In his seminal work, ‘On the Origin of Species’, published in 1859, Charles Darwin expressed his belief that man and the higher apes were in some way related and possibly had a common ancestor.
Unfortunately, Darwin was unable to prove this theory during his lifetime. Nevertheless, the general thrust of his research was in this direction and, after his death, others tried to prove his theory.
In the 150 or so years since Darwin published his findings, it is the discoveries and research in Kenya’s Rift Valley that have finally allowed his theory to be proved beyond reasonable doubt.
For this reason, Kenya can rightly claim to be the ‘Cradle of Mankind’. Of course, discoveries of early man’s presence are not confined to Kenya. Examples of archaeological finds have also been located elsewhere in East Africa. These finds are in some way related.
But it is through the painstaking research work undertaken around Lake Turkana, in the far north of Kenya, that some of the best examples of mankind’s early existence – some dating back 2.5 million years – have been found and examined. But early man’s links with Kenya go further back into ancient history.
Recent finds around Lake Turkana indicate that hominids such as Australopithecus Anamensis lived in the area as early as 4.1 million years ago. More recent discoveries in the Tugen Hills indicate evidence of hominids dating back 6 million years.
Research suggests that, while mankind has only one ancestor, there may have been as many as three species of hominid living in Kenya. But just one of the three actually evolved into Homo Sapiens, in the Rift Valley, and it was here that man first walked on two legs.
At the centre of these discoveries were the British and Kenyan husband-and-wife team Mary and Louis Leakey, who began their meticulous work in the Rift Valley in the 1930s. Mary and Louis, their son Richard and, in turn, his daughter Louise have spent three generations studying man’s earliest existence.
Their first major find was the jaw of a pre-human creature called Proconsul. It was not until the 1950s that their work really started to make headway when they discovered the fossils of the early primates Australopithecus Boisei. Carbon dating has since shown that this particular humanoid was 1.75 million years old.
From 1961-64 the Leakeys and their son Jonathan unearthed fossils of Homo Habilis, ‘handy man’, the oldest known primate with human characteristics. And in 1967 they discovered Kenyapithecus Africanus. The Leakeys claimed that Homo Habilis had walked upright.
In 1969 son Richard, director of the National Museum of Kenya, reported the discovery of a 1.8 million-year-old modern human skull from Koobi Fora. Three years later he discovered the skull of 1.6 million-year-old Homo Erectus and in 1984 he and others discovered an almost complete Homo Erectus skeleton.
While much remains undiscovered, it is the pioneering work of the Leakeys that has established the link between early and contemporary man.
Evidence suggests that Homo Sapiens finally mastered stone-making techniques and the use of fire around 10,000 BC. Early humans developed a basic language and began to organise communities around hunting and gathering. These hunter-gatherers dug for roots and ate berries, harvested nuts, shoots, eggs, insects and fruits and hunted live animals.
As civilisation evolved, Kenya became a prime migratory route for groups in search of fertile land for food production and grazing. As far back as 2000 BC, evidence indicates that early tribal groups began experimenting with agriculture and rearing cattle. Kenya’s highlands and Rift Valley regions are especially rich in this early history of human evolution.
The first migrants to arrive were pastoral nomads from Ethiopia who moved south to Kenya in search of fertile land to graze their flocks. In fact, by 100 AD there may have been 1,400 pastoral communities living in Kenya’s Rift Valley. As people migrated throughout the valley during this period, they exchanged and developed cultures that can still be identified in Kenya’s tribes today.
