Richard Leakey

Richard Leakey
Leakey in 1986
Born	Richard Erskine Frere Leakey December 19 1944(1944-12-19) Nairobi, British Kenya
Died	January 2 2022 (aged 77) Nairobi, Kenya
Fields	Paleoanthropology, Conservation
Institutions	Stony Brook University
Notable awards	Hubbard Medal (1994)
Spouse	Margaret Cropper (m. 1965; div. 1969)​ Meave Epps (m. 1970)

Richard Erskine Frere Leakey (December 19, 1944 - January 2, 2022) was a paleontologist and archaeologist, famous for his discovery of "Turkana Boy." The son of well-known paleoanthropologists Louis and Mary Leakey, Richard, along with his wife and daughter, continued the family tradition of research in East Africa. In addition to his contributions to our knowledge of human evolution, Richard Leakey devoted his life to the preservation of African wildlife and environmental activism. Thus, his contributions extend both to understanding our prehistoric past and to the protection of the environment for our future.

Life

Richard Leakey was the second of the three sons of the archaeologists Louis Leakey and Mary Leakey. He was born in Nairobi, Kenya, on December 19, 1944. A high school dropout, Leakey discovered his love of paleontology when he led an expedition to a fossil site he had discovered while flying. Frustrated by the lack of recognition he received for his accomplishments due to having no scientific credentials, Leakey left for England to continue his education. However, after six months, and the completion of his high school program, Leakey returned home to continue his safaris and work at the National Museum of Kenya. He never obtained a university degree.

In 1966 Leakey married archeologist Margaret Cooper and started working on excavations. Although lacking a formal education, he benefited from the fame of his well-known parents. He received funds from the National Geographic Society to carry out his research. Leakey’s first major involvement in fossil-hunting began in 1967, at the Lower Omo Valley in Ethiopia. In 1968 he became director of the National Museum of Kenya, a position formerly held by his father. He continued with excavations near Lake Turkana in Kenya.

In 1969 he divorced Margaret and in 1970 married Maeve Epps, a paleontologist who later became famous for her discovery of Kenyanthropus platyops ("flat-faced man from Kenya"). They have two daughters from this marriage, Louise (born in 1972) and Samira (born in 1974). Louise also continues the family tradition of paleontological research in Kenya.

Following diagnosis of a terminal kidney disease, Leakey was forced to slow down his work, and so he focused on running Kenya’s museum system. In 1979, Leakey’s condition worsened and he had to receive a kidney transplant from his brother, Philip, in order to survive. After a long recovery Leakey continued with his work, both on excavations and in the museum.

Richard Leakey, Award ceremony and Reception at Toulouse City Hall, in 2014

In the later years of his life, Leakey became more interested in politics than in paleontology. He served as the head of the Kenyan Wildlife Service in early 1990s, and formed a new political party to fight corruption in Kenyan government in late 1990s. He was appointed a Cabinet Secretary in the government in 1999, but was forced to resign from the position in 2001. After this Leakey continued to advocate for preservation of wildlife in Africa, giving lectures and speeches around the globe.

His wife, Meave, continued to be a successful paleoanthropologist, discovering several new species, including Australopithecus anamensis, and Kenyanthropus platyops. Their daughter, Louise, continues in her parents’ footsteps, having completed a Ph.D. in paleontology in 2001, and actively conducting paleoanthropological research in Kenya.

Richard Leakey died at his home outside Nairobi, on January 2, 2022, less than a month after his 77th birthday. In accordance with his wishes, he was buried on a hill along the Rift Valley.

Work

The work of Richard Leakey can be divided into two categories: his work as an anthropologist and his work as an activist and politician.

Anthropology

Building upon the legacy of his parents, Richard Leakey continued to work toward the understanding of human evolution. In 1969, his discovery of a cranium of Australopithecus boisei caused great excitement. A Homo habilis skull (ER 1470) and a Homo erectus skull (ER 3733), discovered in 1972 and 1975, respectively, were among the most significant finds of Leakey's early expeditions. In 1978, an intact cranium of Homo erectus (KNM-ER 3883) was discovered.

In 1984 he made his most important discovery—"Turkana Boy," discovered by Kamoya Kimeu, a member of Leakey’s' team, was the nearly complete skeleton of a 12-year-old (or possibly 9-year-old) Homo erectus who died 1.6 million years ago. It was one of the first well-preserved skeletons of that origin ever found. Leakey and Roger Lewin described the experience of this find in their book Origins Reconsidered (1992).

Shortly after the discovery of Turkana Boy, Leakey and his team discovered a skull of a new species, Australopithecus aethiopicus (WT 17000). Both discoveries were important in establishing the theory of African origins of human beings. In his writings with Lewin, Leakey proposed that the australopithecines co-existed with homo habilis three million years ago. Subsequently, the australopithecines became extinct, and homo habilis evolved into homo erectus, the direct ancestor of homo sapiens, modern human beings.

Politics

Richard Leakey was also a well known activist and politician. His confrontational approach to the issue of human-wildlife conflict in national parks was a source of controversy. He espoused the view that the parks were self-contained ecosystems that had to be fenced in and humans kept out. Leakey's bold and incorruptible nature also offended local politicians.

In 1989 he was appointed head of the Kenyan Wildlife Service (KWS) by President Daniel Arap Moi, in response to the international outcry over the poaching of elephants and the impact it was having on Kenyan wildlife. With characteristically bold steps, Leakey created special, well-armed, anti-poaching units that were authorized to shoot poachers on sight. The poaching menace was dramatically reduced. Impressed by Leakey's transformation of the KWS, the World Bank approved grants worth U.S. $140 million. Richard Leakey, President Arap Moi, and the KWS made international news headlines when a stockpile of 12 tons of ivory was burned in 1989.

In 1993, Richard Leakey lost both his legs when his propeller-driven plane crashed. Sabotage was suspected, but never proved. In a few months Richard Leakey was walking again on artificial limbs. Around this time, the Kenyan government announced that a secret probe had found evidence of corruption and mismanagement in the KWS. An annoyed Leakey resigned publicly in a press conference in January 1994. He wrote about his experiences at the KWS in his book Wildlife Wars: My Battle to Save Kenya's Elephants.

In May 1995, Leakey joined a group of Kenyan intellectuals in launching a new political party—the Safina Party. Their main agenda was to battle corruption in Kenyan government. "If KANU and Mr. Moi will do something about the deterioration of public life, corruption and mismanagement, I'd be happy to fight alongside them. If they won't, I want somebody else to do it." announced Richard Leakey. The Safina party was routinely harassed and even its application to become an official political party was not approved until 1997. Leakey’s relationship with president Moi seriously deteriorated.

In 1999, Moi was forced to appoint Richard Leakey as cabinet secretary and overall head of the civil service at the insistence of international donor institutions as a pre-condition for the resumption of donor funds. Leakey's second stint in the civil service lasted until 2001, when he was forced to resign again. He was accused of an arrogant and autocratic style of leadership and racism. After that he left politics, but continued to fight against corruption through public speeches and lectures. Additionally, although no longer active in fieldwork, he continued to give lectures and write books about the danger of environmental degradation and the need for wildlife preservation.

Return to the United States

Leakey left Kenya for the U.S. in 2002 and became a professor of anthropology at Stony Brook University, New York. He was also Chair of the Turkana Basin Institute. In 2004, Leakey founded and chaired WildlifeDirect, a Kenya-based charitable organization. The charity was established to provide support to conservationists in Africa directly on the ground via the use of blogs. This enabled individuals anywhere to play a direct and interactive role in the survival of some of the world's most precious species. The organization played a significant role in the saving of the Democratic Republic of Congo's mountain gorillas in Virunga National Park in January 2007 after a rebel uprising threatened to eliminate the highly vulnerable population.

In April 2007, he was appointed interim chairman of Transparency International's Kenya branch. The same year, Leakey was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society and received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement. In June 2013, Leakey was awarded the Isaac Asimov Science Award from the American Humanist Association.

Return to Kenya

In 2015, President Uhuru Kenyatta appointed Leakey chairman of the board of the Kenya Wildlife Service. Although he was chairman rather than director, Leakey played an active role in KWS policies. He brokered a deal on the extension of the Mombasa–Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway, allowing the railway to pass over Nairobi National Park on an 18 meter tall viaduct. Leakey felt that the viaduct would set an example for the rest of Africa in balancing economic development with environmental protection. However, other Kenyan conservationists opposed railway construction in the park.

Legacy

Leakey's groundbreaking work contributed to the recognition of Africa as the birthplace of humankind, finding evidence that the earliest humans had lived on the African continent, continuing the work of his archaeologist parents, Louis and Mary Leakey.

He was also passionate about the preservation of African wildlife, and spearheaded campaigns to stop poaching in Kenya. Upon hearing of his death, Kenyatta said that Leakey had served Kenya with distinction.

Publications

• Leakey, Richard. 1981. The Making of Mankind. Dutton. ISBN 978-0525150558
• Leakey, Richard. 1984. One Life: An Autobiography. Salem House Publishers. ISBN 0881620556
• Leakey, Richard. 1993. Man-ape, ape-man: The quest for human's place in nature and Dubois' “missing link”. Netherlands Foundation for Kenya Wildlife Service. ISBN 9026312857
• Leakey, Richard. 1996. The Origin of Humankind. HarperCollins Publishers. ISBN 0465053130
• Leakey, Richard, and Roger Lewin. 1991. Origins : The Emergence and Evolution of Our Species and Its Possible Future. Penguin Press. ISBN 0140153365
• Leakey, Richard, and Roger Lewin. 1993. Origins Reconsidered: In Search of What Makes Us Human. Anchor. ISBN 0385467923
• Leakey, Richard, and Roger Lewin. 1996. The Sixth Extinction: Patterns of Life and the Future of Humankind. Anchor. ISBN 978-0385468091
• Leakey, Richard, and Virginia Morell. 2002. Wildlife Wars: My Fight to Save Africa's Natural Treasures. St. Martin's Griffin. ISBN 0312303343
• Burenhult, Göran, and Richard Leakey. 2003. Great Civilizations. Fog City Press. ISBN 1877019291

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Morell, Virginia. 1996. Ancestral passions: The Leakey family and the quest for humankind's beginnings. Touchstone. ISBN 0684824701
• Poynter, Margaret. 2001. The Leakeys: Uncovering the Origins of Humankind. Enslow Publishers. ISBN 0766018733
• Willis, Delta. 1992. The Leakey Family: Leaders in the Search for Human Origins. Facts on File. ISBN 081602605X

External links

All links retrieved May 5, 2023.

• KNM-WT 15000 (Turkana Boy)
• Koobi Fora Research Project – Project in Turkana Basin in Northern Kenya
• Leakey.com – 100 years of Leakeys’ work in East Africa
• Leakey Foundation – Official website of Leakey Foundation
• Richard Leakey - Biography
• Richard E. Leakey American Academy of Achievement

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