The genius of Charles Darwin shows us that we have so much more in common, as human beings, than we have things that separate us. Once you’ve peeled away the superficial markers of “identity” – like skin colour, shape of nose or mouth, weft of hair – you find we’re all built of the same stuff. Our bodies are the result of about seven million years of evolutionary process that took place right here in Africa.

The “deep roots” of our anatomy evolved in Africa, before colonisation of the rest of the world began. It is only in very recent times, possibly the past 50 000 years, that superficial differences like hair colour and eye shape began to creep in as groups of humans settled into different parts of the globe and began to develop common features in isolation from other groups of humans.

“Our shared species features originated here in Arica,” anthropologist Prof Chris Stringer from the London’s Natural History Museum said during the Nelson Mandela Science Lecture at the University of the Western Cape, on Wednesday. The lecture marked the 150th year since the publication of Darwin’s groundbreaking work, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.

The difference between Spanish and Dutch etiquette is the ‘former never
asking his guest a single question beyond the strictest rules of politeness,
whilst the honest Dutchman demands where he has been, where he is going,
what is his business, and even how many brothers, sisters, or children he
may happen to have.’

Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle

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The first human-like creature to pick up a pointed stick and use it as a tool to slay another creature changed everything.  Instead of waiting for the accumulation of random genetic variations to impart gradually improving biological tools our creature could create tools itself.

The advantage to humans of being able to organise, teach and use weapons to catch food may initially have been slight.  That marginal advantage has allowed a single species to migrate, settle and dominate their entire planet; something unprecedented in all of Earth history.