Fig. 2. Nhoma Village Bushmen and the author, 2014
Religion plays a significant role in the lives of Africans and is a major part of African identity. The belief in the power of God started in Africa, the homeland of the human race. According to the Journey of Man DNA study, the Bushmen or San (which means “settlers” in Nama) of South Africa are thought to be the first descendants of the human race, and all other races are their descendants. In other words, the biblical character Eve resembled a Bushman.[1]
All humans of all races can be differentiated by thirteen genetic markers on the Y chromosome. European ancestors left Africa in the second wave around thirty thousand years ago. Their trail led to Syria and then northwest to the Balkans. From the Balkans, they traveled to Central Asia, where they split into several groups. One of these groups, characterized by marker M174, traveled east to Europe. The other twelve markers, such as skin color, reflect adaptation to climate as humans occupied various environments around the world. Europeans have the genetic markers of the Bushmen as well as M174.
I went to visit a remote Bushmen village called Nhoma in northwest Namibia Africa in the summer of 2014. Facial features of all human races can be seen in their faces. Note that their skin complexion in not much different than mine. However, the source of their skin color is 100 percent Bushmen while mine is a mixture of West African and European. Also note that I am a lot taller than the Bushmen. The Bushmen were hunter-gatherers and did not participate in large-scale warfare. This fact suggests that humans are basically peace-loving creatures. Large-scale wars accompanied large civilizations.
In 1886, Andrew Lang published a book called Myth, Rituals, and Religion. Lang’s book suggests that all religions share common elements, including a belief in a power that Lang says “makes for righteousness in this world and the next, and a mythical element.” Lang obtained his information from early explorers and missionaries such as Dr. David Livingstone. Livingstone was a Scottish missionary and among the first white men to explore Africa. From 1840 to 1873, he explored Africa from the Cape to the Equator and from the Atlantic Ocean to the Indian Ocean. Livingstone observed the religious practice of people such as the Bushmen long before they were in contact with white men. He concluded that their reliance on prayer and the power of God was similar to his own. He said, “They spoke in the same way of the direct influence exercised by God in giving rain to the answer of prayers of the rainmakers, and in granting deliverance in times of danger, as they do now, before they ever heard of white men.” Since all humans are descendants of people that resemble Bushmen, it is assumed that reliance on prayer and the power of God was passed down from our early common ancestors. This would explain why the practice of prayer and belief in God is shared by all people all over the world.
[1] Spenser Wells, Journey of Man: A Genetic Odyssey (Princeton University Press),2002, 56–8.