Ethnic Cleansing and Human Evolution

Reader Comments
Back to blog

This Kenyan ethnic conflict has been explicitly linked by the contending people themselves to "milk". What else could "people of the milk" mean, but people who by ancestry are lactose tolerant?
That's evolution. The use of dairy animals creates a new environment, and a mutation for adult lactose tolerance, which would have been useless before then and selected against, turns useful and confers a selective advantage. Natural selection then causes the fraction of the population carrying that genetic change to rocket from near zero, to near 100%. We see it has happened again and again, in Africa, India, and Europe. And where there are no dairy animals, there is little to no adult lactose tolerance: China (for the most part), other sections of Africa, and so on.

Doug Hensley of TX 11:39AM February 06, 2009

This is all very interesting but as one living at Elmenteita the situation is so much more complicated and urgent than one can imagine. Right now we need more long drops because the facilities are inadequate. There is a mobile medical unit that comes every 2 weeks but that is not enough. We are doing are best just to discover who s actually in need and those who are taking advantage of the stricken. The rains have begun and needs are ever more pressing and the demands are increasing. If anyone wants to really help then contact us and we will do our best to get the help to the people who are really in need.

Kathryn 10:35AM April 12, 2008

Actually Ben Herder has an intriguing, well not hypothesis, but still at the very least a meme. By explaining violence through linking land tenure to ethnic identity and way of life, he is following a path well troden.
Blut und Boden anyone?
The evolution bit is easier to understand, Kenya being the cradle of mankind and all that, hence 'we' are closer to nature and swing machetes in warfare as opposed to 'they' the rational ones who'd split the atom on top of people's heads to immolate them instead.
Entertaining enough, nothing to get too worked about, just good clean fun.

Mkenya pia 6:31AM March 16, 2008

No steve he is still trying too hard.Let him take another subject please.
Milk-lactose-tolerance-incitement-violence-land -history no connection.
This is a life and death issue for Kenyans not one for childish scientific speculation. You need entertainment? Hollywood is right next door.I think they are still screening American Idol. Make fun of that instead. I am a kenyan and I am still offended one week later....

carol 12:47AM March 14, 2008

Ben, don't listen to all these complainers, you guessed right (See IRIN, "Spreading the word of hate" http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/777bb0d43384210781b07badf7d4df3f.htm).

Steve of NY 7:53AM March 13, 2008

Ben-Here is a definition for you for the word science!
"a branch of knowledge or study dealing with a body of facts or truths systematically arranged and showing the operation of general laws"
Your piece represents nothing that deals with facts.....you should join the hollow man in hollywood sitting around pools and coming up with cute ideas like the way you did this piece. If you would like to know the truth, hop on one of the company Jets and go to Kenya and take a drink of truth......we will forever be grateful reading your posts then!
T

Masa of MI 2:34PM March 12, 2008

Well Ben, am a Luo, and my best two friends here in Charlotte are Kikuyus, when all this started, we consoled each other despite the differences back in Kenya, but I was much offended by the way you potrayed the whole picture blaming it on tribal lines, Kikuyus, Luos, Luyhas and Kalenjins lived peacefully before the British came, the English created this whole mess and did little to help resolve it, the United States even did more than the Great Britain to bring peace back to Kenya, but before you publish any material go as far back as you can and research more facts.

michael of NC 10:55PM March 09, 2008

When I visited Kenya in 2002, most people I spoke with seemed untroubled by their tribal differences, or at least striving to find common ground in spite of them. I remember two friends (a Luo and a Kikuyu) joking that despite being from different tribes they looked ethnically indistinguishable from one another, spoke the same tongue, and held jobs with the same employer. I deeply hope that those two men are still friends today.

Ben Harder of DC 4:58PM March 09, 2008

Am kenyan, and you have just made a fool of yourself by using what the media reported and make more nonsense out of what you read. Before you scientifically study Kenya and its citizens like they are cave people, go there and talk to them about what's really going on. Great Britain is at fault of what really happened in Kenya because they came and put boundaries when their should'nt be none, Britain exhausted all of Kenyans natural resources and like they did all other African countries left Kenya in a mess, and gave power to the Kikuyus who they felt they could trust more than the Kalenjins, Lous or Luyhas. Next time get your facts straight before publishing junk.

Ben Harder's reply: Michael, you're quite right that British policies toward Kenyans in general and specifically with respect to their tribal affiliations are a very significant contributor to the current conflict in your homeland. According to the McCrummen article, in fact, a Kenyan's tribal identity was once a flexible characteristic that could change during one's lifetime--more of a Lamarckian trait than a Darwinian one. That was before the British imposed stricter divisions to suit their purposes. Incidentally, I have been to Kenya. I visited in 2002 and interviewed quite a few Kenyans and foreigners, primarily for a story (subscription required by Science News, but also available free here) I wrote on methods for safely disinfecting contaminated water.

michael of NC 11:38AM March 09, 2008

Ben Harder,
If you have travelled to this Kenya that you write about and if you have tried to use your computer cord there you must have realised that you need an adapter to use it there. Now if you choose not to get an adapter then you won't use your computer, simple as that, for while Americans use two prong plugs Kenya use three prong ones. What you essentially tried to do is to borrow this item from the news and may be it was a slow day, find a way to make a science link to it. Now to your hypothesis or are you coming up with a new theory? It is called trying too much. This why:
1. The problem in Kenya is nowhere near being called ethnic cleansing or even genocide as some sections of the media were quick to call. Please check your facts carefully before you rush to click publish
2. The Kalenjins are not hell bent to wipe out the kikuyu. The problem is more complex than that. Both sides have played a part. It starts with historical, colonial injustices, incompetent unwilling indigenous governments and land ownership is at the root of the whole thing. Let me just put it simply, Kalenjin land was taken from them by the colonial government, then the indigenous governments continued form where the British left. Even then Kalenjins are not as badly off as the Kikuyus who number much more than the Kalenjins. The kalenjins do not want to lose any more land while the kikuyus are eyeing the kalenjin lands (Rift Valley).And no they do not want to buy it in a clean buyer /seller transaction they want to snatch it.
3 So the kalenjins are only defending what is theirs. It boils down to livelihood, culture and 'a way of life'. And I think that the Kalenjins have a right to defend theirs.
4. It is not genocide or ethnic cleansing. Otherwise what America is doing in Iraq and Afghanistan is genocide. The kalenjins are defending themselves and so are the kikuyus.
You will do better if you actually do a little research before pushing this kind of article into the faces of your readers. It seems to me you did not want to be left behind without commenting on the Kenyan crisis that everyone has been covering in the last two months. It is not fair to your readers and to Kenyans. I will comment on the science bit, there is nothing to back it up .Or did you just want to tell us you plan on working on it. Trying to understand African problems using formulas that have worked in the west without a deep understanding of the problem has never worked. So would it have been different if one of the warring tribes had evolved to tolerate flatulence from eating beans? Whatever happened to research and double check? We Africans are tired by the careless manner that western journalists cover African issues. By the way I am lactose tolerant, (care to send me a few litres?) and I do not consider it negative in any way. It has not made me hostile to my neighbours and friends from all four sides of the globe.

carol 10:03PM March 08, 2008