Following last week’s announcement of the Homo naledi (pictured) discovery, the South African Council of Churches (SACC) have come out to reject the claim that Africans, the first humans, “come from baboons,” reports Eyewitness News.
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Last Thursday, Prof. Lee Berger announced that he and his team discovered a new species of human with the naledi.
The find is the largest single discovery in history.
Not surprisingly, the naledi — who have a mix of human and animal characteristics — discovery has reignited the debate over human’s origins: while modern scientists have long embraced the theory of evolution, which maintains that humans evolved from apes, creationists believe that humans were created by God as dictated by the Book of Genesis.
On Monday, SACC announced that while they are indeed celebrating the discovery with the rest of the world, they reject the theory that “humans come from baboons,” a claim which they find insulting.
Zwelinzima Vavi, former general secretary of the Congress of South Africa Trade Unions (COSATU), also rejected the evolution premise writing on Twitter:
Should we expect that all Blacks in Europe will due to different weather there evolve to be Whites & Whites in Africa evolve to be Black?
— Zwelinzima Vavi (@Zwelinzima1) September 13, 2015
Alluding to the “insults” that SACC spoke of in their statement, Vavi then wrote:
It’s insults like this that make some of us to question the whole thing https://t.co/so5vYL01vm — Zwelinzima Vavi (@Zwelinzima1) September 13, 2015
I am no grandchild of any ape, monkey or baboon – finish en klaar. Now prove to me scientifically that I am https://t.co/z03VFYb3zF
— Zwelinzima Vavi (@Zwelinzima1) September 12, 2015
Afterward, SACC President Bishop Ziphozihle Siwa supported Vavi’s comments, saying, “God the creator is far greater than all of us, but we celebrate that discovery in South Africa. They must keep on probing, but listen to what God is saying to us and not make a jump to quick, foolish conclusions.”
More to the point, Siwa then confronted the, at times, racist association made between Africans and apes, “That Black people are baboons is the perception of many who come from the western world.
“To my brother Vavi, I would say that he is spot on. It’s an insult to say that we come from baboons. We must continue to engage and discern what it is that God is communicating to us at this time.”
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