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[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Scientists believe Africa is where\u00a0modern humans first emerged<\/a>. For the past decade, our team of\u00a0genetic<\/a>\u00a0researchers<\/a>\u00a0from the\u00a0Henn Lab<\/a>\u00a0have worked among the Khoe-San and self-identified \u201cColoured<\/a>\u201d communities in South Africa, which comprise multiple ethnic groups in the region, requesting DNA and generating genetic data to help unravel the history and prehistory of southern Africans and their relationship to populations around the world.<\/p>\n While we have learned a great deal from these communities, we have been unable to fulfill a common request: providing them their individual genetic ancestry results. In our attempts to overcome the logistical challenges of providing this information, we\u2019ve grappled with the common question of how to ensure an equitable balance of benefits between researchers and the community they study. What we\u2019ve found is that there is no easy answer.<\/p>\n Community member requests to see their genetic results came as no surprise. Many South African groups were stripped of their identities and collapsed into one overarching racial category known as \u201cColoured<\/a>\u201d during the early 1900s. Early\u00a0European colonizers<\/a>\u00a0initially used this term to refer to indigenous Khoekhoe and San groups long before it was codified by the apartheid government in 1948. It persists today as an ethnic category, broadly encompassing Khoe-San groups, various East African, Indian and Southeast Asian populations brought by the slave trade, and people of mixed ancestry.<\/p>\n We<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0other<\/a>\u00a0research groups have shown that some Coloured communities are largely descendants of the Khoe and San peoples. Other ancestries present in Coloured communities are from Bantu-speaking populations that migrated into the region from\u00a0western Africa<\/a>\u00a0around 1,500 years ago and from\u00a0Europe<\/a>\u00a0a little under 400 years ago.\u00a0Asian ancestry<\/a>\u00a0is also present as a result of the aforementioned slave trade.<\/p>\n The Khoe and San are considered the most\u00a0genetically diverse<\/a>\u00a0human populations currently known, meaning they have a large amount of genetic differences within and between each community. Though they are distinct groups, they share genetic similarities with each other. As a result, geneticists collectively refer to them as\u00a0Khoe-San<\/a>, using a hyphen to acknowledge their cultural distinction.<\/p>\n Today, few people identify as Khoe or San in South Africa. Rather, many people call themselves Coloured, though they are deeply aware of the term\u2019s racist legacy.<\/p>\n In our 12 years of fieldwork, we have returned to South Africa on a nearly annual basis to update community-level genetic results. At each visit, most of our participants ask about their personal genetic ancestry results.<\/p>\n But there are several hurdles we face in trying to fulfill their requests. For one, we need to be able to translate scientifically complex data into an accessible and digestible form, a skill that researchers are not always equipped with. Additionally, we must work within restrictions set by\u00a0the local government<\/a>, which is mediated by the Health Research Ethics Committee at our collaborators\u2019 academic institution, as well as restrictions set by the\u00a0South African San Council<\/a>.<\/p>\nThe history of the Khoe-San<\/h4>\n
Logistical challenges and potential risks<\/h4>\n