Wednesday, 11 April 2012

The Kru People of Liberia


THE  KRU  PEOPLE  OF  LIBERIA,  ‘FREE  FROM  THE  DREADED  SICKLE  CELL,  SUSCEPTIBLE TO  THE DREADFUL  MALARIA’

The Kru people of Liberia are perhaps the only race in West Africa who have not got ‘sickle-cells’ in their blood. Sickle-cell is nature’s way of protecting West Africans against malaria. Malarial parasites multiply in the red blood cells, feeding on hemoglobin which carries oxygen to all parts of the body. Whereas ordinary blood cells are disc shaped, cells containing sickle-cell  hemoglobin tend to be pointed, like a crescent, and are completely devoid of oxygen

Culled from ;
PEOPLES A ND EMPIRES OF WEST AFRICA,
 BY G.T. STRIDE & C. IFEKA.

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