Human origins

Johannesburg, South Africa

Much of the Life on Earth expedition is about biodiversity and the wildlife of Mozambique.   Another major theme is human populations and their interaction with the environment.  Prior to visiting Johannesburg we had learned of the Origins Centre, a museum of the San people and human evolution.  I mentioned the place and its theme to Ed who said “I just wrote a book on it.” It just so happens that Ed’s latest book (to be published Spring 2012) is an integrated approach to understanding the origins of humanity and hominids' interactions with the environment. 

It was decided the Origins Centre fit well with our mission and we headed of to its home at the University of Witswatersrand (Vits-vahters-rand) in downton Johannesburg. When we arrived at the Origins Centre we were offered an audio self guided tour.  Ed turned to us and said “If you don’t mind, I’ll take over.”  The only thing better would have been the appearance of a member of Homo erectus, versed in the English language, to lead us through the galleries.

One of the more impressive displays in this museum was the collection of lithics shown from the Oldowan Industry (2.6 million years ago) to the Middle Stone Age-2 (60, 000 years ago).   Somewhere in between I recognized stone cores that were found sitting below kopjes in the Serengeti during my first trip to East Africa.  Would we find some of the same artifacts in the southernmost reaches of the Rift Valley in Gorongosa?  The display made us think of the archaeologists working in Gorongosa National Park from the University of Calgary who we would soon be visiting.  The group is excavating a cave site and conducting an inventory of stone tools surrounding Mt. Gorongosa.

Much of this engaging, well-designed, and beautiful museum was filled with stories and artifacts of the San people of Southern Africa.  One of the more powerful tales was of a Jul’hoan San healer named Kxao-Oah of Botswana. He was blind and was known as one of the most powerful healers of the region.   He described some of his abilities by saying “God keeps my eyeballs in a little cloth bag. When he first collected them, he got a little cloth bag and plucked my eyeballs out and put them into the bag, and then he tied the eyeballs to his belt and went up to heaven. And now when I dance, on the nights when I dance and the singing rises up, god comes down from the heaven swinging the bag with the eyeballs above my head,  and he lowers the eyeballs to eye level, and as the singing gets strong, he puts the eyeballs into my sockets and they stay there and I heal…I see everybody… I see everything.”  The vision behind this museum pleased us and also reaffirmed our ideas of human origins.

The rock paintings of the San are legendary.  They made us think of the origins of art and the convergence of art involving humans depicting their environment.  We commented on the universality of the style and comparisons to the cave art of Northern Spain (Altamira) and Southern France (Lascaux).

It took some adjusting as we left the museum and reentered the concrete jungle of Johannesburg.  Cars raced by and the brown haze once again filled the sky.  We longed for the rich smell of the forest, the crunch of dirt and leaves under our boots, and the bird songs of Gorongosa.

Time zones and crime zones

Johannesburg, South Africa

The brave and adventurous Portuguese who first explored this coast over 500 years ago, and claimed Mozambique for their own faced constant danger of hostile tribes, starvation, sickness, unchartered waters, rough seas, and the challenge of the unknown.  However, they had one thing in their favor as travelers.  They didn’t rapidly cross longitudes.  Thus, they didn’t fool their biological clocks by placing their pineal glands in a state of shock, regarding what should be day and what should be night.  The modern travelers of the Life on Earth team were feeling these effects today, and decided to keep activities to a minimum and sleep to a maximum.   There was time to explorer a local craft market and marvel at the diversity of tribal goods being sold.  Beaded goods, ceremonial masks, and carvings spanned from Ghana to Kenya to South Africa.  

A short afternoon walk in the vicinity of the hotel led to an encounter of Grey Heron, Little Egret and Emerald Spotted Wood Dove, which were all pleasant surprises in this concrete jungle.  This is just the smallest of glimpses of the diverse wildlife ahead in Gorongosa.

During the stroll from the hotel it was apparent this was not the slums of Soweto but the surrounding neighborhood was populated with affluent homes and an immaculate school, with tennis court and swimming pool.  All of which were surrounded by walls topped with 4 to 5 strands of electric fence combined with barbed wire. 

In the US the transformation of the schoolyard to a fenced-in compound has been a sad transformation from the open campus of the past.  As educators it was hard to imagine a school lined with electricity and barbed wire.  The front page of the local newspaper also told us of the crime that runs through this city.  Apartheid has fallen, but economic prosperity clearly remains with a few.  

We have arrived in Africa - Happy Birthday Mr. Mandela!

July 19-20

Johannesburg, South Africa

It was Nelson Mandela’s birthday and we were headed to Johannesburg. Thoughts of the South African winter were melting away while sitting on the sweltering tarmac of Dulles International Airport.  Local weather was calling for near-100 degree  temps with humidity rising.  EO Wilson of Harvard and Elizabeth Prend of Tufts had just flown down from Boston meeting Jay Vavra of High Tech High, San Diego. 

The first leg across the Atlantic Ocean landed in Dakar, Senegal.  Arriving in Dakar at dawn we could only make out some local ravens representing the first animals to be seen on the continent soaring and scavenging above the downtrodden block housing adjacent to the small airport.  We decided this would be no place to stay too long. To the east of the airport we could see the hulking sculpture of the "African Resistance."  The scale of it is enormous. The statue of a Senegal family had been built by a North Korean group for nearly 50 million USD.   Besides the other South African Air jets and Mali Air the airport was populated with hulking US Airforce transport planes (Hercules?).   Why were they here?  Preventing more North Korean sculptures?

After enough time for Dakar passengers to disembark and a few new travelers to board South African Airlines we took to the air once again.  Numerous fishing boats could be seen being launched from the beach as we circled away from the airport.  They were of a longboat style and propeled by long oars by fishermen heading out into the Atlantic.    They appeared to be the same boats seen in the old surf classic “Endless Summer” when those wandering surfers explored this coast over 50 years ago.  This wide open coast is the birthplace of the hurricanes that march across  to the Carribean and these fishermen must get their share of conditions to battle.

From Senegal the flight passed over Guinea, back over the South Atlantic Ocean, Angola, Namibia, Botswana, and then South Africa 8-hours later.   As we touched down an African Spoonbill flew alongside, some Helmeted Guinea Fowl foraged in the tall grass, and a Blacksmith Lapwing stood motionless looking for prey.  Africa… at last! 

All bags made it through this notorious airport of lost luggage.  On the way to the hotel smoke from the brush fires we saw on the approach could be smelled along the drive.  The brown filter of smoke could be seen hanging over the entire city in the fading light.   We talked of the cycle of burning and the returning of nutrients into the ground for the next season’s grass for the grazing animals.  Ed commented “In the savannah fire means life.”

Time to sleep off the jetlag after the 18-hour journey here.  Tomorrow may hold a trip out to some forested areas to explore for local insects.  We figure this will be a prelude to what will be found in Gorongosa.   

We also discussed  a visit to the Origins Centre, a museum of human evolution.  Ed recounted an experience from when he first began teaching as a graduate student in 1951, at the age of 21, at the University of Tennessee.   A true “missing link” had recently been discovered in South Africa, Australopitethecus africanus and Ed wanted to add this discovery to his lesson for the introductory biology class he was teaching.  Yet, there was some concern as the Scopes Law banning the teaching of human evolution in Tennessee schools was still in effect.  After getting  approval from a department chair Ed decided to give the lesson.  At the end of class everyone of the 60 or so students filed out  of the classroom except one.  Expecting a contentious undergrad the student approached and asked the age-old question “Is this material going to be on the test?” 

Mozambican blessings from afar and African heads over the bar

Washington, DC

The Embassy of the Republic of Mozambique is only two blocks from the DC hotel, but this place could not be further from Mozambique.  The pale sweating tourists are staggering from their trip down the National Mall, their sunburned skin glistening in the late-afternoon summer sun.   We yearn to cross the equator and transition to a welcoming African winter.

Surprisingly there are aspects of East Africa that dot the city besides the embassy buildings.  Stopping by the Old Ebbits Grill adjacent to the White House are the longstanding trophies of a former United States president.  There they are over the bar in the oldest saloon in town. 

The heads are from Teddy Roosevelt -- hunter, naturalist, and 26^th President of the United States. The trophies symbolize conquest and man’s ability to dominate nature.  Roosevelt’s legacy is great.  He was hunter indeed,  but also a naturalist and champion of preserving wild places. He was a tireless advocate of National Parks of the US and the wildlife and spaces they protect :

“There can be nothing in the world more beautiful than the Yosemite, the groves of the giant sequoias and redwoods , the Canyon of the Colorado, the Canyon of the Yellowstone, the Three Tetons; and our people should see to it that they are preserved for their children and their children’s children forever, with their majestic beauty unmarred.” T. Roosevelt, Outdoor Pastimes of an American Hunter,  1905.





Teddy Roosevelt, Mt. Meru, Tanzania  (photographed Edward Van Altena).

 

During our journey to Mozambique the Life on Earth team will also attempt to shoot big game, and the smallest of game with cameras and telescoping lens.  The animals won’t be mounted over a bar, but proudly displayed within the textbook “Life on Earth” and within the digital field guide “The Encyclopedia of Life.”  The creatures we shoot will not represent “conquest”,  but they will represent biodiversity and what is worth saving.

On the visit to the Embassy of the Republic of Mozambique today, Antonio Tauzene, Second Secretary, was briefed on the Life on Earth Project in Gorongosa.  He praised the successes of the Carr Foundation and the Gorongosa National Park.  With a slight grin on his face he asked if he could join our expedition and then  gave his blessing on our project.  Senhor Tauzen  said it is challenging when others hear a Mozambican claim the wonders of Mozambique.  He expressed “why wouldn’t one praise their own country? When others experience the country and show the glory of the land it holds different meaning. “  Soon we will have a chance to do just that.

Impact of human conflict on biodiversity

The effects of human conflict such as 12 years of civil war, on wildlife populations are clearly shown in Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique.  The decimation of large mammals on this scale is unprecedented.

Animal	1968	1994
Elephant	2200	108
Buffalo	14000	0
Hippo	3000	0
Wildebeest	5500	0
Waterbuck	3500	129
Zebra	3000	65
Eland	500	0

From Cumming et al, 1994