Vadoma A people (tribe) living in northern Zimbabwe, pred | Honest historian
Vadoma
A people (tribe) living in northern Zimbabwe, predominantly in the Urungwe and Sipollo regions of the Zambezi River valley. It has minimal contact with the surrounding ethnic majority Bantu.
Some members of this tribe are characterized by a genetic trait called ectrodactyly, in which the three middle toes are missing and the two outermost toes are turned inward. Because of this peculiarity, members of the tribe were nicknamed "bipedal" or "ostrich-footed.
The Wadoma tribe is a clear example of the genetic consequences of small group isolation in the form of genetic defects and mutations as a consequence of inbreeding depression. Due to the tribal isolation of the Vadoma, the phenomena of ectrodactyly will continue to exist and develop in them, and due to the relatively small gene pool the anomaly will appear much more frequently than in other places.
