Melanesians are the only black people that have natural blonde hair. Modern evidence, including DNA analysis confirms the opinion that modern man, in the form of Homo sapiens, first came out of Africa as early as 200,000 years ago.The Africans migrated along the coast of Arabia to West Asia to India; a branch continued across the major islands off Asia — Indonesia, Borneo, Papua New Guinea — and some as far as Australia, marking the first major sea crossing of humans; a branch continued along the coast of Asia to West Asia to China; from China a branch went westward into Central Asia, and then some southward into Southeast Asia, particularly India, while a branch continued westward into Europe, these together forming the Indo-European group and then the last major group went from China across the Bering Straight into North America and from there some continued into South America.
Of the pioneers who moved across Asia, one group moved south-east down through the Indo-Malaysian archipelago, crossing over into Australia during a brief window of opportunity 65,000 years ago when water levels dropped. They also reached Papua possibly as early as 65,000 years ago eventually moving from there across the Pacific.
The Solomon Islands also known as “black islands” are located in the South Pacific, the very heart of Melanesia, just Northeast of Australia, between Papua and Vanuatu and constitute an independent state within the British Commonwealth.
Melanesia is a sub-region of Oceania extending from the western end of the Pacific Ocean to the Arafura Sea, and eastward to Fiji. The region comprises most of the islands immediately north and northeast of Australia. The name Melanesia (from Greek: μέλας black; νῆσος, islands) was first used by Jules Dumont d’Urville in 1832 to denote an ethnic and geographical grouping of islands distinct from Polynesia and Micronesia. In other words, Melanesian are black island people in the south pacific that migrated their thousands of years ago, unlike blacks in the Americas that came to the Americas as slaves.
The Melanesia islands is comprise of the countries of Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Vanuatu, Solomon Island, and New Caledonia, however many of the countries in Melanesia have a significant Polynesian minorities, yet in New Caledonia case a significant European minority.
BY: Kweku Darko Ankrah