150 years after the publication of Darwin's book ’On the Origin of Species’ the Clipper Stad Amsterdam, by request of the Dutch Broadcaster VPRO, sailed around the world following the route of the Beagle. Stad Amsterdam will be visiting South Africa for VPRO’s Beagle re-enactment voyage, Cape Town is the last harbour of this adventure. A Dutch film crew, guests and scientists will be on board

On April 25th around 11:30 am, the Clipper will be welcomed into Hout Bay with a 6-gun salute from a VOC battery under Chapmans Peak, manned by volunteer gunners in VOC regalia. Upon leaving the bay there will be a second salute. The vessel will then sail to Cape Town where it will be welcomed by a number of vessels and a performance by the famous Cape Minstrels and is due to arrive at Waterfront Jetty 2 on Sunday, April 25th at 4 pm.

On April 26th, from 9am to 5pm, a round table: ‘Stimulating Skills & Excellence in the Educational System’ will take place on board. Guests of this round table are, amongst others, Helen Zille, Premier of the Western Cape, Naledi Pandor, South African Minister of Science and Technology, Arnold Van Zyl: Professor & Vice Rector Research, University of Stellenbosch, Mike Erskine: SEEDS Programme Manager – University of Stellenbosch and Prof Raj Ramesar, Head of Human Genetics at UCT (who will discussthe unique opportunities to use current technologies to mine the rich history and (genetic) diversity of Africa, and in so doing to excite children about linking the humanities and the sciences.) The event will be moderated by Dr Wilmot James, Member of Parliament, Shadow-Minister of Higher Education and former director of the Africa Genome Education Institute (AGEI).

The “Out-of-Africa” theory is based on the hypothesis that a small group of Homo sapiens left Africa some 100 000 to 80 000 years ago, the “second exit”, because there was a first exit of Homo erectus much earlier. Those who left Africa in the second exit became ancestors to all non-African populations on this planet.

Human language is specific to Homo sapiens, a relevant aspect to their evolutionary success. The major questions is: did human language emerge just once (the monogenesis theory of human language), or has it emerged independently several times (the polygenesis theory) to have given rise to the more than 6 000 languages that have been spoken on this planet? It could have emerged as many as 200 times, if we base the assumption on the confirmed language families, or much less, if we accept more recently proposed 34 (or just 7) language “super-phyla”, or language could have emerged only once.

The colour of a person’s skin is no more than a sign of the natural evolutionary response of his or her ancestors to the amount of sun they experienced thousands of years ago. Ascribing labels or “racial” characteristics to that skin pigmentation is folly. Rather we should use the knowledge about the evolution of skin colour, seen in the marvellous sepia range of human pigmentation, as a way to educate people about the diversity of humankind.

This is the call to arms of Professor Nina Jablonski, anthropologist and palaeontologist from Penn State University, speaking in Stellenbosch on Tuesday this week as part of the African Genome Education Institute’s (AGEI) 2010 lecture series celebrating the 200 years since the birth of Charles Darwin.