When We Were All Black !

People who gloat because they have white skin will be alarmed to learn that their distant forbears were as black as the Earl of Hell's waistcoat.   Science tells us that the tribe that has just a two percent genetic difference to the great Apes and went on to become Homo sapiens, originated  in the Rift Valley of Africa, close to the equator.

Mother Nature equipped them accordingly. They had black skin because the tropical sun has damaging ultra-violet rays that encourage skin cancer and that dark skin provides protection to people who would have little use for clothes or body covering.We also need the sun to provide vitamin E which delivers Melanin to aid bone growth - and which is responsible for the colour of hair, skin and eyes.  Too much Melanin is harmful and again that black skin provided a filter to ensure that the supply was regulated.

That worked well while Homo sapiens were few in numbers and remained in the tropics, but as their numbers grew the need for food and curiosity made them wander north and south of the equator to see what was over the next hill, and they found something that they called " Winter "  !

That caused them to use the skins of animals they killed for food to cover their bodies and keep them warm and so the rays of the sun now shone on just heads, hands and feet.  This black skin which used to regulate Melanin was not letting enough through and evolution kicked in.  Over many successive generations the skin colour lightened as the distance Homo sapiens travelled lengthened away from the equator increased.   In todays world, where do you find people with the whitest skin ?   In the far Nordic countries - close to the Arctic circle we encounter those with fair hair, blue eyes and the whitest skin on Mother Earth.

Of course, evolution is a slow process.  We Homo sapiens have been around for more than 70,000 years and we tend to record our recent history from about the days of the Roman Empire - and that was just two thousand years ago.  Two thousand years is a mere hic-cup in the way evolution works. The people who remained along the earth's equator retained their black skin and those that travelled far away grew progressively lighter and those living in cold Europe had the good fortune to make discoveries that allowed them to travel and create empires.

In the last two centuries this world has changed more than in those seventy thousand years.  The steam engine produced both the train and the passenger ship and then the aeroplane and the automobile further eroded the shackles of distance.  The tribes of the Earth are now homogeneous.

That does bring an interesting thought.  The Homo sapiens are moving about the Earth with a rapidity never before seen, and evolution is still a work in progress.    Light skinned people who now make their home in the tropics may find that their following generations have gradually darkening skin as evolution replaces the sun protection inherent in the human gene.

When it comes to skin colour, the permanency is transient.  Where we live will eventually be the deciding factor, but evolution is usually measured in hundreds - and sometimes thousands - of years !