Jane Elliott: 'Everyone's from Africa'

The victors wrote their version of history that we read in our school books, teaching an inaccurate context that claims one race invented everything, discovered everything, and did all the writing and reading. This misinformation has helped subjugate indigenous populations and justify the theft of land and resources.

Dr. Jane Elliott, a US educator on race, recently spoke about this phenomenon using Christopher Columbus, who claimed to discover 'Indians' in what we now refer to as the Americas.

Elliott said all humans carry African genetic material, regardless of how they look now.

Studies of mitochondrial DNA (which is passed down from mother to child) have shown that all non-African populations can trace their ancestry back to a small group of humans who left Africa tens of thousands of years ago. Similarly, Y-chromosome DNA studies (passed from father to son) support the theory of a single out-of-Africa migration, allowing humans to spread their cultural practices, including the use of tools, art, and language, across the globe.

Sources:

https://academic.oup.com/book/39252/chapter-abstract/338798816?redirectedFrom=fulltext&login=false

https://dna-explained.com/2020/12/10/new-discoveries-shed-light-on-out-of-africa-theory-and-beyond/