Connecting Local Communities to Paleoanthropology in Kenya

GROWING UP ON Kenya’s Rusinga Island in the 1980s, co-author Joshua Siembo knew little about the 18-million-year-old ape fossils that make his home famous. He did know that wazungu (Swahili for “foreigners”) came to study choke (Dholuo for “bones”) found on this island in Lake Victoria.

In fact, Siembo’s grandfather was a field assistant who welcomed Louis and Mary Leakey to Rusinga in the 1940s and helped them unearth thousands of fossils. His uncles also worked with paleoanthropologists in the 1970s and ’80s, gaining insights into the island’s geology and excavating even more fossils.

These efforts led to groundbreaking discoveries about the behavior, ecology, and evolution of the early ancestors of today’s living apes, including humans.

But like many Rusingans, Siembo had few opportunities to learn about the island’s important role in humanity’s evolutionary understanding. His village was an expensive 12-hour bus ride from the Nairobi National Museum, where most of Kenya’s fossils are housed, studied, and displayed. Traveling there, especially for such a lavish goal as learning, was—and continues to be—unrealistic for most rural Kenyans. It was, as Siembo says, “a dream that didn’t come through.”

Siembo never imagined that one day he would make those dreams and opportunities more accessible to future generations.

In 2021, Siembo, along with local anthropologist and co-author George Umoja and other like-minded Rusingans, started the Rusinga Island Prehistory Organization (RIPO). The group shares information about the island’s ancient history and the role of local collaborators in discovering that heritage. Umoja is also collecting Oral Histories to preserve the legacies of generations of Rusingans who facilitated research around the island.

Next come the questions. Students want to learn how we know what apes ate and which habitats they preferred. Teachers ask us to clarify the science for their lesson plans. Everyone wants to understand more about the ancient environments and the volcano that helped preserve thousands of fossils for so long. They wonder where research funding comes from and how fossils are cared for at the National Museums of Kenya. They inquire how they, too, might become scientists.

These kinds of interactions are not new or even unique to the current team. There is a long history of gatherings between researchers and community members on Rusinga and elsewhere in Kenya. Yet those events are too infrequent and limited in scope for knowledge of Rusinga’s ancient past to penetrate into cultural awareness, especially in rural areas.

Hence, RIPO promotes a range of activities and events. The organization gathered former field collaborators from 1940 to the present, giving wazee the chance to joyfully exchange knowledge and tales. Some RIPO members arranged their own educational visit to the Nairobi National Museum. Some are visiting classrooms with donated fossil casts. Others host booths filled with fossil casts and brochures at regional cultural festivals, attracting large crowds, interest from civic and government officials, and attention on the national news.

There is a persistent myth among some in paleoanthropology that rural Africans are uninterested in ancient history. RIPO’s work bankrupts that narrative. The organization’s Oral History initiative underscores the fact that Rusingans have been welcoming hosts and vital members of paleoanthropological teams for decades. The grand narrative of ape and human evolution would not exist without the enthusiastic participation of local collaborators.

RIPO’s outreach efforts reveal a deep, widespread thirst among Rusingans for knowledge about their past. Their events are packed with participants, many repeating the same question: How can I learn more? And as demand for Siembo’s field expertise has taken him to projects elsewhere in Kenya, he has found that same passion for knowledge among local people everywhere.

In addition, this work highlights the value of community-driven engagement programs. Thoughtful, informed science outreach and education is difficult even when participants share a common language. Researchers’ excitement for, and granular knowledge of, their subject is not always easily conveyed to a general audience.

RIPO’s work—accomplished through combining local perspectives, personal and trusting relationships, and curiosity—helps translate science across linguistic, cultural, economic, and ideological divides. This approach returns scientific knowledge about this region to its place of origin.

THE FUTURE OF PUBLIC OUTREACH ON RUSINGA

Serendipitously, the most recent fossil excavation at Kaswanga took place on land owned by teachers at Wamwanga Primary School. The educators became fascinated by the bonebed that rests on their property and, as the newest RIPO members, they decided of their own accord to preserve what remains of it for future work.

Though the research team had felt an urgent need to protect and preserve this Kaswanga excavation site, those concerns proved unwarranted—for the simple reason that the true stewards of the land were fully integrated into the project and invested in its success. This underscores the benefits of community involvement in anthropological work for everyone from locals to international publics.

As RIPO gains momentum, the next goal of building an educational center is already underway. With guidance from the research team and from the National Museums of Kenya, the organization hopes to develop a small exhibition space to display its growing collection of educational resources. We are also planning a geology walking path where visitors can take a self-guided tour across the landscape and learn about geology, fossilization, and paleoenvironments, plus view a mock excavation.

Incredibly, this project has already generated so much local enthusiasm that land—the only major source of wealth for most Rusingans—has already been donated to house the educational center. Having a permanent, local facility where community members and visitors can learn about Rusinga’s heritage will transform the educational potential in the area.

If funds can be raised to complete construction of the center, one of the prominent exhibits will feature the stories, photos, and history of local collaborators from nearly a century of research. RIPO hopes this information, paired with science displays, will inspire students to appreciate and even train in paleoanthropology.

As Siembo—now a third-generation field assistant and crew chief—likes to say, “Perhaps it will be the fourth generation who directs research on Rusinga!”