Kenya: Peasant with no formal schooling becomes paleontologist c茅l猫bre
| Tuala, Kenya
鈥� A local, slice-of-life story from a Monitor correspondent.
When Kamoya Kimeu told his mother he had found a job as a fossil finder, he got a stern caution: He was inviting a curse upon himself and his family. But spurred on by a curiosity of what 鈥渄igging up human bones鈥� entailed, Mr. Kimeu took his chances. Reflecting on that teenage decision in 1959, Kimeu says with a chuckle that it might have been the 鈥渂est鈥� offense he ever committed.
鈥淒igging human bones was associated with witchcraft,鈥� he says. 鈥淚t was a taboo in African custom. But I was just a young adventurous man, eager to travel and discover things.鈥�
That bold decision led to his becoming a celebrity of sorts in paleontology. It enabled him to travel to lands he鈥檇 only dreamed of and even earned him an invitation to the White House.
Kimeu is credited with the famous discovery of a Homo habilis skeleton in 1959, as well as that of an almost complete Homo erectus skeleton known as Turkana Boy in 1984. But he is celebrated much more abroad than at home. Kenya鈥檚 history books have credited all his findings to the Leakeys, the Kenyan aristocratic family of British descent for whom Kimeu was working. The Leakeys are renowned for their paleontological and wildlife conservation interests.
In 1985, US President Ronald Reagan invited Kimeu to the White House.
鈥淓ven today, the feeling is still quite indescribable,鈥� Kimeu says. 鈥淸Reagan] told me he had delayed a meeting at the UN just to meet me. It was ... most humbling from such a powerful leader.鈥�
Reagan awarded him a medal from the National Geographic Society. For the next two months, the society took him on an all-expenses-paid tour of the US, at the end of which he was given $10,000.
鈥淲here would a peasant boy from rural Kenya without formal education, have had the chance for all that?鈥� he asks.
In recognition of his work, Kimeu has two primates named after him: Kamoyapithecus hamiltoni and Cercopithecoides kimeui, a fitting tribute to one of Africa鈥檚 unsung heroes.
