3) Back to Africa

Well, before we start this new episode that takes us back Home — back to Africa — it’s important for you to know that Africa is very, very complicated. As long as we were outside Africa, to be honest, things were fairly simple: we just had to follow the thread and not lose it. After all, it’s only been 50,000 years since we left Africa — and 40,000 years since we left the Middle East. More precisely, 50,000 years marks the age of our genetic ancestors — but they were preceded by other Homo sapiens who left no descendants, yet passed down their myths. In fact, the first settlements of Sapiens in Eurasia go back more than 100,000 years — but they too left no descendants. Anyway, we’ll come back to this long mythological « longue durée » and how it relates to the genetic « longue durée ».

In any case, our history in Eurasia is actually quite « recent » — and I’m not even talking about America. In other words, Eurasia is a bit like Africa’s suburbs. For a long time, it was a kind of offshoot of African culture — a suburban culture. It was home neither to the richest nor to the most gifted. Then, little by little, the suburbs began to rise, and even ended up replacing the metropolis. As suburbs always do. As in Psalm (37)

In just a little while, the wicked will be no more; though you look carefully at his place, he will not be there. But the meek shall inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant peace.

Or, as the Quran (28.5) puts it: « We wanted to show favor to those who were oppressed on the earth, and make them leaders and inheritors  ». But we’ll come back to that.

In the meantime, Africa, on the other hand, is a completely different story. If 50,000 years impress you — you Pharisians, living in a world that’s only a few thousand years old — know that humans have been dragging their feet in Africa for millions of years. Long before our species, Homo sapiens, appeared 300,000 years ago. Just a baby compared to the species that came before us, like Homo Erectus and Homo Habilis, two million years ago.

O mankind, worship your Lord, who created you and those before you, that you may become righteous. Surah Al Baqara 2.21

Yes, how can we not be amazed by our Paleolithic Lord, our RaB! Millions of years in Africa on the one hand, 50,000 years in Eurasia on the other! A ratio of 1 to 100—simply immeasurable!

For those who are still unaware, genetic research has now proven that humanity is genetically divided into two branches: an African branch — the mother branch — and a more « degenerate » branch, the extra-African branch, from which all men and women who are not 100% of African origin are descendants. More precisely, mitochondrial DNA studies have shown that the population that crossed Bab el Mandeb Strait numbered fewer than 1,000 individuals — carriers of the L3 haplogroup. Yes, not even 1,000. We are a long way from the 60,000 brothers of Mahasuk or the 600,000 children of Israel. But even so, it took a lot of people to make the Eurasian settlement sustainable.

And so there is much less genetic difference between, on the one hand, an Italian and an Aboriginal Australian, and on the other hand, between two randomly chosen Africans — surprising, isn’t it? And it is this enormous loss of genetic diversity that allows us to say that non-African populations are a « degenerate » form of African populations. And that is why, as soon as we return to Africa, everything becomes much more complicated, and it is very difficult to see clearly.

More specifically, even if the scenario of Homo sapiens emerging in the eastern part of the African continent remains the reference scenario today, and even if our common mother is probably between 142,000 and 284,000 years old according to mitochondrial DNA data, the history of humanity in Africa cannot be seen as linear. The discovery of a « modern » human dating back 300,000 years in Jebel Irhoud, Morocco, has largely shattered this simplistic view. And I’m not even talking about South Africa, where the first traces of ritual use of ochre linked to symbolic representations were found.

The history of humanity is therefore truly a pan-African history on a continental scale. However, since the emergence of our species 300,000 years ago, Africa has experienced waves of climate warming and cooling, resulting in wet and dry periods that have allowed the Sahara to green several times. This has been accompanied by migrations in all directions. So you can imagine that, compared to the spread of Homo sapiens across Eurasia over tens of thousands of years, in Africa we are dealing with a whole other level of complexity. Yes, Africa is truly a « melting pot  » — or even a cocktail « shaker  ».