South Africa's new human ancestor, Homo neledi, sparks racism row

[GennGreymane]

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news...ectid=11515206

Some prominent South Africans have dismissed the discovery of a new human ancestor as a racist theory designed to cast Africans as "subhuman", an opinion that resonates in a country deeply bruised by apartheid.

"No one will dig old monkey bones to back up a theory that I was once a baboon. Sorry," said Zwelinzima Vavi, former general secretary of the powerful trade union group Cosatu, a faithful ally of the ruling African National Congress (ANC).

"I am no grandchild of any ape, monkey or baboon -- finish en klaar (Afrikaans for "that's it")," he said on his Twitter account, which is followed by more than 300,000 people.

His comments were backed by the South African Council of Churches (SACC), which was historically involved in the fight against apartheid.

Apartheid ended in 1994 after Nelson Mandela was elected as the country's first black president in a democratic South Africa.

Vavi's comments came after last week's discovery of Homo naledi, described by scientists as a new distant ancestor of humans.

'Africans not respected'
The discovery of the new ancestor supports the West's "story that we are subhumans," said ANC member of parliament and former chief whip Mathole Motshekga.

"That is why today no African is respected anywhere in the world because of this type of theory," he said in an interview with television network ENCA.

The finding "seems to be calculated to affirm what apartheid and colonialists did to say that we are subhumans who develop from the animal kingdom and therefore gave us the status of subhuman beings to justify slavery, colonialism, oppression and exploitation."

The South African Council of Churches (SACC), added fuel to the controversy.

"To my brother Vavi, I would say that he is spot on," SACC president Bishop Ziphozihle Siwa said in response to the former Cosatu leader's comments.

"It's an insult to say that we come from baboons. We must continue to engage," he said.

Scientists should continue to provide evidence but also "listen to what God is saying to us and not make a jump to quick, foolish conclusions."

The official government reaction to the Homo naledi find was, however, positive, with Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa saying "our common umbilical cord is buried" in Africa.

Homo naledi underlines that "we are bound by a common ancestor," he declared.
The discovery of the ancient relative generated a huge amount of international interest.

But the South African backlash has perplexed people around the world at a time when Darwin's theory of evolution is widely accepted as fact.

It "breathes new life into paranoia," said prominent British biologist Richard Dawkins on his Twitter account this week. "Whole point is we're all African apes."

Lee Berger, an American working at Johannesburg's University of the Witwatersrand and overseeing the Homo naledi dig, tried to keep his distance from the charged debate, though he did specifically clarify that man doesn't descend from baboons.

"For our scientists the search for human origins is one that celebrates all of humankind's common origins on the continent of Africa," he told AFP.

"The science is not asking questions of religion nor challenging anyone's belief systems, it is simply exploring the fossil evidence for the origins of our species."

The body of Homo naledi resembles that of a modern man, but researchers say its orange-sized brain places it closer to Australopithecus, a group of extinct hominids that walked on two legs and lived around 2 million years ago.

Some 1,550 fossils were unearthed in the "Rising Star", a cave located in the "Cradle of Humankind", a site 50 kilometres northwest of Johannesburg that has proven over the years to be a rich source for palaeontologists.

The bones haven't been dated, but researchers claim they will reveal more about the transition between the primitive Australopithecus and the Homo genus, the family tree of our direct ancestor.

[Deleted]

Can't even do genuine scientific research or speak scientific facts aloud these days because of the "anti-racists" and PC retards who intentionally misunderstand everything in order to get to do the only thing they are good at -- complaining about racism everywhere. Way to go. And the religious stupidity aspect doesn't help to make things better.

[Endus]

Urgh.

The discovery doesn't suggest Africans are "less advanced" than anyone else. The current theory is that humanity more or less developed into our current species in Africa. Various Homo Sapiens groups then left the region, expanding into the rest of the world, where each group continued to change. If anything, the current theory suggests that we may have interbred with other hominid species in those other regions, such as European groups interbreeding with Neanderthal, which would suggest that ethnic Africans might be the "purest" Homo Sapiens, if anything.

It's all basically nonsense, and any consequences from such interbreeding were minimal, anyway. And would have well antedated these new hominids, which are (if they're in our direct line, rather than an offshoot) ancestors to all of us, not just ethnic Africans. They're presuming that the bones are likely 1-3 million years old, based on their morphology (dating has not yet been done, to my knowledge), which would put them well back beyond the 100,000 years ago that Homo Sapiens started migrating out of the African continent.

The whole complaint strikes me more as creationist anti-evolutionism, trying to hide behind the call of racism.

[Hammerfest]

In a few months or years, they'll confirm that it's a monkey or a goat or something. Of course, that story won't get headline treatment.

[Hooked]

Hmmm, more testing needs to be done on this.

[Dasani]

lol

Trying to find common ancestor for all humans...

Africans say it's being racist and calling africans monkeys...

Ignorance at it's finest.

[Orbitus]

In a few months or years, they'll confirm that it's a monkey or a goat or something. Of course, that story won't get headline treatment.

No they won't. We all know how religious you are and this is why you are hoping that the creationist claim is true. It isn't.

- - - Updated - - -

Hmmm, more testing needs to be done on this.

Not really.

- - - Updated - - -

Hmmm, more testing needs to be done on this.

Not really. I watched the NOVA production of the find last night and it was amazing what they found. It pretty much concludes the links between Humans and their primate ancestors. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/evolution/dawn-of-humanity.html You can watch the entire thing right here. It really is amazing how people can deny this when the evidence is clearly there.

[Kaleredar]

Am I misunderstanding something?

They found a fossil of a pre-homo sapien hominid in Africa. Isn't this to be expected, seeing as that's where humans evolved?


What exactly, is the controversy? Beyond people complaining about evolution, but that certainly isn't "new."



But I see we've come across an interesting crux in forum dynamics. You have the "anti-PC internet warriors," and the "anti-PC gnashing conservatives." They are joined in their passive-aggressive admonishments about "political correctness," but simultaneously driven apart by their differing stances on religion.

Oh, what strange comedy this world weaves.

[buck008]

How do we still live in a world where people deny evolution?

[Orbitus]

Am I misunderstanding something?

They found a fossil of a pre-homo sapien hominid in Africa. Isn't this to be expected, seeing as that's where humans evolved?


What exactly, is the controversy? Beyond people complaining about evolution, but that certainly isn't "new."

This Church organization, people who believe in the creationist claim, is claiming that humans aren't evolved but created. This find at the Rising Star cave in Africa destroys that argument.

[Fawkess]

How do we still live in a world where people deny evolution?

Personal beliefs, people just cant fathom that their religion is wrong about this if its true

[Cthulhu 2020]

"No one will dig old monkey bones to back up a theory that I was once a baboon. Sorry," said Zwelinzima Vavi, former general secretary of the powerful trade union group Cosatu, a faithful ally of the ruling African National Congress (ANC).

I just... what?

No one was suggesting "he" was once a monkey.

[wowaccounttom]

if they are scientists, then at some point or another they adopted the theory of evolution and understood that they, like everyone else, comes from monkeys...

that those monkeys were the bottom of the food chain is another thing.... monkeys nonetheless...

not sure what the big deal is... whites "were/are" monkeys as well.

[haxartus]

If Darwin's discoveries were happening right now, they wouldn't be allowed to continue due to the PC crowd.
Think about this.

[Herecius]

Fuckin' joking me? Ridiculous.

[Kaleredar]

If Darwin's discoveries were happening right now, they wouldn't be allowed to continue due to the PC crowd.
Think about this.

I'm not sure the words in this sentence actually meant anything.

[wowaccounttom]

This Church organization, people who believe in the creationist claim, is claiming that humans aren't evolved but created. This find at the Rising Star cave in Africa destroys that argument.

that story, tbh, is no better...

so... instead of monkeys, the blacks were created from darker mud than the whites?

mud, monkeys... whatever the case, we all are pretty much in the same position... not sure what is racist about that.

[Hooked]

Is this the missing link?. The real question is were more modern species interbreeding with these archaic hominids and for how long?. Can you imagine being chased down by one of these things?. Did the threat of archaic hominids cause the more modern species to flee for their lives to the north?.

[Deleted]

How do we still live in a world where people deny evolution?

Just a couple of days ago one of our politicians decided to bring forth her wisdom and ranted about "if evolution is true, why are there no half-apes?" and "why don't frogs evolve into humans?"

Sigh...

Following the news makes me think there actually are half-apes around -- people who look like humans but have monkey brains...

[haxartus]

I'm not sure the words in this sentence actually meant anything.

I guess it is too difficult to comprehend.
If Darwin's discoveries were happening in a politically correct environment, he wouldn't be able to claim that people evolved from primates because some minority would get offended, he would be associated with racism and fired.