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The following article is an excerpt from the e-book
They Came Before Marco Polo,
by Khalifa A.Khaliq
China's African Ancestry
In 1923 Dr. Joseph Rock, a representative from the
United States Department of Agriculture, discovered a
colony of black people living in the southern part of
China. The term used for this community is Nakhi (Na-
black, Khi-man). Although the Nakhi have been living
in China for centuries, the media has ignored their
existence.
Most of the Nakhi live in the town of Lijiang in the
Yunnan province. This province is located in the
southwestern part of China. The Chinese government has
officially designated the Nakhi territory as the Lijiang
Nakhi Autonomous Hsien. Their population size has reached
nearly 295,OOO people. Their religion has traditionally been
shamanism although evidence of Taoist and Buddhist influences
can be seen amongst them.
Dr. Rock, an Austro-American, initially came to Lijiang
to study the flora of the region. He became so interested in
the Nakhi that he devoted several years of his life to the
study of their culture. The result of his labor was a two
volume work entitled The Ancient Nakhi Kingdom of Southwest
China. Reportedly, the government discriminated against the
Nakhi during the Cultural Revolution.
When told about the Nakhi many people often ask
"How did these black people get to China?" To answer this
question we must examine the period when human beings
initially occupied this planet. Research shows the first
humans to occupy this planet were black Africans.
Although this may take some readers by surprise, nevertheless
this is the conclusion arrived at by several studies in this
field.
For example, a French geneticist named Gerald Lucotte
carried out an interesting investigation in l985. Lucotte
conducted a series of experiments on the male Y-chromosome.
Lucotte's team was able to determine a master type of Y-
chromosome from which all the other types could have derived.
They labeled this master type "Haplotype l3". After testing
various populations around the globe they discovered this
master type was must common in the Pygmies of the central
African Republic. Gerard Lucotte publicly stated "Adam was an
African Pygmy. Not maybe a Pygmy. Not probably a Pygmy.
He was definitely a Pygmy."
Today Many scientists believe modern humans originated in
Africa and later migrated to the different parts of the world.
This belief is called the Out-of-Africa Theory. The belief
which is competing with this view is the Multiregional Theory.
The Multiregional theory says today's modern humans did not
originate in Africa but rather in various locations around the
globe. Of the two views the Out-of-Africa theory is the most
widely accepted. Largely because the theory yields the most
supportive evidence. For example, on June 23, 2003 Mary
Carmichael Newsweek article stated:
- In 1987 geneticist concluded that an "African Eve"
of sorts, who lived 160,000 years ago, was the last
common ancestor of all humans. But the sands had yielded
nothing from that period. "Without data from the fossil
record", says Berkeley paleontologist Tim White,
"no one knew what she looked like." Now we do.
Last week White's team announced that three human skulls
had been dated to precisely the same era as African Eve's,
give or take a few millennia. They are by far the oldest known
Homo sapiens fossils. The skulls at first glance indistinguishable
from those on our own necks. Their brains are large, in one case bigger than
any of ours. By virtue of their age, they effectively demolish "multiregionalism",
a theory by which humans evolved in relatively isolated patches around the globe.
Instead, the finding confirms that humanity arose in Africa only.
There have been other studies. For example, the in-depth studies conducted
on nuclear DNA polymorphism. These studies were conducted at Oxford University
and were reported in the February 1986 issue of the magazine Nature.
After completing much testing and research in this field, the Oxford scientists
publicly proclaimed:
- Hence, it has been argued that the evolution of
modern man took place in Africa. Our data is consistent with such a scheme,
in which a founder population migrated from Africa and subsequently gave
rise to all non-African populations.
These early Blacks to appear in the world were also the first occupants of China.
At archaeological sites in the south China provinces of Szechwan and Kiangsi fossil remains
of Black inhabitants have been found. These remains dated
back to the Upper Pleistocene Era. In the Northern China site
of Choukoutien, remains dated to the Upper Paleolithic and
Mesolithic Era have been discovered.
Studies have also shown it was from these early black
migrants that we get the modern Chinese who occupy China
today. The September 29, 1998 issue of the Los Angeles Times
featured Robert Lee Holts' article entitled Chinese Roots Lie
In Africa:
- Most of the population of modern China--one fifth
of all people living today--owes its genetic origins to Africa, an international
scientific team said today in research that undercuts any theory that modern humans
may have originated independently in China.
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