Book Review - Origin Africa: A Natural History - Princeton University Press

 

     I come away from reading this incredible book exhausted, overwhelmed, dismayed and exhilarated all at the same time. There is lot to absorb from one of Africa's foremost evolutionary biologists and a staunch defender of the Continent, and its role in the protection of biodiversity. It may seem hard to accept when dealing with a book of this nature, but I swear on a stack of Origin of Species there were times when I could hardly put it down.

     Quite apart from the literary talent displayed, and the wealth of information provided, the artwork is spellbinding. Page after page is filled with Kingdon's beautiful work and I was left in awe at the creativity of it all.

     Each picture weaves a message, at times more powerful than the text.

     Kingdon was born in what is now Tanzania to British colonial parents, but grew up in a household where an indigenous African became an integral part of his family, and he learned to speak Swahili with the same facility as English, a skill that would serve him well throughout his life. His mother was a talented artist and by the age of five Kingdon too was displaying considerable creative prowess.

     Kingdon traces the evolution of primates in Africa, culminating in the rise of Homo sapiens, with clear evidence of the fact that the unique circumstances of Africa mean that it could not have happened anywhere else. 

     Africa is the largest and most habitat-rich continent yet its biodiversity is under threat everywhere. The Continent has been colonized by every major European power ( and the USA and China have joined in the pillaging), and forests that harbour unique life are still seen as mere assets on the balance sheets of foreign corporations, to be exploited at will. The anthropogenic destruction of African flora and fauna has been, and continues to be, both shocking and threatening. And it needs to be stopped.

     African unity, united in the protection of land and water, resisting the transformation of landscape into industrialized monocultures with single GMO crops, remains a hope for the future. The restoration of traditional African lifestyles and farming methods are key to healing the land and restoring its unique wildlife, with special consideration for the megafauna of the Continent. Africans themselves will be the key to this renewal by resisting the pirates and bandits who have for too long enslaved Africans and claimed Africa's resources to be used for their own commercial ends, with no recompense to its people, and no consideration of the ravages inflicted upon the land, and the inevitable destruction of nature.

     In the final chapter, Process as Principle, Kingdon outlines what needs to happen for the Continent to heal. He is scathing in his criticism of the colonial mindset, past and present, and argues for a transformation based on holistic values. He says, "Every practicing student of human evolution and ecology, every environmental idealist, every media-savvy campaigner is a gallant pioneer, a secular songster in our species' Hosannah for dawning self-knowledge and for the beauty of a living, not a dying, planet."

     That's a challenge we can all rise to. Indeed we must; there is no longer any other choice.

Origin Africa: A Natural History - Princeton University Press

Joanathon Kingdon

Hardcover - US$39.95 - ISBN: 9780691228532

472 pages - 6 x 9.125 inches (15 x 22.81 cm)

Publication date: 25 July, 2023