we are all migrants!

Anyone reading the current tirades about hordes of people on the move -- heading for a place near them -- might gain the impression that migration is something new, bad or 'foreign'. Far from it. We are all migrants!

Human beings, like all living creatures - animal or vegetable - are migratory. Either blown by the wind or migrating seasonally, like wildlife, there is an innate migratory feature in the human makeup, too.

And it should never be forgotten that we are animals. As David Suzuki reminds us, our taxonomic classification is: "Kingdom: Animalia; Phylum: Chordata; Class: Mammalia; Order: Primates; Family: Hominidae; Genus: Homo; Species: sapiens."

Recent DNA evidence supports the fossil and other evidence that modern humans - Homo sapiens - evolved from a common African ancestor who, because of the amazing fecundity of the Congo River system rainforest, was more likely to have originated in Equatorial Africa than in any other region.

Starting with the Family Hominidae, the first migrants were the descendants of the Pleistocene 'Adam and Eve' from whom we are all related. These were our Equatorial African ancestors who lived along the Congo River system between the Highlands of Cameroon and the East African mountain ranges in a land mass called Pangaea where all continents were joined - allowing easy migration to all corners of the present world.

Unlike the hairless, white-skinned, tall and perfectly formed Adam and Eve of Eden depicted in Judaic-Christian literature -- or the Enki and Ninhursag of Dimun depicted in the Sumeric literature
from which it derived -- our actual ancestors are likely to have been a lot hairier, blacker and less erect than the pygmies who still inhabit the Equatorial African region.

Our earliest ancestors, over millions of years, evolved into different species such as Homo habilis, Homo erectus, Homo neanderthalensis and, possibly, Homo floresiensis - all of which co-existed at some point in history - but only Homo sapiens succeeded in surviving the cataclysmic geological and climatic events that may or may not have wiped out the others.

It's possible, of course, that Homo sapiens simply committed genocide and wiped out the other species in the same way that we now commit 'ethnic cleansing' on people we call 'immigrants' -- no matter how many centuries they've lived with us, or we with them -- because their appearance, culture or religion is different to ours.

If we all accepted the evidence of history that every one of us came from somewhere else originally, we may be better disposed to treat immigrants as one of us rather than as aliens.

migration and civilizations

In that the remnants of our earliest ancestors - the Equatorial African tribes - remain living along the Congo River system between the Highlands of Cameroon and the East African mountain ranges and have not evolved very much over millions of years, physically or mentally, it is obvious that no sort of civilization could have evolved without migration.

But not just any migration to anywhere. No distinctly black African civilization evolved following the migration of our ancestors south, towards what is presently South Africa. Similarly, no distinctly black African civilization evolved following the migration of our ancestors northwest, towards what is presently Morocco (later Carthage being a Meditteranean rather than a black African nation city).

Although a civilization based in northeast Africa did evolve following the migration of our ancestors down the River Nile, towards what is presently Egypt, it did not emerge until 4000 BC by which time human beings were occupying every corner of the earth and it thus owed its existence more to its central location to all Mediterranean communities than to anything intrinsically African.

Migration, then, was a necessary precursor for the development of civilization in terms of providing a better gene pool for genius to shine, a better climate in which civilization could flourish and a never ending stream of workers. The most vibrant and lasting civilizations were all built and sustained by migrants.

early migration timeframe

The migration of our ancestors by various routes out of Equatorial Africa towards Europe and other parts of the world took millions of years to accomplish.

Unlike later migrants imbued with religious fears about falling off the earth or being ambushed by dragons or heathens, the first migrants had neither concept of geographic limits nor enemies other than animals who would eat them.

Like later migrants, though, some would have lacked the stamina or the physique necessary to travel too far. Children, pregnant women and the elderly hold up all traveling tribes, and it is likely that as soon as a migrant group had found a relatively hospitable land - be it only a few day's trek from their original homeland - they would have stayed in that land until population pressures forced another migration.

Although a monumental trek overall, it was by incremental migration and settlement that our early ancestors managed to spread throughout the river and coastal regions of Africa and beyond, and when an impenetrable barrier was met reverse migration took place, inevitably involving warfare.

To give a rough idea of the time frame, the earliest Hominoid (man-like) fossil was found in Namibia on the west coast of Africa, 20 degrees south of the Equator. Bearing in mind that our primate ancestors probably developed as long ago as 225,000,000 BC in the Jurassic period of the Mesozoic Era along with the other mammals, the dating of this earliest known fossil called Otavi Pithecus Namibiensis - 12,500,000 BC - tells us not only something about the passage of time needed for development but also something about the earliest route the migrants took - south rather than north.

Dated 3,000,000 BC, "Lucy" an early Hominid (more like a modern human being than a Hominoid) was found in Ethiopia, along with flint knapping tools and axes dated 2,500,000 BC indicating the earliest industry.

In Tanzania, also on the East African coast, fossils of Homo Habilis were found and dated 2,400,000 BC, along with the earliest single structural home, a windbreak, dated 1,750,000 BC, indicating the earliest habitation.

Homo Erectus (upright man) was discovered in Kenya, between Tanzania and Ethiopia, and dated 1,600,000 BC.

In the southern area of Africa, the earliest fossil remains of man are Australopithecus Africanus, and Transvaal Man - Pleisianthropus transvaalensis - both dated 1,000,000 BC.

In the northern area of Africa, the earliest fossil remains of man were found in Algeria. Dated 500,000 BC, the Ternifine-Tangier Man, Atlanthropus, indicated a 500,000 year difference in the fossil record between him and the Transvaal Man of the south dated 1,000,000 BC.

By 500,000 BC, then - if not thousands of years before - our ancestors had reached the western Mediterranean and were in reach of Spain.

why did our ancestors migrate?

Our earliest ancestors were nomadic hunter and gatherer types, always on the move, and not much different in appearance and habits from the apes. The reasons that finally forced so many of them to leave their equatorial homelands to find new places to inhabit are very similar to the reasons that modern migrants give. Either there is a cataclysmic event - such as a flood or earthquake - or a social event such as a population explosion.

When populations reach a certain size over and above that which can be called comfortable and manageable, tribes tend to develop and with this phenomenon comes tribal warfare over all manner of issues - particularly food, space, mating and leadership.

In the vast and dense rainforest region of Equatorial Africa, it took millions of years before our ancestors had developed sufficiently to reach a population size that could be called crowded, but when that point was reached migration became a matter of survival.

Bearing in mind that our early ancestors were competing for food and space not only with each other but also with all manner of predatory or dangerous animals, the rainforest may have been a fecund area but it was also an extremely dangerous place to live.

Faced with depleting opportunities to find food, a mate, a safe place to sleep or merely congenial neighbors, most of our ancestors were literally forced out of their equatorial homeland. Others, more likely to be the migrants who traveled furthest - and from whom we owe our more direct evolutionary ancestry - had an adventurous or entrepreneurial streak and probably left long before they were pushed.

As animal species also evolved in all parts of the world, the overcrowded conditions in the rainforest caused the animals to explore new pastures, too; and in this scenario it's possible that our ancestors followed them as a source of food. With the hunters in pursuit, the animals moved further and further away from the rainforest until there was no going back for either of them - even if seasonal migration was their pattern.