Rebecca Rogers Ackermann

Africa is the cradle of humanity, with a rich and diverse fossil heritage spanning the last 7 million years. At the same time, human origins research globally, but especially in Africa, has a history of racist science that has affected origin narratives, helicopter research by foreign teams is ubiquitous, and local funding sources are limited, leaving the balance of power outside of Africa, and contributing to extractive rather than locally generative collaborative research. Our initiative, managed by the Human Evolution Research Institute at the University of Cape Town, will invest in and further leverage the heritage resources and expertise of southern and eastern Africa to re-centre Africans in the telling of our human story. Our Pan-African Consortium for Human Evolution (PANACHE) Training Network, inspired by the highly successful model of the EU-based Marie Sklodowska-Curie Innovative Training Networks, will train African students across a wide range of subfields, both in the lab and in the field. This will include training on both technical and transferable skills, including how to design inclusive and socially responsive, Africa-centric research practice, and build and strengthen local and pan-African networks, cultivating a cohesive, African-centric, approach to human evolution research.