Philip Copeman

Author and Activist

Was Mossel Bay the birthplace of the human race? Author and Pinnacle Point resident Philip Copeman explores the theory – increasingly supported by science – in this extract from his book, God’s First Fishermen.



3rd February 1488. Bartholomew Diaz, the famous Portuguese mariner and explorer, jumps out of his small landing boat into the surf of Mossel Bay, South Africa. The first European to round Africa’s southern tip wades onto the stretch of white sand which we know today as Diaz Beach. The smell of shellfish, mussels and oysters, which are abundant on this coastline, fills the air. Through the shimmering heat of the distant sand dunes, a group of local Beachwalkers shuffles towards the Portuguese landing party with an energy-saving, half-run, half-walk peculiar to this ‘newly discovered’ race. They are curious to meet the new people the sea has spewed up onto the beach.

Diaz, as the first person to round the Cape of Good Hope, the sea route to India, is fully aware of the history of the moment. He is filled with the majesty of his achievement and looks down on these beach people with the arrogance reserved only for the colonial aspirant. Looking at these small brown people, their bodies covered in animal fat, entrails and ochre, like most Europeans of his time, he feels a sense of revulsion. If Diaz had known better, perhaps he’d have got down on his knees to worship his ancestors, the mothers of all modern humans.

Approximately 164 000 years ago a tribe of early humans lives in the caves around Pinnacle Point. They hunt for shellfish and whale meat in the large plain in front of them – the sea at that time has receded five to 10 kilometres back from its present level – and forage for fynbos bulbs in the hillside that is now the Pinnacle Point Golf Course. Caught in MIS6, the deepest Ice Age in recent history, they are isolated from the rest of the world on the plain between the sea and the Cape Fold Mountains in the distance. Here they learn to eat a new marine diet that enlarges their brains and allows them to organise themselves into tribal groups – Homo sapiens evolves. As the world warms up, they spread across Africa and the world, killing all before them. Their descendants make up the entire human population of the world today. Their story is our story – all of us.
Is this an exaggeration? Perhaps. Very few academic scientists would put it as bluntly as this. Scientists tend to keep well within all facts presented and argue, in dour and strictly academic terms, every inch of the debate. But we are not scientists; we are residents and visitors to a very special place on earth, Pinnacle Point. We can allow our imaginations to run and take in the spirituality that abounds in this part of the world. Every time I come here I feel this connection.

However, scientific facts are unfolding that make this story more and more likely. In particular are the findings of early human behaviour in the cliff-side caves of Pinnacle Point, but just as important is the analysis coming out of hundreds of DNA laboratories around the world. As the human genome is analysed, the findings show that all humans are very, very similar, and that we all have a recent African origin. Current papers show that we all trace our ancestors back to a single, small pool of no more than 600 people around 150 000 years ago. As the Southern Cape and Pinnacle Point in particular are the only places where evidence of modern behaviour is found, preceding Europe by 100 000 years, it’s increasingly likely that Mossel Bay could be the original source of all humans.

All of this is on a collision path with the ethnocentric thinking that pervades most of the western world, including in South Africa. It is ironic that even here, where this heritage began, many still believe that the Garden of Eden is in some Middle Eastern destination. The genetic reality is that we are all closely related descendants of a single Khoisan heritage, one of the earliest branches of African people. Our earliest beginnings are not in a far off land, but right beneath our own feet. Perhaps Cane and Able settled their argument on the seventh green.

There has been much ado about the caves this year, but it is easy to forget that these early people did not live their daily lives only in a cave; they played and worked in the hills all around us. As your eye becomes accustomed to seeing the signs, it is clear that there is evidence of these people all over the estate and surrounding areas. The paradox of this discovery and encroachments of modern life is enough to keep me awake at night talking to the spirits around us. As we develop and use the estate we will have to make compromises and sacrifices. We who live and visit here know it is a privilege and an obligation that we are the unwitting custodians of this heritage, the precious family silverware of the human race.



Philip Copeman is a resident at Pinnacle Point Beach and Golf Resort and the author of God’s First Fishermen, which advocates the Out of Africa Carpensis hypothesis for human origins. www.philipcopeman.com

Readers can download the full PDF version below. Please puchase a licence if you do print or read this ebook.

Views: 17

Attachments:

Reply to This

© 2024   Created by Philip Copeman.   Powered by

Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service