Focus on psychiatry in South Africa

South Africa is a country of great fascination to those interested in the origins, development and behaviour of humankind. For example, recent fossil discoveries appear to confirm Darwin's hunch that Africa – and perhaps southern Africa – was the cradle of humankind. Caves in the Sterkfontein Valley near Johannesburg have produced abundant scientific information on the evolution of modern man over the past 3.5 million years. This is of interest not only from a historical point of view but also in terms of modern science. With the significant advances in medical genetics in general, and psychiatric genetics in particular, there has been a growing interest in homogeneous populations with novel gene pools. South Africa is a rich source of homogeneous populations with an apparently common ancestry.