PINGELAP ISLAND BURSTS WITH RICH COLOURS, but some of its inhabitants can’t appreciate the picturesque sights in the same way the rest of us do – they see the world in black and white, with no colour vision to speak of
This story started at the end of the 18th century. Up to that moment, Pingelap was only a dot on the map of the world, a tiny atoll in the Pacific Ocean, totalling an area of 1.8km2 in Micronesia, a wilderness of disconcerting beauty. But in 1775, typhoon Lengkieki and the famine that followed decimated the island’s population, which dropped from 1 000 to approximately only 20, including the king.
That monarch was the bearer of a rare genetic condition: total colour blindness due to the mutation of chromosomes two and eight. For achromatics such as him, reality is in black and white; no scintillating blue of the ocean or iridescent green of vegetation. The next baby without colour vision was born in 1820 and, since then, the number has increased exponentially through hereditary transmission. Today, while this condition affects approximately one person out of 30 000 in the world, at Pingelap, four to 10% of the inhabitants suffer from it, making the island the focus of much interest and research. The colour-blind people of Pingelap and Pohnpei (a nearby island on which a dense community of achromatic Pingelapese live) are the subject of neurologist and neuroanthropologist Oliver Sacks’ travel book The Island of the Colorblind, published in 1996.
This story is from the December 2017 edition of Marie Claire South Africa.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the December 2017 edition of Marie Claire South Africa.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
These Women Are Not Real
These women have millions of Instagram followers, front-row seats at fashion week and the latest designer clothes … but they’re not real. This new social-media trend is the most futuristic yet: computer-generated avatars that look, talk and behave like real people. But, asks HANNAH-ROSE YEE, is this really the future of the influencer industry?
One Moment In Time
In February this year, para-athlete and journalist Palesa ‘Deejay’ Manaleng won gold in the women’s H3 hand-cycle event at the 2018 SA National Road and Para-Cycling Championships in Outdshoorn, Western Cape. Four years earlier, she had lost the use of her legs in a terrible cycling accident. Here, she shares that terrifying experience and her personal story of recovery
Never Had Sex But Trying For A Baby
For this 40-something-year-old, becoming a mother is high up on her priority list. And the fact that she’s a virgin, is not going to stop her from reaching her goal
Living In A Man's World
What really happens in the secret world of men? We asked four men who were born female to share their unique perspective on what it’s like to be parachuted into the opposite gender
Get In The Mood
You’re ready to ring in 2019, but that dreaded dress code has you in a panic. There’s no need to stress. Tarryn Oppel thinks you may already have a winning piece in your wardrobe. You just don’t know it yet...
A Charmed Life
Jewellery designer Ambra Gambale ’s handcrafted work has a curious undercurrent of magic realism, with a strong emphasis on bespoke pieces
Chelsea Lately
Former first daughter Chelsea Clinton talks privilege, female leadership, dealing with critics – and how Trump ‘degrades what it means to be an American’
Delivering Excellence
NOMZAMO MBATHA chats to Afika Jadezweni about her red-carpet style, why women need to support one another, and how she’ll never forget where she comes from
Soul To Soul
If There Were Ever a Visual Representation of the Expression ‘wearing Your Heart on Your Sleeve’, Lukhanyo Mdingi’s ‘soulful Ii’ Collection Would Be It, as Afika Jadezweni Finds Out
It's Kim's World
…We Just Live In It. How An Underestimated La Socialite Became One Of The Most Powerful Women Of The 21st Century