As Tom himself found out on a recent trip to Australia, Africans have made an impact people all over the world. Aborigines who have brown skin, but blonde hair, surprised him. Gates says that that speaks to thousands of years of evolution. “They went from Africa, through India to Australia and then simultaneously then went North to Europe,” Gates says.
“So people were evolving at different levels and in different ways. “But in evolution, people went from dark to light and that’s how it happened and you see remnants of that through the aborigines and in people in the South Sea Islands. In Denzel’s Washington’s Mississippi Masala you see very Black people in Southern India. That is recorded in our genes. And for guests in our series, we trace people’s habitypes, which tell where your ancestors came from. We just filmed Ben Affleck and Stephen King. For Finding Your Roots Season 2, we have 30 guests and it will start to air in October.”
You can purchase Many Rivers to Cross on DVD here.
Black History Month Is Coming; Dr. Henry Louis Gates is Ready was originally published on blackamericaweb.com
