Waardenburg syndrome (WS) is a genetic disorder of which there are four distinct 
types. These four types are differentiated by the physical defects which they 
produce. Presented here is the case of a 13-year-old boy with WS Type I who was 
observed and physically assessed in Mali, West Africa in 1969. His physical 
findings included a bright blue coloring to the irises of the eyes, profound 
sensorineural deafness, mutism, dystopia canthorum (lateral displacement of the 
inner canthi of the eyes), broad nasal root, bushy eyebrows, and scaphoid 
deformities of the supraorbital portions of the frontal bone. Because family 
members were not available for interviews or physical examinations, it was not 
possible to determine if this patient was suffering from a congenital form of 
the disorder or from a spontaneous mutation. Given the patient's then location 
in a remote rural area of Mali where electricity was absent, it was not possible 
to perform additional diagnostic tests. The patient described here is the first 
with WS in Mali, West Africa to have been medically observed and evaluated and 
later documented in the medical literature. A second case of the syndrome in 
Mali was described in the medical literature in 2011 in an 18-month-old infant 
who did not have sensorineural hearing loss, but who did have a bilateral cleft 
lip. An historical overview of WS is presented along with details concerning the 
characteristics of the four types of the disorder.