I was African?

My colleague, originally from India, who has been transformed into Singaporean and married to a Chinese Lady, and has a very adorable Indian-Chinese mixed daughter, told me something in the very late evening of July 2nd.

“All of us were from Africa. And researchers have proved it.”

He vividly believed that humankind was originated from Africa.
He further threw a fact of recent discovery shows that there is a man in India with 99% anatomically same with Nelson Mandela from South Africa. Oh yeah, that fact is interesting.

So I decided to think. God, show me the light.

(God: Oh dear, he is doing it again!)

As a person, who strongly believes that we were monkeys, can believe theoretically that we were from Africa (It is where the most animals live, isn’t it?).

Our ancestors, knows as Australopithecines (commonly known as “ape men”), were from Africa? Sound’s ok to me. I am not a raciest and think it’s nothing wrong with being shiny black.

After doing some research, I noted that the first example of Australopithecus was founded in 1925 in a limestone cave near Taung, in South Africa, by the anthropologist Raymond Dart. He found the skull of a six year old creature with an apelike appearance but human characteristics. (Australopithecines were small, with long arms, prominent skulls and small brains and retained the ability to climb trees.) See I told you! We were monkeys!
Another one of the most famous finds was in Ethiopia’s Omo Vally in 1974. It was the skeleton, about 40% complete, of a young girl known to the outside world as Lucy and to Ethiopians as Dingnish (the wonderful or precious one)

Fair enough.

Now I can, at least with some facts, say comfortably that African apes were our ancestors. However, I still can’t content to say that those Africans (pretty black and big) travelled across the world to reach China and became Chinese (pretty white and not so big). So I pulled out more information from available sources and found something more interesting.

Australopithecus split into several different species. Some developed into robust while others were more lightly built.

There are two contradicting theories. The first one was “Out of Africa” model. It said Homo sapiens developed first in Africa and then spread around the world between 100 and 200,000 years ago, superseding all other hominid species. (May be they mated with white monkeys in China). If this is true, all modern people are ultimately of African descent.

The other theory, known as the “Multiregional” model, showed that Homo sapiens evolved simultaneously in different parts of the word from original Homo erectus settlers. May be this theory makes better sense. And I would like to add that due to different climates and foods availability, our size and colour changed. For instance, I have cousins (Burmese parents) brought up in Japan and States. Now they look more like Japanese and American. Must be the food, weather and dressing style.

Anyway, Out of Africa theorists say that most genetic variation in human populations is found in Africa, suggesting that humans evolved there for the longest period. And the bulk of scientists (and my colleague) support the “Out of Africa” hypothesis and believe that all humans share a common origin.

My conclusion is that we were relatives (at least in Asia) and we have learned how to walk upright. We float on the sea and fly in the sky. We control other animals and use them for our advantage. We can do many things that many animals cannot even imagine. So when are we going to stop? Some believes in limit while some look for beyond. I think we should slow down. We have more than what we actually need. Nature gives us enough but we are making it running out. If this is what we were meant to be, I have nothing more to say.

Nevertheless, this is not the implications of evolutionary theory. Just my simple afternoon thought.

God: I did not show him any light. Read at your risk.


"They were able to develop the technology of stone tools? They were the first ones to move out of trees and walk upright? And they were the first ones to explore? Crossing the seas and going out to Asia and Europe... and to me this is the greatest achievement that humanity has ever done." - George Abungu, of the National Museums of Kenya

Source: BBC (so blame them as well if you blame this writing)