One of the very timely reminders from reading #Sapiens was that culture, tradition, identify, religion, and ideology have always changed and evolved. Many beliefs we hold strongly were simply manufactured by humans to sell things, achieve peace, amass power or control people.

One of Nigeria’s cultural staples is jollof rice. We even spar with Ghanaians about it. But we all know jollof originated from the Jolof kingdom in Senegal/Gambia. Is that cultural appropriation? Would we feel the same way if France claimed Jollof rice?

A Google search for Italian food presents lots of spaghetti and tomato sauce. But Julius Caesar the Roman emperor would have been confused if you served him pasta and marinara, because tomatoes originated in Central & South America and didn’t make it to Italy until much later.

I always wondered why America was not named after Christopher Columbus. Turns out Italian merchant Amerigo Vespucci proved that the new continent Columbus found was not the East Indies, and then got the continent named after himself. Of course, neither of them discovered America.

Across West Africa, Ankara is a an iconic aspect of fashion culture. But Ankara was made by Dutch people for Indonesia. If Vlisco never started making those wax print fabrics, what would West African fashion look like today? What fabrics would have become the chosen ones?

Red hair used to be a mark of a beastly sexual desire or moral degeneration. In some human societies, red hair meant a poor temperament and anger problems. When Queen Elizabeth I ruled England, red hair became fashionable for women. Today, dyed red hair is a fashion statement.

For centuries, black skin has led to pain and suffering for people in many parts of the world, and black has been deliberately associated with negativity. Black market, black sheep, blacklisted, black mail, the list goes on. Will black become universally positive some day?

Of course, we know that all humans originated from Eastern Africa between 200,000 and 300,000 years ago then migrated all across the world. So isn’t it strange that humans continuously find differences to fight over? Can it be for anything other than wealth, power and control?

Wedding rings trace back to ancient Egyptians who believed the 4th finger had a ‘love vein’ running directly to the heart. This vein doesn’t exist, but successful marketing has all of us buying into this ridiculous practice of diamond rings in the name of “love”. Thanks DeBeers.

On religion, most people have decided to just tune out of the massive evidence that shows almost every single religion has been manipulated by the rulers of every society, in order to continue consolidating wealth and power. I’ll leave this one because my intent is not to offend.

Many things we hold onto dearly are merely illusions designed to distract the masses or get them to work harder, spend more, cooperate and be more obedient to whatever ideology, while a minority of people secure power, control and wealth. It’s the same game from 10,000 years ago.

After reading #Sapiens, many facts you already know or don’t know sit staring at you and require you to think. It’s hard to run from them. I’m taking a few weeks to allow these thoughts coalesce into something more meaningful about how I engage with the world in the future.

If you have some time, read Sapiens. You won’t regret it.

Ps: this book is infotainment, and the author makes some speculations. It’s not new research or never before discovered findings. It simply synthesizes existing knowledge and packages it in an easy to read manner.