Born in Africa

The Quest for the Origins of Human Life

By: Martin Meredith

Narrated by: Joe Barrett

Africa does not give up its secrets easily. Buried there lie answers about the origins of humankind. After a century of investigation, scientists have transformed our understanding about the beginnings of human life. But vital clues still remain hidden.

In Born in Africa, Martin Meredith follows the trail of discoveries about human origins made by scientists over the last hundred years, recounting their intense rivalry, personal feuds, and fierce controversies, as well as their feats of skill and endurance. The results have been momentous. Scientists have identified more than 20 species of extinct humans. They have firmly established Africa as the birthplace not only of humankind but also of modern humans. They have revealed how early technology, language ability, and artistic endeavour all originated in Africa; and they have shown how small groups of Africans spread out from Africa in an exodus 60,000 years ago to populate the rest of the world. We have all inherited an African past.

©2011 Martin Meredith (P)2011 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"An appealing account of human evolution and the fiercely competitive anthropologists who are unearthing our ancestors’ remains and arguing over what they mean…. The author does a superb job of describing the nuts-and-bolts of field research, the meaning of the often headline-producing findings and the ever-changing variety of species who split off from the common ancestors of chimpanzees and hominids." ( Kirkus Reviews)

Fingernails on a chalk board.

If you could sum up Born in Africa in three words, what would they be?

Ruined by Narrator.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

This narrator obviously knew nothing of the topic. Perhaps he would do well reading a novel of a non-scientific topic, set in America but his mispronunciation of scientific words as well as Swahili proper names was painful to listen to. It took away so much from my enjoyment of the book. I wold not listen to another book read by this man. His failure to correctly pronounce scientific vernacular caused me to question much about the book.

Up to date interesting

A great book filled with great information. This book is as much about the people who made the discoveries as the discoveries themselves. Personally I would have preferred less of the people story but regardless it was well worth the read and I got a huge amount of information from the book.

A Brief History of Paleoanthropology

Born in Africa provides an overview of our human ancestors along with those responsible for the discoveries. I thought it was a nice balance between evolutionary science and simply telling the story of the individuals and what they faced. Martin Meredith did not shy away from pointing out the competing groups, as well as some of the politics and even supposed back-stabbing that happened between prominent paleoanthropologists. If you are looking for something that gets in to the down and dirty of human ancestry, look elsewhere. However I think this is must read for any anthropology student or anyone looking for a foundation in the history of human ancestry.

Highly recommended!

As a tour guide, I have always felt very intimidated about going to the Cradle of Humankind on the western outskirts of Johannesburg in South Africa. The reason being, all books available have given me absolutely no tangible information that I could give to visitors.

This book has been absolutely phenomenal. In a sense, I’m not really a novice, because I have visited these sites fairly regularly, and have just told clients to refer any questions they have to the site guides, but after having listened to this book, I finally feel like I have an understanding of the Cradle of Humankind and can finally give people background to this!

This book is very well researched and even a complete novice will be able to learn an incredible amount.

Thank you to both the author and the narrator for doing such a great job!

Good history, weak science

A very nice history of work on human fossils. Shortcomings in over simplistic representation of modern debates

Also, nearly complete absence of discussion of impact of colonialism and racism.

An Excellent Introduction to Paleoanthropology

This is an excellent book introducing the evolutionary origin of humanity. Herein, you'll find an account of the 20th century scientists, their discoveries, and their developing human-origin narratives, with more recent researchers and their contributions mentioned in the final chapters. The author does a good job of avoiding a dry historical account of brute facts. The narrator also does a fine job.