Africa, the cradle of mankind

Today few people doubt that mankind, as a biological species, was formed in Africa, and from there spread around the whole planet. The earliest remains of man, which are over 3 million years old, were found near the border between Kenya and Ethiopia. The fact that Africa is the only continent where representatives of all the main races are found, as well the chimpanzees (apes that are, in biological aspect, the closest to man and are separated from man by 7-9 million years) also speaks in favor of this hypothesis.

Modern-type man appeared in Africa not later than 35 thousand years ago, also in Kenya and Ethiopia. Little by little, he ousted his closest relatives, the Neanderthal and the Rhodesian man.

The transition to cattle-breeding, then to agriculture, took place on the territory of modern Sahara approximately at the same time as in the Near East: the agricultural settlement of Amekni is dated to 6700 BC. But for a long time cattle-breeding prevailed here (this can be proved by numerous rock paintings found in mountainous regions of Sahara); this could have been one of the reasons why the territory of Sahara turned into a desert. Migrating from the drying Sahara, large masses of people accumulated in the fertile valley of the River Nile, which created the environment for the appearance of the Ancient Egypt civilization.

Africa looks at Europe from the height of its age. Cote d'Ivoire. L. Tucker. 2002