SummaryThe umbilical cord blood from 109 consecutive Zambian neonates (excluding those found to be anti‐HIV positive) were analysed for haemoglobin (Hb) Bart's and for alpha thalassaemia by restriction endonuclease analysis. This showed that 52.3% had the genotype αα/αα, 38.5% had ‐α3.7/αα, 7.3% had—α3.7/—α3.7and 1.8% had ααα/ααα. The alpha thalassaemia gene (—α) frequency was 0.27. There were no apparent differences in gene frequency between six major Zambian ethnic groups. Detection of Hb Bart's identified all α‐thalassaemia homozygotes (—α/—α), but fewer than 10% of heterozygotes (—α/ααα), α‐thalassaemia was associated with slig