Austin, Texas (PRWEB) June 23, 2009

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, the book’s author, Patrick Desmond Cooper, had 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. He explained 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.

Black Superman 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. The book also explained that the sickle cell trait and the biological adaptations it set in motion would have considerable medical and physiological consequences. And it detailed those consequences. Following the publication of Black Superman, the author invited his 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 :A Cultural and Biological History of the Peoples Who Became the World’s Greatest Athletes 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 and with very little fanfare it has found its way into libraries and onto bookshelves around the

world.

About the author:

Patrick Desmond Cooper a native Jamaican, has been a writer his entire adult life. Mr. Cooper began his professional career as a journalist on the sports desk of the Gleaner, the oldest and largest newspaper in the British Caribbean. His long and varied career also includes stints in advertising, business and politics. In 1968 he was hired as the first fulltime Public Relations Director of the People’s National Party (PNP), which has governed Jamaica for much of the last thirty-six years. He also served as a top aide and speechwriter to Michael Manley, the former Prime Minister of Jamaica . He was the first Editor of the People National Party’s then startup newspaper, The New Nation. Mr. Cooper spent the final two months of the 1968 Presidential Election Campaign in Washington, working with the speechwriting team of the Democratic Party’s Vice-Presidential candidate, Edmund Muskie. He later went on to represent Jamaica at the United Nation and in Africa.

For more information or to purchase this book and view Mr. Cooper’s other works please visit http://www.patrickdesmondcooper.com

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