african map on blue faceThere is much in the Bible open to debate, but one thing seems sure. There was an Eve, and the Garden was Africa. Science is agreed that all humanity is descended from one woman who lived in Africa 200,000 years ago. Science also informs us that everyone of European descent comes from a group of no more than 50 Africans who left the Motherland about 40,000 years ago, and every Asian is descended from a group that left about 100,000 years later.

In 2001, scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) came upon a startling find. They were working on the Human Genome Project, the attempt to map out the entire human genetic structure. After collecting samples of DNA from a wide cross-section of individuals from around the globe, they noticed that the genetic differences amongst Europeans were very minor as compared to the vast differences amongst Africans.

In fact, there was a “bottleneck” so to speak. All European genetic lines intersect about 1,500 generations back, and all Asian genes converge several thousand generations ago. But to find the intersection point of all African genes, one has to go back about 8,000 generations, that is, around 200,000 years. Since, according to science, humans have been around for at least 5,000,000 years (the age of the oldest human fossil remains) that means that for more than 95% of our existence humanity resided solely in the Motherland.