For several years, blond hair was attributed to Caucasians but the Melanesians of Solomon Islands are one of the few groups with blonde hair outside Europe.

Melanesians are black island people in the south pacific that migrated over thousands of years ago, long before the blacks that came to the Americas as slaves.

As people continue to unravel the dynamics of earth and understand the link between the various skin colour, the planet, in turn, continues to reveal bits that have left people admittedly surprised and curious on how intertwined the world races are.

For a long time, it was believed that only the Caucasians had blond hair. It was not until 1756 that Charles de Brosses wrote about an ‘old black race’ in the Pacific defeated by a people called Polynesia and in 1832 when Jules Dumont d’Urville wrote about the same race and their unique hair colour that the world became aware of the people called Melanesians in the Melanesia Islands.

Melanesia Island is located in the Solomon Islands, the sub-region of Oceania. Close to them are regions such as Australia, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Vanuatu, Solomon Island, and New Caledonia.

There exists a debate on how they came to be in the Islands. A school of thought believe that their origin is traced to the present-day Papuan-speaking people. Another school believes that their ancestor landed Solomon Island more than 3,000 years ago. Upon arrival, they came in contact with the Papuan-speaking peoples.

Despite the contradictions, they all agree with one thing: these people have no link to transatlantic slavery. If this is certain, then how did they get their blond hair?  Outside of Africa, they are the only dark-skinned people with natural blond hair, a rare occurrence even in Africa. However, those with blond hair are a small portion (about 5%-10%).

There are several theories on how they got their blond hair. Some scholars argue that their blond hair comes from the sun and their consumption of fish. Another argues that it is because of their cross-marriage with Europeans who settled in the Islands.It is a recessive gene and is more common in children than in adults, with hair tending to darken as the individual matures.

This contributes to the theories that black Africans were the first homo sapiens and that all races came out of the black African race. What do you think about black blondes? Please comment and share below. Source: Guardian