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GENETICISTS have pinpointed the origin of the Aids virus to the turn of the 20th century, decades earlier than it was previously believed to have emerged. Human tissue samples from Africa show that the most pervasive global strain, HIV-1, probably jumped from chimpanzees to humans some time between 1884 and 1924, with the best estimate being 1908. Scientists previously believed the virus originated in around 1930.
Research published today in the journal Nature suggests the rise of large cities in west-central Africa was a major factor in the spread of the virus. The first major settlements were founded by European colonialists in the late 1800s, but populations did not start to exceed 10,000 until after 1910.
Research published today in the journal Nature suggests the rise of large cities in west-central Africa was a major factor in the spread of the virus. The first major settlements were founded by European colonialists in the late 1800s, but populations did not start to exceed 10,000 until after 1910.
First human case of HIV ’100 years ago’ |
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| By: Ari Thursday October 2, 2008 5:15 am | |
2 Comments
ari – the reveres at effect measure are, to my knowledge, the best bloggers on this type of thing. here’s a link to their post, Molecular history of the HIV whirlwind, for background and analysis from a progressive perspective. i especially like the concluding paragraphs:
Actually there were several sub-Saharan cities (several in West Africa) that reportedly had populations of over 10,000, several in West Africa. Mitchell’s Geographical Reader of 1840 indicates that many cities in the Sahel region in modern Mali, Niger, Norther Nigeria, and Bornu in the what is today Chad had populations from 20-50,000. These were caravan centers, and the capitals of the expansive Sahelian kingdoms of “Ghana”, Songhay, Kanam-Bornu, etc. before the trade networks shifted to the south with the establishment of European “trade factories” along the coast.
The latter trade led to the rise of both Abomey (in Benin) and Kumasi (the Ashanti capital now in Ghana) which also had populations that were quite a bit larger than 10,000. The reader doesn’t mention any of the Yoruban city states but they were also reputedly larger than 10K. Several of these “states” had increased populations, both from the influx of slaves and refugees from slave wars, but the areas around them were often depopulated in consequence of the demand for slaves for export to the Americas.
There were also some cities in Southern Africa, such as the capital of Botswana that had about 30-50,000.
These cities were as large as many capital cities in Europe before the industrial revolution.
That doesn’t impact either their discovery, or the fact that population size increases in West-Central African cities exponentially increased about the time they mention. What this suggests is that traditional patterns of sexual activity broke down as male migrants moved to cities (some of which were associated with mining activities), and perhaps there was an increased demand for “bush-meat” as rural pastoralism decreased as men took on other employment. The policies of many mining and other industrial firms was that women were to remain in their home villages and that the men were to live in dormitories. That inevitably led to alienated men seeking sex elsewhere, and yet carrying any sexually-transmitted diseases back to their wives when they returned home.
That said, these cities were often spread across landscapes much larger than the modern cities of West-Central Africa and none reached the hundreds of thousands or millions that todays African cities attain.