Did life on Earth begin in Africa?

That is quite possible, why not. Islam does not fix a place. Where life and human beings first appeared is a question for research, and its answer does not affect faith.

The Holy Qur’an does not name a particular place where life on earth began. Rather, it calls on people to travel and explore how God brought creation into being. Where exactly that happened is something researchers may and should find out. A Muslim has no reason to fear any answer.

Two questions need to be kept apart here. Where the very first life arose is hard to say. But on the question of where human beings first appeared, many scientists are becoming more and more convinced that it was in Africa. The more they learn about human origins, the more the evidence points that way.

If that is so, then the people of Africa are in a certain sense the forefathers of all humanity. They may be glad of that. Yet it is no reason for pride, just as coming from any other continent would be no reason for pride.

The second verse above says that all human beings descend from a single being. The third says that God made people into nations and tribes so that they might come to know one another, and that the most honourable before God is the most righteous. Whether our cradle stood in Africa or elsewhere, we are one single family. What matters is not the place where we began, but how we live.