Africa has the longest human history and is home to a deep and rich heritage. A land of history, culture and art, Africa, through its untapped and preserved resources, holds the future of humanity to which it gave birth. It is now accepted by all that Africa is the cradle of humanity. Hominid fossils and archaeological evidence abound throughout the continent, thus contributing to the development of knowledge about our origins(Journey?). But to arrive at this evidence, it took decades of effort by scientists from Africa and elsewhere to exhume the fossilized remains of our distant ancestors from the lunar landscape of the Rift Valley and the depths of the Chadian desert. Toumaï and Dinknesh (Lucy), who are today recognized as the precursors of the human race, are witnesses to the inexorable march of the human race towards more humanity, more technical know-how and above all more ambition. This exceptional odyssey is a series of ever greater challenges, but always met. Summarizing this incredible tenacity, President Senghor said in his opening speech at the 6th Pan-African Congress of Prehistory, held in December 1967, « Homo sapiens surpasses, with all his freedom, the determinations of his environment. » What is not often said, however, is that the horizon of this African was never solely Africa, but the entire planet. He was an adventurous conqueror and it is from Africa that all the branches of population that colonized the earth left, following complex routes. In this sense, our factual differences are, compared to this extraordinary peregrination of the human race, only epiphenomena. The history lesson that should be taught in all schools is that, from a strictly scientific point of view, we are all of African origin on this planet where Africans should feel at home everywhere.

A long evolution spanning several million years

AFRICA, CRADLE OF HUMANITY

WE ARE ALL AFRICAN BY OUR ORIGIN

– It is on the land of Africa that humanity first stepped.
– The first tool was made in Africa.
– The first and last human groups to settle the world came from Africa.
EXITS FROM AFRICA AND POPULATING OF THE WORLD