Black Superman

Black Superman was written to extol the genes and genius of African and African-descended populations, to comprehensively explain the disproportionate athletic power of genes designed in Africa, and to forcefully expose and debunk the myths and lies that undergird the historic slander of black intellectual inferiority. Despite its title, it is not a paean to black racial superiority, but rather a confirmation of the essential equality of the entire human race.

It has been almost five years since Black Superman was first published. Since then, time and events have lent credibility to some of the book’s most important claims. One such claim-that the athletic superiority of men and women of West African descent in athletic activities involving speed and power is genetically based-has been highlighted by results from a lab in Scotland. In addition, the recently concluded Beijing Olympics shone the spotlight on the extraordinary success of the Jamaican sprinters, led by the remarkable Usain Bolt.

After more than ten years of research, I concluded that the disproportionate success of West African-descended athletes was due to (1) biomechanical and biochemical differences between themselves and White and Asian athletes, and (2) biochemical differences between themselves and all other Africans. I argued that the biochemical differences-essentially differences in glucose conversion rates-between West Africans and all other populations, including other black Africans, was linked to their development of biological defenses against falciparum malaria. In the uniquely lethal West African malarial environment, individuals with sickle cell trait (those with one sickle gene) possessed a significant selective advantage.

I explained that although sickling is caused by a single amino acid substitution on the beta chain of the hemoglobin molecule, the mutation had triggered a series of physiological adjustments which, incidentally, had favorable athletic consequences. That the adjustments or compensatory mechanisms, all of which have been scientifically tested and evaluated, include a higher percentage of fast-twitch muscle fibers; greater activity in the phosphagenic, glycolytic, and lactate dehydrogenase metabolic pathways; and a greater rate of ventilation. That they altered how the affected individuals process, store, and utilize energy for skeletal muscle contraction, and enhanced their ability to build lean muscle mass.

I also explained that the sickle cell trait and the biological adaptations it set in motion would have considerable medical and physiological consequences. And I detailed those consequences.

Following the publication of Black Superman, I invited my friend of several decades, Professor Errol Morrison (who also wrote the foreword to this book) to co-author the article, “Some bio-medical mechanisms in athletic prowess,” which was published in the West Indian Medical Journal in 2006. These two publications triggered a major research project by the International Center for East African Running Science, Institute of Biomedical and Life Sciences, University of Glasgow; the School of Graduate Studies and Research, The University of West Indies, Mona Campus; and the Faculty of Medicine, University of Sydney, Australia.

Their study, titled “Can genetics explain the dominance of athletes of West African ancestry in international sprint events,” collected saliva samples from more than 200 national standard Jamaican athletes. The early results indicate that the fast-twitch muscle fibers of more than 70% of the Jamaicans, as compared to 30% of elite Australian athletes, contain the Actinen A protein, which significantly improves the performance of those fibers.

Black Superman is not just about sports and science. It is, as the full title implies, a cultural and biological history of the West African peoples. It covers a wide range of subjects, including history, biology, anthropology, and linguistics, which are not usually found in a single book. With very little fanfare it has found its way into libraries and onto bookshelves around the world. I invite you to read further and to participate in the great debate this book was written to address. Why are people of West African descent so disproportionately represented among the greatest athletes in the world?

Patrick Desmond Cooper
September 2008

Excerpts

Please note, you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view the excerpts.