Vadoma: The Zimbabwe tribe that has only two toes on each foot

The Vadoma people, also known as the Bantwana tribe, which means children/descendants, is a tribe living in northern Zimbabwe, mainly in the Urungwe and Sipolilo districts of the Zambezi River Valley.

There are many in their community who cannot wear shoes because of the shape of their feet. They only have two big toes on each foot.

They do not have middle toes and both at the end are returned. They can walk but with some difficulty depending on the form, running is also difficult for them. However, this condition helps them climb trees.

The elders of the Vadoma people claim that their distant ancestors were like birds that came from the stars and mixed their DNA with the first women on the earth to produce offspring. The ancients declare that their ancestors came from Sirius’ star systems and first established colonies on a planet within our solar system that they call Liitolafisi.

A large minority of Vadoma have a condition known as ectrodactyly, in which the three middle toes are absent and both at the end are returned so that the tribe is known as the two-toes tribe or ostrich. It is an autosomal dominant disease resulting from a single mutation on the chromosome.

It is reported that the affected people are not disabled and are well integrated into the tribe. Although it may be an aid to escalation, the condition prevails because of a small genetic pool among vaDoma and is propagated by tribal law that forbids members to marry outside the group.

Due to the isolation of the Vadoma tribe, they have developed and maintained ectrodactyly, and their relatively small genetic pool has made the condition much more common than elsewhere.