Marrying cousins

It is a well known fact that Indians and Arabs prefer to marry cousins to keep money in the family circle. That is their culture, it is fine because I have no plans to marry them.
Two incidents have made my question the wisdom in this.
One, I was in Kilifi doing this and that, when I met someone I know. He invited me to his family home for lunch and I accepted. He is Bajuni and they live in a compound with a few houses dotted around a large compound.
Normally in Muslim culture, I’m not supposed to meet females but when they heard there was a visitor from ‘Kule Nairobi’ women and children started peeking from corners at me.
What shocked me is that most of them looked, how do I say this politely, kama hawakuiva kabisaaaaa. In Kyuk we say they were remaining one boiling (matigitie itheruka rimwe). 97% were cross-eyed and they looked a bit confused.
I found out that his mum and dad are cousins and so are the grandparents. He himself is going to marry a cousin. God help the children they will get.
Two, my cousin met a girl in a club. Add alcohol, horniness, loneliness and dancehall music and the result is they ended up ferking. It seems the sex was good because he started meeting her every weekend and eventually she developed feelings for him and informed her sister about him. They were not dating, but they were dating, if you know what I mean.
A few weeks later, I go for a wedding without him and meet the girl with her people. I am informed that she is also my cousin. Intrigued, I follow the family tree and discover she is actually his second cousin.
At first I decide to lenga the story but when he admits he likes her alot, I have to shoot down his dreams before they produce a retarded baby.
Now they are debating whether to carry on secretly or call it quits.
Nimejitoa hapo kama Akombe.
Msiniwekelee !

Let them not produce,

Abomination ,incest

Keep the ujinga in the family…procreate ara?

Even with the niceness, some things should not be contemplated…because this is condemning future generations to eternal suffering!

kwani ile topic ya Biology ya genetics waliilenga?

Sounds like the opening scene from one of the movies in the ‘Wrong Turn’ franchise…ati cross-eyed and confused:D:D:D:D

[ATTACH=full]135481[/ATTACH]

Not cool.

Angusha hekaya, it’s been long since you tickled us.

What I know(biologically) is that marrying your cousin brings about increased risk of developing autosomal recessive inherited disease. Ie the human has a total of 23 pairs of chromosomes that is 23 from your mum and 23 from your Dad, Sawasawa so the inherited diseases are diseases that occur due to mutation in one or a number of genes.
If your dad happens to have mutation in say chromosome 6(ie Sickle cell) and your mum doesn’t have the mutation. Then you are most likely to develop a mild disease ie a Sickle cell trait and most people don’t even realise they have it. On the other hand if both your parents have the mutation in chromosome 6 which they might have inherited say from a common ancestor. Then the offspring develops full blown/severe disease which start manifesting symptoms of Sickle cell disease as early as 6 months after birth.

However if you have the mutation in chromosome marrying outside your family “dilutes” the defective genes since marrying outside the family minimizes the chances of getting someone with a mutation on the same chromosome hence your offspring won’t develop the disease.

Note that I have used Sickle cell to illustrate since it’s fairly common in our setting. However there are over 20 inherited diseases that are much severe ie thalassemias of which some variants ie thalassemia major are incompatible with life leading to intrauterine death of the fetus. ([SIZE=2]madagitare ongeza zingine). [/SIZE]
[SIZE=5]Bottom line is that it is not biologically advisable to marry your cousins but if you must then visit the hospital so that they can screen you for various inherited diseases and they can advise you accordingly based on their finding. [/SIZE]

wengine tunasemaga ni kurogwo au kuangaliwa na jicho mbaya na mama mzee, au deni ya babu fulani tulikula hatukulipa kwa hivyo tulipe mtoto atemewe mate…

In Biology I learnt watu wa familia moja wakipata mtoto lazima atakua na kasoro due to genes na damu yao kutoingiana.

so mtu kama @Jirani vile ni midget mbuyu wake alinyandua siz yake ama ?

Ngamia kunia ulale! Brare fukin

That’s why kings and their relatives in Europe from the medieval to the Victorian eras were retarded.

All around the coast, former NEP and various other places, once you interact a lot with them, that’s among the first things you’ll notice. Almost every family has at least one. But who is to dissuade them?

Religion and culture overrides Science and logic.

Noticed that, people used to claim amefanywa dwanzi ili familia yake ipate Pesa.

Genetic diversity is very important for survival of the species. Archeologists pointbyo the fact that genetic diversity is greatest in Africa and least in Caucasians, Mongoloids, etc as one of the evidences that human life, indeed, originated from Africa. Perhaps that’s why many of us complain that wazungu and Asians wanafanana sana.

Speaking of sickle cell anemia reminds me of one anecdote shared by one of my teachers in college. Of a lady from then Eastern Province (I forget where exactly) who was married to a gentleman from the western part of Kenya (sickle cell anemia/ trait is common in western part of Kenya (not the then province) and West Africa) and they had a boychild who unfortunately had sickle cell anemia.

So, before they had a second child they decided to go for genetic counselling (advised in Hemophilia as well, among other disorders). Tests on the mother did not reveal any sickle cell trait. The lecturer says, and I quote: “The mistake that doctor did was to test the boy’s father.”!!

There are some medicines as well that require some form of genetic tests prior to administration. The most basic I recall is glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PDh) enzyme. People deficient in this enzyme may develop extensive, often life-threatening, hemolysis on exposure to some molecules e.g Primaquin (previously used for radical cure of malaria prior to the advent of Artemether-Lumefantrine).