We are all collectively, in present day standards, actually ‘immigrants’. Yes, we all are. Knowing that the only standing theory today which explains the evolution of humanity, really well, is in fact ‘monogenetic’ (M.R et.al 2020). The overwhelming genetic, archaeological, and also linguistic pieces of evidence build up more and more on this theory; and its prospect theory ‘polygenesis’ is gradually fading because of the consistent, continuous, and newly emerging evidence supporting the out-of-Africa theory. Oldest hominoid fossils found until today are found in Africa - the oldest of which discovered in Chad is Sahelanthropus Tchadensis which is 7 million years old (M.R et.al 2020). The linguistic evidence also suggests that phonemic diversity and variation declines further from Africa, known as phonemic cline - the largest phonemic inventories are found in Africa and the smallest are found in Oceania and South America (Atkinson 2011). This does not even stop here, more evidence now is also aligning with the genetic, archaeological, and also linguistic evidence from sociocultural studies. Galor et.al (2024) found that societies further away from Africa tend to exhibit lower levels of cultural diversity. So, wherever you are today, I hope you would remember that you are, in fact, an ‘immigrant’ unless you didn’t travel that far from your homeland - Africa. There are only early arrivals and then later arrivals in any uninhabited land in the past. Everyone is ‘native’ to Africa and nowhere else. References: Atkinson, Q. D. (2011). Phonemic diversity supports a serial founder effect model of language expansion from Africa. Science, 332(6027), 346-349 Galor, O., Klemp, M., & Crisóstomo Wainstock, D. (2024). Roots of cultural diversity. Jastor Macchiarelli, R., Bergeret-Medina, A., Marchi, D., & Wood, B. (2020). Nature and relationships of Sahelanthropus tchadensis. Journal of Human Evolution, 149, 102898

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