What causes giantism and dwarfism?

Being very tall or short does not constitute either gigantism or dwarfism. Men and women can range in height from 4 feet 7 inches (140 centimetres to 6 feet 7 inches (201 cm) and still be considered normal.

Giantism and dwarfism are specific growth disorders that can usually be traced to something that has gone awry in the pituitary, but sometimes dwarfism can be caused by malnutrition or by diseases of the kidney, heart, or liver. As a rule, too much GH (growth hormone) leads to giantism and too little dwarfism, but the timing of the secretions is also important.

If the pituitary overproduces GH before the end of adolescence, the outcome is likely to be excessive growth. But if the oversecretion comes after adolescence, the hormone acts unevenly. Because growth in stature has essentially ceased, and because GH acts only on the parts of the skeleton still not completely hardened by mineralization, the excess hormone may cause large extremities or, in rare instances, a condition called acromegaly, marked by enlargement of the face, feet, and hands.

Long Trail

Henry Morton Stanley (1841-1904) decided to explore the Congo River when he heard of David Livingstone’s death in 1873. He had admired Dr Livingstone every since their famous meeting in the Congo in 1871, when Stanley, a correspondent for the New York Herald, had been commissioned to find missing Livingstone.

Stanley set off from the east coast with a party of 350 in November 1874. They went first to Lake Victoria, carrying a small, single-masted boat, the Lady Alice, in sections. Stanley circumnavigated both Lake Victoria and Lake Tanganyika in the boat, establishing that they had no outlets to the Congo River.

When the party reached Nyangwe on the Congo in October 1876, Stanley enlisted the help of Tippu Tip, an Arab slave trader, and set off northwards with a party of around 1000. Progress was slow and difficult, and the Arabs left in December after they had travelled 200 miles (320 km).

Stanley acquired some canoes and continued by the river and by land, on the way shooting rapids and fighting some 30 battles with local tribesmen. Only 114 of Stanley’s original party eventually reached the sea in August 1877.

Warrior Rites of Masai People

Adult Masai (Nilotic ethnic group inhabiting northern, central and southern Kenya and northern Tanzania) living in traditional style, both warriors and women, are decked with massive earrings, colourful bead necklaces and bracelets of wrought-copper, and women also wear anklets. Warriors wear orange-red cloaks knotted at the shoulder and dye their tall, slim bodies with ochre clay and fat. Men and unmarried women wear their hair ochred and braided right up to the skull, but married women have their heads shaved and polished with red clay.

Every stage of life is marked by ritual. Naming ceremonies for infants, for example, and circumcision rites for older girls and boys. And once every 15 years at a full moon, the E unoto graduation ceremony for warriors takes place - the main one is at Mukulat in Tanzania. 

Warriors, some wearing lion's mane, ostrich-feather and leopard skin headdresses, gather for the four-day event, which includes traditional dancing and sacrificing bullocks, as well as ritual shaving of the head. The young men cannot marry until they become senior warriors.