AHN – Chapter 1 Africans Leave Africa (Part 1)

The scorching sun blazed down on the earth.

It was a sunlight that seemed to sizzle with sound.

A slight breeze rustled the tall grass bushes. Somewhere, a bird’s dry cry, “kaka, kakakaka,” could be heard.

Demba kept his body low and glanced slightly to the sides. The sunlight relentlessly beat down on his ebony skin. Thin clouds hung over the southern horizon, toward the Ihibi River. Other than that, the sky was cloudless, stretching endlessly in a brilliant blue.

A heavy, oppressive blue. That was the color of the African sky.

He quietly shifted the grip on his long, black-glossed, heavy spear. He listened intently. Annoying flies buzzed around his face, but Demba’s hearing was not disturbed by them.

He heard multiple faint rustling sounds from the grass to his right. Deer, likely. The tips of their antlers could just be seen.

No mistake. He readied his spear.

When the Binaba trees started to bud like small stones, the deer would pass through this area heading west, to their watering grounds to birth their fawns. For Demba and the Mahi tribe, it was hunting season.

He glanced up quickly. Far ahead, the silhouette of a Binaba tree with thick foliage was visible. Hidden in its branches, concealed by leaves, should be Kanga.

“Peep, twip,” came the bird call from the tree’s direction. It was Kanga’s signal, meaning “three to the right.”

The hunters of the Mahi tribe had long since mastered the method of exchanging information without alerting their prey. They could distinguish subtle differences in bird calls, using them to convey messages.

To others, the sounds were indistinguishable from actual bird calls. The deer’s movements remained undisturbed.

The Mahi tribe’s region was always covered with tall grasses, obscuring visibility. Thus, they had developed ways to cooperate in hunting without revealing their presence or even seeing the prey.

Without showing themselves and without seeing the prey, they needed to hunt to survive in this thick grassland.

Three to the right. He placed his palm horizontally and spread his fingers. It meant three steps at an angle. He raised his eyes slightly to estimate the distance.

Two hundred and fifty-five steps to the Binaba tree. With the angle of three to the right, the distance to the deer was one hundred and thirty-six steps. Sixteen steps more to get within accurate striking distance.

Demba cautiously moved through the bush without making a sound.

By calculating the distance between points A and B and the angle from a fixed point, then determining the distance to point C, they pinpointed the location of their target using another angle.

This is akin to modern-day traverse surveying.

Even in today’s surveying, where RTK (real-time kinematic) positioning using satellite signals is mainstream, traverse surveying is often combined for areas where signals can’t reach, indoors, or where obstacles exist. Typically, laser light emitted from a TS (total station) reflects off a pin mirror to measure distance, with angles detected automatically and coordinates calculated by the machine.

The Mahi tribe could do this by sight alone.

Living beings have evolved to adapt to changes in their environment to survive. The human species is no exception.

In some central African tribes, an initiation to adulthood involved “conversing with insects.” This was due to their long-standing exposure to locust plagues, forcing them to learn to coexist with insects.

Such examples still exist today.

The Bajau people of Southeast Asia can endure holding their breath for over ten minutes at depths of sixty meters. This is due to their organs evolving to suit underwater activities.

Many innate abilities have been lost due to civilization’s progress. It is often forgotten that humans, too, are a species evolving or regressing with environmental changes.

Sixteen. Demba stopped. The deer showed no sign of movement.

“Chirp, chirp,” came Kanga’s sharp bird call. It meant “there.”

Demba turned towards the direction of the deer while crouched. He placed the spear on his shoulder, pointing the tip towards the sky. He arched his upper body back, his black arms bending like steel.

―Ssh!

A sound like a gentle breeze escaped Demba’s lips as he threw the spear longer than his height into the sky. The spear arched upwards, flipping in mid-air and gaining speed as it descended under its weight.

By the time the prey noticed the shadow approaching from above, it was too late.

With a thud, the spear struck, and a high-pitched cry of pain came from one of the deer. Instantly, the other deers scattered like spiders, leaping away.

Demba kicked through the yellow grass and rushed forward. A doe, pierced through the neck by the spear, thrashed about. Demba mounted it, drew a stone knife from his waist, and plunged it into the deer’s neck, pulling it sideways.

Blood gushed out, quickly absorbed by the ground. The doe stopped moving.

He let out a breath.

“Peepee!” came Kanga’s sharp bird call.

―‘Danger!’

He reflexively stood up but couldn’t see anything through the grass. He saw Kanga’s silhouette jump down from the tree.

He couldn’t leave the prey. He re-secured the knife to his waist. With all his strength, he hoisted the doe onto his left shoulder, holding his spear in his right hand, and ran towards Kanga.

Ignoring any noise, he ran with all his might. Demba’s sharp hearing picked up the sound of the grass rustling to his right rear.

He increased his speed. The pursuing presence also quickened.

―Not good, it’s coming!

He glanced to the side.

For a split second, he saw spotted fur and met the fierce eyes of a leopard.

With a roar to his left and a black shadow leaping from the front, both happened simultaneously. When Demba turned, Kanga had already wrapped his arms around the leopard’s neck from behind. His legs were coiled around its torso, and his strong arms were strangling its neck. It was a swift, lightning-fast move only Kanga, with his exceptional strength and agility, could perform.

The leopard’s white fangs gleamed in the sunlight. Its sharp claws clawed at the air.

Kanga and the leopard flipped in mid-air, with Kanga landing underneath in the grass. The leopard’s face and belly were facing the sky.

Demba didn’t miss this brief moment.

He dropped the prey and held the spear with both hands, thrusting it almost horizontally into the leopard’s skull, avoiding Kanga.

He felt the spearhead pierce through the skull with a satisfying resistance.

The leopard’s arms, which had been clawing at Kanga, stopped moving. After a couple of feeble swipes at the air, they went still.

Kanga shoved the leopard’s body aside, breathing heavily as he got up. Blood flowed from scratches on his arm. He sucked the blood from his arm and spat out the red saliva.

“Are you alright?” Demba asked, pulling the spear from the leopard’s jaw.

“Yeah, it’s not a big injury. ―It was quite a big hunt, though.”

“Yeah, it’s been a while since we got a big one.”

They looked at the leopard lying on the ground. It was slightly smaller than Demba’s height.

“It’s almost as big as the lion you took down before.”

“It’s a close match, I’d say.”

Kanga showed his white teeth.

“We’ve got a good gift for Unigma.”

He was referring to the shaman’s need for the leopard’s pelt. The leopard’s meat wasn’t particularly suitable for eating.

Unigma was the Mahi tribe’s shaman.

The shaman, who worshipped ancestral spirits, always adorned themselves with bird feathers, fur, antlers, and animal teeth.