ALFRED: allele frequency database

The ALlele FREquency Database
ALFRED is a resource of gene frequency data on human populations
supported by the Yale Center for Medical Informatics.

Sample Information:

Population Name	Sample Name	ALFRED UID	Number of Chromosomes
Zaramo	Zaramo	SA002586V	80

Relation to Other Samples:
Estimated heterozygosities for various sites:

Sample Description: This sample contains unrelated Zaramo individuals from Tanzania. This sample includes Southern Zaramo from Kisarawe, Tanzania. Samples collected by Dr. Sylvester Kajuna.

The Zaramo are found in the coastal region of Tanzania, mostly around Dar es Salaam, Bagamoyo (Northern Zaramo), Pugu, and Kisarawe (Southern Zaramo). Our sampling centered on the Southern Zaramo in Kisarawe.

Similarities in social structure, religious beliefs, and political organization are clear indications that the Zaramo originated from the Luguru. The Luguru, the Kutu, and the Zaramo are not tribes in the organizational sense since there is no political control over all the people. The various local clans or village groups were essentially independent politically, economically, and religiously. The binding factor was habitation within a clearly defined area of land, which was regarded as the property of a particular matrilineal lineage. As Iliffe (1979) observed, groups and identities in Tanzania in the early nineteenth century were categorized by adaptation to a specific environment. The Luguru comprise an ethnic group that lives in the Uluguru Mountains, about 200 kilometers west of Dar es Salaam. The name "Luguru" simply means "people of the mountains." The group expanded or moved down the mountains onto the plains south of the mountain area and formed the group known as the Kutu. The Kutu in turn moved farther east when they were called upon to help fight the Kamba from Kenya. Beidelman (1967), who studied the matrilineal peoples of eastern Tanzania, took matrilineality as the common denominator of these groups of people. He noted a great number of social features that were shared by the Zaramo, Kwere, Luguru, Kutu, Kaguru, Sagara, Vidunda, Ngulu, and Zigua. Besides the similarity in language, their material culture and the basis of their subsistence were practically the same.

The Zaramo were not living in their present territory 200 years ago. They moved into this area later, at the time when there were raids by the Ngoni from the south and the Kamba from the north. The Shomvi, who have resided in this region much longer, called on Pazi Kilama, chief of the Kutu, for help. Pazi Kilama was known to be a brave hunter of elephants and lions. He helped to chase the Kamba away from the area, and most of them fled back to Kenya. However, Kamba place-names are still in evidence, and pockets of Kamba are still found among the Zaramo. After the war ended, Pazi Kilama sent his people to the Shomvi for payment. The Shomvi could not fulfill their promise, and they were then subjected to paying yearly tribute to Pazi Kilama. This payment was to continue indefinitely and was eventually paid by the sultan of Zanzibar to the Zaramo.
References:
- Kenneth K. Kidd et al. "Data unpublished".

© 2019 Kenneth K Kidd, Yale University. All rights reserved. The full Copyright Notification is also available.
Originally prototyped by Michael Osier with the aid of Kei Cheung
Upgrades and maintenance since 2002 by Haseena Rajeevan