Analysis of the heritage and genetic diversity of influential Afrikaners

Abstract

Previous studies have claimed that the Afrikaner population of South Africa contains approximately 7% non-European DNA. It is thus ironic that Afrikaners practiced racial separation and discrimination against non-Europeans, which was formalized in the Apartheid policy years. As racism is not dead in South Africa, conservative individuals of both sides of the racial spectrum often have trouble believing in the chequered heritage of Afrikaners. Since pedigree data of early Afrikaner individuals are available, this study attempted to construct pedigrees of several prominent Afrikaner individuals including former Apartheid leaders to establish the truth about Afrikaner genetic composition. Analysis of these pedigrees suggests that the Afrikaner population is heterogeneous with twenty two of the individuals studied having non-European ancestry but with eight having none. The latter tend to have high proportions of French DNA and larger inbreeding coefficients which suggests that the French tended not to admix with others. Finally, this study illustrates that most inbreeding is the result of distant common ancestors.