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Louis Leakey is 
remembered for 
his contribution 
to anthropology, 
but he was also
a linguist, an 
authority on the 
Kikuyu tribe of 
Kenya and hand-
writing expert. 
His contribution
to Kenyan and to
world culture
was unique
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Leakey was born 
into a missionary 
family who settled 
in Kenya during 
British rule. He 
grew up with 
black children, and 
so spoke Kikuyu 
better than he did 
English. After he
graduated from an
English university
he went back to
Kenya to begin his
lifelong study of
pre-history
#
In the nineteenth 
century Charles 
Darwin had argued 
that humans were 
descended from 
apes. Since then, 
scientists have 
wanted to find 
evidence to prove 
who our ancestors 
are and, as far as
is possible after
so many thousands
of years, how they
lived their lives
#
In the Twenties anthropology had been astonished by the discoveries
of Raymond Dart. Digging in South Africa, Dart uncovered fossils which
seemed to  confirm an early evolutionary relationship between apes
and human beings
#
Leakey worked in 
East Africa for 
over 40 years. 
He made several
discoveries which 
confirmed Dart's 
findings, but he
went further than
Dart. Leakey argued
that a number of
man-like species
had existed along-
side each other,
but only one sur-
vived to become
the human race
#
Leakey's findings 
did not go 
unchallenged by 
other anthropo-
logists - in 
particular, many 
found it hard to 
agree that more 
than one species 
of early human 
once walked our 
planet. Today, 
anthropologists 
accept at least
one other man-like
species coexisted
with our ancestors
#
In 1967 Leakey
claimed that apes
and humans, while
they have common 
ancestry, took
separate  paths 
millions of years 
earlier than anyone
previously thought. 
Leakey's research 
also confirmed -
as Charles Darwin
had suggested -
that East Africa
was the cradle of
human civilisation
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