The most prominent and well respected scientists in the world have made a remarkable discovery. They have directly tied President Obama's ancestral lineage to the Big Bang.
Through ancient records, theology, modern scientific evidence, and complicated DNA analysis, they have also traced Obama's roots all the way back through the evolution of mankind - - and then back to the American Revolution. Not only is Obama more patriotic than most people in the current Tea Party, but he's also more human!
Geneticists have proved, using mitochondrial DNA haplogroups to define genetic populations (which are often geographically oriented) that on his father's side, President Obama's heritage can be traced all the way back to one of the first Homo sapiens on Earth.
And the Tea Party would also hate the fact that "Adam" was not only a black man from East Africa, but whose future ancestors were also some of America's original Founding Fathers!
From the Creation of the Universe to the Creation of Obama
The most precise estimate of the universe's age is 13–15 billion years. The universe is immensely large and possibly infinite in volume. The region visible from Earth (the observable universe) is a sphere with a radius of about 46 billion light years. Less than 5% of the known universe as we see it is ordinary matter. A 2010 study by astronomers estimated that the observable universe contains 300 sextillion stars, and they all most likely have
at least one, if not more, planet in their solar systems.
So, what is the possibility that life exists elsewhere else?
Our Sun (a star) was formed about 4.6 billion years ago from the collapse of part of a giant molecular cloud that consisted mostly of hydrogen and helium. The Moon's origins is thought to have formed some 4.5 billion years ago in a giant impact event involving Earth.
Life first appeared at least 2.5 billion years ago, and has existed on land for about 1 billion years.
The forming of super-continents on Earth, and their breaking up, appears to be cyclical through Earth's 4.6 billion year history. There may have been several others before the last
super-continent of Pangaea.
The most severe ice ages of the last billion years occurred from 850 to 630 million years ago (the
Cryogenian period) and may have produced a Snowball Earth in which glacial ice sheets reached the equator.
The last super-continent of Pangaea existed during the late Paleozoic and early
Mesozoic eras, forming about 300 million years ago, and then beginning to rift approximately 225 million years ago - - about when the first dinosaurs evolved from the archosaurs, the "ruling lizards".
65 million years ago at the peak of the Mesozoic era, when there were no polar ice caps, the consensus is that an impact event (an asteroid hitting the Yukon Peninsula) was the primary cause of the extinction of all non-avian dinosaurs (birds are their only descendants today).
Since then, the component continents were separated into their current configurations. (More on tectonic plates near the end of this post)
(Image below) Tectonic Plates from 225 million BC to the Present: The Cradle of Homo Sapiens, the Olduvai Gorge, and the Cradle Of Humankind are represented by the red dots.
Click to enlarge photo
The Origin of Humans
The Middle Awash is an archaeological site along the Awash River in Ethiopia's
Afar Depression. A number of Pleistocene and late Miocene hominid remains have been found at the site, along with some of the oldest known Olduwan stone artifacts and patches of fire-baked clay, disputed evidence of the use of fire. Chimpanzee and
pre-human lineages are thought to have split around this time, somewhere between 5 million and 7 million years ago.
The Zanclean flood (also known as "Zanclean Deluge") is a flood theorized to have refilled the Mediterranean Sea 5.33 million years ago, at the beginning of the Zanclean age, between the Miocene and Pliocene, which ended the Messinian salinity crisis.
The "Cradle of Humankind" is about 80 miles northwest of Johannesburg, South Africa. It contains a complex of limestone caves where the 2.3-million year-old fossil Australopithecus Africanus (nicknamed "Mrs. Ples") was found in 1947. The name Cradle of Humankind reflects the fact that the site has produced a large number, as well as some of the oldest, hominid fossils ever found, some dating back as far as 3.5 million years ago.
The Pliocene-Quaternary glaciation, started about 2.58 million years ago during the late Pliocene period, when the spread of ice sheets in the Northern Hemisphere first began.
Early human migrations began when Homo erectus first migrated out of Africa over the Levantine corridor and Horn of Africa to Eurasia about 1.8 million years ago.
The expansion of Homo erectus out of Africa was followed by that of Homo antecessor into Europe around 800,000 years ago, followed by Homo heidelbergensis around 600,000 years ago, where they probably evolved to become the Neanderthals
Olduvai Gorge is one of the most important prehistoric sites in the world and has been instrumental in furthering the understanding of early human evolution. This site was occupied by homo habilis approximately 1.9 million years ago, paranthropus boisei 1.8 million years ago, and homo erectus 1.2 million years ago. (Homo sapiens are dated to have occupied the site 17,000 years ago.) Read: The First Industrial Complex Circa 2,500,000 BCE – 500,000 BCE
Homo sapiens are supposed to have appeared in East Africa around 200,000 years ago. The oldest individuals found left their marks by the Omo remains (195,000 years ago) and the Homo sapiens idaltu (160,000 years ago), that was found at site Middle Awash in Ethiopia. In a 2005 article on the Omo remains, Nature Magazine said that, because of the fossils' age, Ethiopia is the current choice for the "Cradle of Homo sapiens".
In an article from National Geographic (published in 2005) it says an analysis of DNA of thousands of men from around the world discovered that all humans alive today can be traced back to a small tribe of hunter-gatherers who lived in Africa 60,000 years ago.
(Image below) The Cradle of Homo Sapiens, the Olduvai Gorge, and the Cradle Of Humankind are represented by the red dots. (Note the sites' proximity to Kenya, Sudan, South Sudan, and Egypt.)
A stone calendar that is apparently older than 75 000 years has been discovered in Mpumalanga in South Africa. "Adam's Calendar", as it has been named by the two South Africans who discovered the find, is reportedly the oldest man-made structure on Earth.(More here) In another article, this "African Stonehenge" was claimed to be more than 100,000 years old.
The dawn of modern homo sapiens occurred in Africa between 60,000 and 80,000 years ago. Evidence of modern man's migration out of the African continent has been documented in Australia and Central Asia at 50,000 years and in Europe at 40,000 years. The fact that humans could have been in North America at or near the same time is expected to spark debate among archaeologists worldwide, raising new questions on the origin and migration of the human species. (More on migration further below)
Click image to enlarge
The human population appears to have crashed to around 2,000 individuals around 70,000 years ago, at the same time they were headed into the worst part of the last ice age. The crash was possibly brought on by a massive volcanic eruption.
Spencer Wells, a geneticist and an anthropologist and a National Geographic Emerging Explorer, says, "The hypothesis is that the survivors of this near-extinction event had to be smarter in order to survive, and this allowed them to settle the rest of the world outside of Africa. So, 'human-ness' may not have been widespread until around 50,000 to 60,000 years ago, and this could be seen as the real origin of our species."
The earliest known remains of Cro-Magnon-like humans are radiocarbon dated to 35,000 years before present, and were hunter-gatherers who migrated.
"The Ice Age" refers to the most recent glacial period that lasted from approximately 110,000 BC and ended almost 10,000 years ago. The maximum extent of glaciation (pictured below) was approximately 18,000 years ago, before the extensive ice sheets that lay over large parts of the North American and the northern Eurasian continents slowly began to melt.
The Black Sea deluge is a hypothesized catastrophic rise in the level of the Black Sea circa 5600 BC after glacial melt, due to waters from the Mediterranean Sea breaching a sill in the Bosporus Strait. (Some hypothesized that this is the Great Flood during the time of Noah.)
This was also about the same time when the Great Lakes are estimated to have been formed at the end of the last glacial period when the Laurentide ice sheet in North America receded.
The earth is currently in an interglacial period, but scientists predict that changes in orbital forcing suggests that the next glacial period would begin at least 50,000 years from now, even in the absence of human-made global warming.
The two Ġgantija temples off the north coast of Africa were built during the Neolithic Age (c. 3600-2500 BC) making these temples more than 5,500 years old, and some of the world's oldest man-made religious structures. Also read: The Megalithic Temples of Malta
From 3600 BC to about 3100 BC, Neolithic Egyptian societies along the Nile River had based their culture on the raising of crops and the domestication of animals. Egyptian society began to grow and advance rapidly toward a refined civilization.
The earliest among the great Egyptian pyramids is the Pyramid of Djoser, which was constructed from 2630 BCE–2611 BCE. The Pyramid of Khufu at Giza is the largest Egyptian pyramid. It is the only one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World that is still in existence, built as a tomb for fourth dynasty Egyptian Pharaoh Khufu (Cheops in Greek) over an approximately 20 year period, concluding around 2560 BC.
Napata was founded by Thutmose III after his conquest of Nubia. In 1075 BC the fragmentation of power in Egypt allowed the Nubians to regain autonomy. They founded a new kingdom, Kush, and centered it at Napata.
Napata was a city-state of ancient Nubia on the west bank of the Nile River, at the site of modern Karima in Northern Sudan. During the 8th to 7th centuries BC, Napata was the capital of the Nubian kingdom of Kush, whence the 25th, or Nubian Dynasty conquered Egypt. The rule of the 25th dynasty is also known as the "Napatan period" of Egypt.
Sudan is a country in North Africa that is often considered to be part of the Middle East. The population of Sudan is a combination of indigenous Nilo-Saharan-speaking Africans, and descendants of migrants from the Arabian Peninsula.
The majority of the population of Sudan adheres to Islam. The Nile divides the country between east and west sides. The people of Sudan have a long history extending from antiquity which is intertwined with the history of ancient Egypt.
The Nilotic peoples, derived from the River Nile Valley (the Dinka, Nuer, Shilluk and others) first entered South Sudan sometime before the 10th century. "Nilotic" derives specifically the Upper Nile and its tributaries, where most Sudanese Nilo-Saharan-speaking people live.
| DNA - Wood et al. (2005) tested samples of three Nilotic populations: Maasai from Kenya, Luo from Kenya (Obama), and Alur from the DRC as part of a broad survey of human Y-chromosome DNA variation in Africa -- E1b1a-P1 being the most frequent among Luo -- 6/9 = 67%, including 4/9 E1b1a7-M191 and 2/9 E1b1a-P1(xE1b1a7-M191). Bearers of haplogroups L2, L3, and others mtDNA remained in East Africa (the ancestors of Niger–Congo- and Nilo-Saharan-speaking peoples). (see L-mtDNA) |
The Luo originated at Wau in southern Sudan. According to ethnologists, linguists and their oral history, the Luo are part of the Nilotic group of tribes who separated from family tribes in East Sudan about 3000 BC (about the same time as Egypt's very first civilization).
The Kenya Luo migrated into western Kenya via today's eastern Uganda, the first wave arriving sometime around 1500 AD. Ramogi Hills is where the Luo first settled after migrating to Kenya from the Nile Valley in Sudan.
Owiny, one of Barack Obama's great grandfathers (several generations back) was said to be a powerful leader of the Luo tribe, which last migrated into Kenya some 400 years ago. Owiny was a Muslim who, for a brief time, had converted to Christianity. (Obama's Luo roots go back 12 generations)
In the 18th century, Muslim slavers moved into the interior of Kenya for the purpose of exploiting blood rivalries between local tribes. Muslims encouraged warring tribes, the Luo included, to capture "prisoners of war" and sell them into slavery.
Kenya tribe leaders, also exported slaves and ivory that had been exchanged by Africans from the interior for salt, cloth, beads, and metal goods. The slaves were then marched to the coast and shipped to Muslim Zanzibar (an island South of Kenya), to be traded again.
African slaves and ivory became hugely profitable and Zanzibar Muslims grew rich on the trade. Slave trading continued despite the public outrage in Europe demanding an end to all slave trade. The British, eventually brought their forceful anti-slavery message directly to the Muslim Sultan. After years of pressure, the Sultan finally relented and agreed to ban slavery in 1847. It was not until 1876, 11 years after the American Civil War had ended, that the sale of slaves was finally prohibited in Zanzibar.
Onyango, Barack Obama's paternal grandfather, was born in 1895 and raised in Alego, Kogelo, Siya district in Nyanza province of Kenya. His family are
all members of the Kenya Luo ethnic
group.
Onyango joined the King's African Rifles during World War I, a British colonial regiment in East Africa from 1902 until Kenya's independence in the 1960s.
Onyango had traveled widely while in the British regiment, visiting Europe, India, and Zanzibar, where he converted from Roman Catholicism to Islam and took the name
Hussein.
"Hussein Onyango" was jailed by the British for six months in 1949 due to his involvement in the Kenyan independence movement. Hussein was subjected to beatings and abuse which caused permanent physical disabilities and a loathing of the British until he died in 1979.
Onyango was sometimes referred to as "Mzee" Hussein Onyango Obama. The word "mzee" is a Kenyan honorific meaning "old man" or "elder."
Barack Obama's father (Obama Sr.) was born in 1936 on the shores of Lake Victoria in Kenya when it was still a colony of the British Empire. He was born into a Muslim and Christian family, but was an atheist as a young man.
In 1959, Obama Sr. received a scholarship in economics through a program organized by nationalist leader Tom Mboya. The program offered Western educational opportunities to outstanding Kenyan students, so he went to school at the
University of Hawaii at Manoa in Honolulu.
Obama Sr. met Stanley Ann Dunham and she dropped out of the University of Hawaii
in 1960 after the fall semester -- after becoming pregnant
with Obama Jr. while Obama Sr. continued on with his education.
Barack Jr. was born in Honolulu on August 4, 1961 at the old Kapiolani Maternity and Gynecological
Hospital on the island of Oahu in the Hawaiian Islands -- almost two full
years after Hawaii became the 50th State of the United States of America in August
21, 1959. (The Tea Party, even after seeing the long form of his birth
certification, still don't believe Obama is a U.S. citizen, even though his
mother was born in Wichita, Kansas and her mother was born in Peru, Kansas.)
Obama Sr. graduated from the University of Hawaii after three years with a B.A. in economics and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and left Hawaii in June 1962.
He returned to Kenya in 1964 and later died in a car crash in Nairobi in 1982 while
Obama was attending school at Columbia University in NYC.
In 2007 Odinga, a fiery Luo tribe opposition leader and Kenya presidential candidate, alleged the recent voting that re-elected President Mwai Kibaki of the Kikuyu tribe was rigged. The Luo is a tribe that has long felt deprived and oppressed by the privileged. ABC's Diane Sawyer asked Obama on Jan. 3, 2008 about his appeal to the people of Kenya, and particularly to President Kibaki of the Kikuyu tribe, to do something to stop the violence. (Read: 2008 - Grand Collation)
In 2008 a house within the town of Moneygall in Ireland has been identified by the Irish company Eneclann as the residence of Phoebe Kearney, Obama’s 3rd great-grandmother.
The National Society of the Daughters of the American Revolution (NSDAR) publishes a Patriot Index, a list of persons whose honorable service in the cause of independence during the American Revolution renders their female descendants eligible for membership in the NSDAR. Several ancestors of Barack Obama appear in the Patriot Index. While President Obama is not eligible for membership in the NSDAR (by not being female), he is eligible for membership in the equivalent organization for men, the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution.
Today it can be argued that President Obama is more of a "human being", a "patriot", and a "leader" than most other people in the Tea Party because:
- He is directly descended from some of the first modern human beings.
- He carries the blood of some of America's revolutionary forefathers.
- His ancestors were leaders of independence that were against oppression.
The forebears of Obama's mother might have owned slaves, according to genealogical research and census records. But there's no evidence that anyone in Obama's family lineage was actually ever a slave, let alone owned by a white American cotton-farming Southern confederate evangelist plantation owner (aka Dixiecrat aka Tea Party member).
March 2012: Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson: "We are part of this universe; we are in this universe, but perhaps more important than both of those facts, is that the universe is in us." (Video) Yes, there's a little bit of President Obama in all of us, and even those in Tea Party, and that must make them very angry ;)
More on the Migration of Early Humans
Modern humans, Homo sapiens, evolved in Africa up to 200,000 years ago and reached the Near East around 125,000 years ago. From the Near East, these populations spread east to South Asia by 50,000 years ago, and on to Australia by 40,000 years ago, when for the first time H. sapiens (modern humans) reached territory never reached by H. erectus.
H. sapiens reached Europe around 40,000 years ago, eventually replacing the Neanderthal population. East Asia was reached by 30,000 years ago.
The date of migration to North America is disputed; it may have taken place between 40,000 and 10,000 years ago. Colonization of the Pacific islands of Polynesia began around 1300 BC, and was completed by 900 AD. The ancestors of Polynesians left Taiwan around 5,200 years ago.
World map of human migrations, with the North Pole at center
Click image to enlarge
Africa, harboring the start of the migration, is at the top left and South America at the far right. Migration patterns are based on studies of mitochondrial (matrilinear) DNA.
Numbers represent thousand years "before present". (Beginning in 1954, metrologists established 1950 as the origin year for the BP (Before Present) scale for use with radiocarbon dating.)
The blue line represents area covered in ice or tundra during the last great ice age.
The letters are the mitochondrial DNA haplogroups (pure motherly lineages); Haplogroups can be used to define genetic populations and are often geographically oriented. For example, the following are common divisions for mtDNA haplogroups:
- African: L, L1, L2, L3
- Near Eastern: J, N
- Southern European: J, K
- General European: H, V
- Northern European: T, U, X
- Asian: A, B, C, D, E, F, G (note: M is composed of C, D, E, and G)
- Native American: A, B, C, D, and sometimes X
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