TURKANA MAN: Richard Leakey — a giant among students of human origins

‘In each great region of the world the living mammals are closely related to the extinct species of the same region. It is, therefore, probable that Africa was formerly inhabited by extinct apes closely allied to the gorilla and chimpanzee; and as these two species are now man’s nearest allies, it is somewhat more probable that our early progenitors lived on the African continent than elsewhere.

Paleoanthropologists and fossil hunters were still paying obeisance to the idea of a Eurasian origin of humanity, or sometimes, in the multiple sources of evolution of humankind from earlier creatures that would, in turn, have evolved into the distinct races. Such a view can be heard from some laypersons. An eminent paleoanthropologist like Carleton Coon could still articulate that view into the 1950s.

Increasingly, in response to the Leakeys’ discoveries, along with a growing roster of other paleoanthropologists working across Africa, new discoveries are revealing that human origins are much less a rather linear evolutionary ladder toward modern humankind, and much more like the luxuriant, complex, interwoven branches of an ancient bush.

Over time, the Leakeys passed the baton on to their son, Richard, who was born in Kenya. Throughout his own extraordinarily eventful life, Richard Leakey not only made important contributions to paleoanthropology, but also to Kenya’s public life, as well as a growing global consciousness about environmental protection and ecology. And along the way, Richard Leakey made deep impacts on some of South Africa’s leading paleoanthropologists as well.

Almost as remarkable as his medical history and his tenacity is that, while Richard Leakey was not even a formally academically trained researcher, he had won a research grant to explore the shores of Kenya’s Lake Turkana. In the 1970s, those expeditions revealed new insights about human evolution, especially from the 1972 discovery of a Homo habilis skull , and then, three years later, Homo erectus bones .

During the 1980s Leakey also became one of the world’s preeminent voices against what was a still-legal ivory trade. By the end of the decade, Kenyan president Daniel Arap Moi had made Leakey head of the Kenya Wildlife Service . Despite a generally self-effacing manner, some of Leakey’s campaign methods were devised to garner global attention.

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