Believe in what Africa offers
MARKING the 70th anniversary of the United Nations, US President Barack Obama declared that history was littered with false prophets and failed empires that believed “might is right”.
Within that UN building sat the representatives of former colonisers and bygone empires such as Portugal, France, and the United Kingdom, nations all now shadows of their former selves.
In the not-so-distant past they had looked at Africa as “the dark continent” – backward, underdeveloped, unfathomable. They saw it suitable only for exploitation – of mineral resources, raw materials and unskilled, cheap labour – first in the form of slaves, then as an exploitable work force.
With Africa’s liberation came high expectations. But as aspirations of freedom were substituted – evidenced in coup d’états, rampant corruption and regress, these were soon dashed. Over time, as the African condition seemed to deteriorate despondency, doom and gloom set in. “Sophisticated” Western and European political commentators began to ask: What has Africa given to the world?
In a noteworthy, credible and well-reasoned response the eminent palaeoanthropologist Professor Phillip Valentine Tobias answered: “Africa has given to the world human kind, and that’s no small contribution.”
His confident answer reflected his famous anthropological find, Little Foot. Excavated from the Sterkfontein Caves outside Krugersdorp, it comprised four 4.17-million-year-old foot bones. Subsequently more bones were found, leading to a complete skeleton.
On close scrutiny, the scientific community realised Little Foot’s complete skeleton made her humanity’s oldest direct ancestor.
That disclosure positioned Africa as the birthplace of humankind. Henceforward, the area around the Sterkfontein Caves were known as the Cradle of Humankind.
At a personal level, Tobias played an enormous role in developing fossil hominid sites at Sterkfontein, Swartkrans and the surrounds.
His contributions changed humanity’s understanding of our most ancient ancestry and made the world realise that indeed “Africa has given to the world humankind”.
The latest finding of Homo naledi, the fossilised remains of what is postulated to be a new human-like species unearthed in a burial chamber 30m underground and 92m from the Rising Star caves at the Cradle of Humankind, makes it the biggest fossil find on the continent so far, and one of the largest the world over.
This development has sent a clear, unequivocal message: Africa still has a significant contribution to make to the human race.
By attracting global scholars to partner in the research, Homo naledi has brought expertise, skills and experience to our shores – which can only broaden our knowledge base.
Also, the University of the Witwatersrand (home of Professor Lee Berger and his research team, who championed naledi’s discovery) continues to attract top academic specialists whose accomplishments will help spearhead our academic progress.
And in focusing the international spotlight on our continent, the find will provoke a stream of tourists to the Cradle of Humankind.
To further highlight the implications and meaning of Homo naledi and Little Foot, the poetic eloquence of former president Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki at the adoption of our constitution, springs to mind:
“This thing we have done today, in this small corner of a great continent that has contributed so decisively to the evolution of humanity, says that Africa reaffirms that she is continuing her rise from the ashes. Whatever the setbacks of the moment, nothing can stop us now! Whatever the difficulties, Africa shall be at peace!
“However we may be, whatever our immediate interest, however much we carry baggage from our past, however much we have been caught by the fashion of cynicism and loss of faith in the capacity of the people, let us say today: Nothing can stop us now!”
As Mbeki seems to suggest, what is solely needed is for Africans to start believing in the great possibilities Africa has to offer. Perhaps then the developed countries will follow suit.