Although blonds have been associated with whites for many years, the Melanesians of the Solomon Islands are one of the few groups outside of Europe that have blonds.
Melanesians are black South Pacific residents who migrated thousands of years ago, long before blacks came to America as slaves. Melanesia is a subregion of Oceania, stretching from the western tip of the Pacific Ocean to the Arafura Sea and east to Fiji.
The region includes most of the islands north and northeast of Australia, including Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands and New Caledonia.
The name Melanesian was first used in 1832 by Jules Dumont d'Urville to refer to an ethnic and geographical group of islands distinct from Polynesia and Micronesia.
Until recently, indigenous Melanesians, such as the Asmat, practiced cannibalism, headhunting, kidnapping, and slavery, but after contact with Europeans, the population has now become strongly Christian. However, more than 90% live a rural life.
Melanesian Solomon Islands are attractive in terms of dark skin and blond hair. Located in the South Pacific, in the heart of Melanesia, northeast of Australia, between Papua and Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands is an independent nation within the Commonwealth of Nations.
Although indigenous Melanesians have the darkest skin outside of Africa, between 5 and 10% have light blond hair.
There are several theories as to how they got their blonde hair - through sun and salt bleaching, high fish consumption, or genetic inheritance through interbreeding with the Americans/Europeans who founded the islands.
A geneticist at Nova Scotia Agricultural College in Canada, Sean Miles, conducted a genetic analysis of saliva and hair samples from 1,209 Melanesian Solomon Islands. Comparing 43 blonde islanders and 42 brown islanders, he found that blondes carried two copies of a mutated gene that was present in 26% of the island's population. Melanesians have an inherited gene, TYRP1, which is partly responsible for blonde hair and melanin, and are completely different from Caucasians in that it is not in their genes.
It is a recessive gene and is more common in children than adults, with hair tending to darken as the individual matures.
This contributed to the theory that black Africans were the first Homo sapiens and that all races descended from the African black race.