Olorgesailie pre-historic site: The neglected world cultural attraction

There has been a worldwide resurgence of interest, this year, in museums and the origin of mankind in general.

The first salvo was inadvertently fired early in the year by Donald Trump, the US Republican Party presidential candidate, when he threatened to deport 11 million undocumented immigrants (targeting Mexicans working in the US) if elected president.

In a comical rejoinder, the Red Indians were quoted as saying that Trump should be the first to be deported because he was an immigrant and they were the original inhabitants of North America.

The International Council of Museums (ICOM) celebrated their 70th anniversary in July with an elaborate ceremony in Milan, Italy.

Created in 1946, the ICOM is a non-governmental organisation (NGO) maintaining formal relations with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) and partners with entities such as World Intellectual Property Organisation, INTERPOL and the World Customs Organisation in order to carry out its mandate which includes fighting illicit traffic in cultural goods and promoting risk management and emergency preparedness to protect world cultural heritage in the event of natural or man-made disasters.

September 24th saw the grand opening of the Smithsonian National Museum of African-American History and Culture attended by President Barack Obama and former President George W. Bush. The museum was the culmination of efforts began by Black Civil War Veterans in 1915, who wanted their story told.

Addressing the gathering, John W. Franklin, one of the museum’s top officials, said “We’re ashamed about a lot of it and there is a lot to be ashamed of, but we need to own it to move forward”.

Evelyn Stafford, a charter member of the new museum, was quoted as saying “It’s so important to tell our story, so people like Donald Trump can’t say ‘What have you got to lose?’ We have a lot to lose and it is all represented in this building.”

An article by Carl Zimmer published in The New York Times on September 21 suggests that a single migration from Africa populated the world as we know it today.

Quoting the scientific journal Nature, three separate teams of genetists survey DNA collected from cultures around the globe, many for the first time, and conclude that all non-Africans trace their ancestry to a single population emerging from Africa between 50,000 and 80,000 years ago.

While I may not be qualified to pass judgement on such a claim, there seems to be a growing body of thought that Africa is indeed the cradle of mankind.

Olorgesailie pre-historic site is located on the winding Magadi Road some 70 kilometres from Nairobi.

The site is named after a hill marking the southern boundary of the basin. The local Maasai people call this area Kimunke. The light coming off the white volcanic ash soil can be harsh and the air temperature was hovering between 32 to 34 degrees celsius at the time of my visit.

The site is a geological formation on the floor of the eastern Rift Valley containing a group of Lower Paleolithic sites. It is often referred to as the “factory of stone tools” for it holds the largest collection in the world of Acheulean hand axes that are associated with animal butchering.

The artefacts were first discovered in 1919 by British geologist John Walter Gregory but it was not until 1943 that excavation began in earnest under the direction of Mary and Louis Leakey, with the assistance of paroled Italian prisoners of war up to 1947.

Glynn Isaacs took up the excavations in the 1960s for his dissertation while Richard Potts of the Smithsonian Institute continued in the 1980s in conjunction with the National Museums of Kenya.

The presence of these human tools represents actual camping places of early man and evidence that the human species had its origins in the tropical region. The site is in a lake basin that existed about 100,000 to 200,000 years ago.

The fact that the biological and cultural specimens are excellently preserved is due to heavy falls of volcanic ash from the nearby Mt. Suswa and Mt. Longonot.

Fossils of various animals have also been found including those of extinct species of hippo, elephant, giraffe, zebra and baboon.

In June 2003, a team lead by Potts discovered the frontal bone of a skull (designated KNM-OL 45500) which is 900,000 to 970,000 years old and was the first human fossil to be found at this site.

Although the specimens themselves were well preserved at the time of my visit, the sheds covering them and other structures at the site are in a sorry state of disrepair.

I was disappointed to note that the total number of visitors for September were 67, boosted by a school group, while those for October to date were only 17.

Olorgesailie is one of the original sites for which Kenya is internationally recognised for her invaluable and unique pre-historic heritage. For this reason Kenya is considered the cradle of mankind.

Unfortunately most Kenyans tend to regard museums as places for school children, academicians and perhaps some slightly unhinged social misfits, thereby missing the big picture.

When tourists come to Kenya most are on the lookout for the Big Five animals, our game parks and sandy beaches but very few get to see our wealth of heritage sites and materials.

In view of the revitalised interest in museums worldwide, should we not position our country at the centre stage in the quest for understanding the origin of mankind? We hold the key to the very core of the existence of humankind.

Mr Kiereini is a retired banker and motorcycle enthusiast; E-mail [email protected].