Ella Al-Shamahi: Becoming Human review

Mia Willmott goes on a journey through time in this fascinating talk about the nature of humans’ evolutionary success.

On a Sunday night in June, Ella Al-Shamahi walked this audience through time. She shared tales of our ancestors from around the globe spanning 300,000 years, weaving in commentary on the state of humanity now – and how imagination and creativity are, and may always have been, the greatest tools we have for positive change in this ‘world of many’.

For those unfamiliar, Al-Shamahi is a palaeoanthropologist, explorer, writer and presenter, best known for her work on the BBC docuseries, Human. I was one of a handful in the audience who hadn’t watched Human, but I spent the entire time wishing I had.

As well as discussing the ‘fantastical reality’ of having seven human species walking the earth at the same time, Al-Shamahi shared her thoughts on why Homo sapiens are the only remaining human species. She posed that it’s due to a unique ability to collaborate and connect with those around us and those like us. Another word for this is, of course, tribalism and, whilst it’s likely to be the reason Homo sapiens survived, Al-Shamahi didn’t shy away from the double-edged sword of this reality: that tribalism aids collaboration with your people and leads to discord, conflict and war with others.

Al-Shamahi spoke about palaeontology with clarity, wit and passion, taking the room with her as she brought to life Neanderthals and Homo floresiensis, a hobbit-like human species that lived on an Indonesian island with giant storks and elephant-like creatures (I know, wild!).

But it was her ability to communicate and connect ancient discoveries with the world today that captivated the room.

As the evening passed, Al-Shamahi’s anthropological background came to the fore. She had that secret-sauce communication skill of answering the question in your head just after you’d thought it. ‘I wonder how this links with today’s loneliness epidemic and disconnect of communities?’ I mused, only moments later to hear Al-Shamahi’s commentary on exactly that.

Al-Shamahi posed that in a world of disconnection and individualism, the choice to connect with those around us – to be inconvenienced by community – is not new or easy, but possibly the most powerful tool we have for positive change.

She demonstrated how our ancestors used imagination and creativity when exploring the world and suggested that this may well be our superpower. Therefore, as a species

that’s never been short of imagination or cooperation, the question is what do we do with it? And this question will be ringing in my ears for weeks to come.