming documentary Skin Deep) is one with which Sandra Laing is all too familiar.
Thanks to the buzz generated by the feature film version of the documentary, called Skin, after its numerous award-winning turns at a number of international film festivals last year, Sandra's story has swiftly gained momentum worldwide.
Still, many people remain perplexed by just how it was that a woman with such distinctly coloured-cum-African attributes could have been born to white parents - themselves descended from Caucasian family trees.
Or so they thought.
As Soodyall elucidates though, it's not only possible, but quite probable, in light of the fact that recent scientific findings reveal that every person on this planet - irrespective of outward appearances - is ultimately interlinked, thanks to this eons-long meshing of our chromosomes.
Most of us are vaguely aware of our lineage dating back to our great-grandparents.
Soodyall's genetic-testing methods allow us to determine our ancestry from as far back as 150 000 years ago. And what her studies have revealed would undoubtedly see Hendrik Verwoerd and his fellow pro-apartheid ilk turn in their graves.
"The fact is virtually every lineage in Southern Africa became mixed after the arrival of the Europeans in 1652, who procreated with people of ostensibly different racial backgrounds, including the local Koi women, as well as slaves of Asian heritage brought into the country at the time," she explains.
"So while Sandra's parents and the rest of her family may have all been 'pure white' in their outward appearance, they obviously carried recessive genes from these African ancestors going back to the 1600s, which finally 'manifested' themselves in Sandra."
Skin Deep, Sunday on History Channel at 8.30pm.
Source : http://tonight.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=349&fArticleId=5320965
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