When the metallurgists in Spain assayed these spears, they found they were identical, not similar, but were identical in their ratio of gold, silver and copper alloys as spears then being forged in African Guinea. During the 1960s, he worked for several years in Great Britain as a journalist, doing weekly broadcasts to the Caribbean and Africa. Many historians have worked at debunking the They Came Before Columbus and Africans Were Already In America myth. Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for They Came Before Columbus: The African Presence in Ancient America at Amazon.com. Columbus wrote: Their hair is short and coarse, almost like the hairs of a horses tail. [5], Van Sertima completed his master's degree at Rutgers in 1977. Van Sertima said: "Many people feel a certain kind of happiness when they read my book. Hip-hop artist B.o.B,who is also a flat Earth believer. Zinn perpetuates Koning's smears. Unfortunately, the scholarship that he has inspired has tended to be of a worse quality than Van Sertimas was. Black settlements developed at the end points of major currents from Africa, he contended. Never seen a more deluded person. However, their African ancestors had survived relatively dark-skinned (carrying the old haplogroup C) in Oceania for over 100,000 years Continue Reading More answers below Rasager Aa The launching of the expedition is recorded by Arab historian Ibn Fadl Allah al-Omari, according to Van Sertima. In his famous book, They Came Before Columbus, published in 1976, anthropologist-linguist Ivan Van Sertima, a Rutgers professor, claims that African influences can be found in a wide range of cultural similarities between Africa and the ancient Americas. So basically the vast majority of scholars reject Afrocentrism, but are too afraid to say so in public. Is it harder to believe in Africans crossing the Atlantic, a distance of fifteen hundred miles, than in artists from outer space, etching camels in Marcahuasi [South America], fifteen light-years away from their home star?. The African presence in America before Columbus is of importance not only to African and American history but to the history of world civilizations. There is evidence of African cotton seeds in America. He was a . He said, "You cannot really conceive of how insulting it is to Native Americans to be told they were 'discovered'."[14]. So, Van Sertima became convinced due to the writings of linguists and anthropologists, that there was an ancient, as-of-yet-looked-into connection between ancient Africa and Mesoamerica. [15] This is one of many examples of Van Sertima's theories that Mesoamerican mythologies are based on Pre-Columbian African contact theories. I wasn't halfway through this book and I was thoroughly offended, but I finished it just to hear their point of view. What would the point of shipping Black Indians to Europe then to Africa and then back to America again be? Human Biodiversity, IQ, Evolutionary Psychology, Epigenetics and Evolution, Home Refuting Afrocentrism They Did Not Come Before Columbus. What country did your, say, grandfather or great-grandfather or whatever come from?. In the book They Came Before Columbus written by Ivan Van Sertima, chapter twelve, "Mystery of Mu-lan-pi", there is a reoccurring theme of disproving the notion that Columbus brought over many different things and products from his expeditions to American to the Eastern parts of the world when in reality . I'm trying to follow all the rules but forgive me if this is a bit vague. There is also a vast body of knowledge to be uncovered about Africa and America. It could be dark, bronze people from South America. The accounts of people such as Christopher Columbus himself, Spanish travelers, and Herodotus, though, are harder to debate. Van Sertima also argued it was Columbus himself who suggested that Africans were in the Americas before he was. How convenient. After being told that he couldn't do a series on African writers because there was no African literature. "How many of us know the African influence on ancient Greece and Rome? Are broader financial markets in a massive speculative bubble? In Chapter 5, called "Among the Quetzalcoatls", Van Sertima narrates the arrival of Abu Bakr II to an Aztec civilization in Mexico in 1311, describing the Mali king as "a true child of the sun burned dark by its rays" in direct and explicit comparison to the Aztec "sun god" Quetzalcoatl, as Van Sertima writes. "He was a true professional who served his community with pride every day for over 32 years," the Amherst Police Department said in a statement. In 1977, Van Sertima wrote "They Came Before Columbus: The African Presence in Ancient America," a controversial book now in its 21st printing. Both the Mandingo people of Africa and the Quetzalcoatl people of the Americas undergo a ritual of self-flagellating dances (dances of penance and chastisement) in which the dancers may wrap themselves in thorns or lash themselves with thorns. When I thought about it more, I realized that in high school and probably prior I had learned about American History, Western European History, the dynasties of China and Egypt, but what about where my people were likely from? Theres not a shred of evidence to prove this. She also planned to publish a book of his poetry.[25]. In 1977, Van Sertima wrote "They Came Before Columbus: The African Presence in Ancient America," a controversial book now in its 21st printing. ( Van Sertima, 1972: xiv; They Came Before Colombus) Ivan Van Sertima is a fringe Afrocentric theorist (they all are), who argued that there was an African presence in America, long before Colombus set shore in the Bahamas in 1492. "I nver expected any money," he explains. Several words are also similar with similar meanings such as nama-tigi or ama-tigi from the Bambara of the Mandingos and aman-teca from the Nahuatl of Mexico, both of which refer to master or chief or headman. Van Sertima presents an argument for the transformation of the word banana with African origins. GenresHistoryNonfictionAfricaRaceAfrican AmericanAnthropologyHistorical .more 284 pages, Paperback First published January 1, 1976 Book details & editions The description that Columbus gives certainly is not a description of black people in the Caribbean. "They couldn't be slave blacks," he said. Van Sertima's Journal of African Civilizations was not considered for inclusion in Journals of the Century. I have, 2600 words What do normativity and intentionality mean? Moreover, how would he have known? In 1970 Van Sertima immigrated to the United States, where he entered Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, for graduate work. Im pretty sure I had taken a World History course before. The reason they didn't enslave Indians is because black ppl are the real Indians which would exspose the slave myth. You have permission to edit this article. Of course I was taken aback by the bold claim. The books showed an African and Arabic influence on medeival Mexican and South languages prior to European contact. He completed primary and secondary school in Guyana, and started writing poetry. Like claims of early Viking settlement in the Americas, any early African presence as that claimed by Van Sertima had little impact on the subsequent development of North American culture. There was Nelson Mandelas fight against apartheid in South Africa. The book starts by recounting the discovery of pre-Columbian statues in Mesoamerica which contained facial features referred to as negroid. Carbon dating puts the creation of these stone heads to approximately 800 B.C. [5] They further noted that in the 1980s, Van Sertima had changed his timeline of African influence, suggesting that Africans made their way to the New World in the 10th century B.C., to account for more recent independent scholarship in the dating of Olmec culture. They Came Before Columbus: The African Presence in Ancient America originally published in 1976 was written by professor Dr. Ivan Van Sertima. Mansa Musa never traveled to the Americas, so how could he have been Montezuma? And he started work, using his own money. The Eurocentric view of history is being debunked by anthropologic research. Apparently she had read the the book They Came Before Columbus: The African Presence in Ancient America (Journal of African Civilizations) by Ivan Van Sertima and was buying what he was selling. Phil Valentine is even more confused. Van Sertima reached larger audiences through chapters narrated by figures of the past, including Christopher Columbus and the Mali king Abu Bakr II. All human behavioral traits are, 4150 words Introduction It is claimed that genes (DNA sequences) have a special, privileged role in the development of all traits. While his Olmec theory has "spread widely in African American community, both lay and scholarly", it was mostly ignored in Mesoamericanist scholarship, and has been dismissed as Afrocentric pseudoarchaeology[2] and pseudohistory to the effect of "robbing native American cultures". They then raised their discovery to the community at large, but it was quickly disregarded as being impossible under the logic that no Europeans had visited the Americas before Columbus. However, archaeological work has indicated that the foundations of Olmec cultureand indeed all of Mesoamerican culturehad its beginnings in Mesoamerica long before the Olmec appeared on the scence. In They Came Before Columbus, we see clearly the unmistakable face and handprint of black Africans in pre-Columbian America, and their overwhelming impact on the civilizations they encountered. When new evidence was provided pushing back the dates of the manufacturing of the Olmec heads, Van Sertimareluctantlypushed back the dates of contact between the Nubians and the Olmecs (Viera, de Montellano, and Barbour, 1997). suddenly this stream widened, and they saw in the distance what looked at first like a drifting island of black menWe estimated on examination that there might be about one hundred and fifty at the most; they appeared very well-built, exceedingly black, and all clothed in white cotton shirts. Moreover, the slave narratives all make it very clear that the enslaved population in the Americas came from Africa so much so that in Cuba some enslaved persons committed suicide, in hope that their spirit would return to Africa, wrote Dwayne Wong (Omowale), the author of several books on the history and experiences of African people on the continent and in the diaspora, wrote inMedium. Van Sertima repeated this claim again when hetestifiedin front of the House of Representatives in 1987: Now, I am not the first to suggest that there were Africans in America before Columbus; Columbus was the first to suggest it. I came here before you to correct this myth of Columbus, to present a more objective vision of our American history. Van Sertima believed that Mali seafarers sailed across the Atlantic and landed in Mesoamerica. (LogOut/ Van Sertima answers that Africans were indeed sailors, that a division of Negro sea captains and mariners is reported to have been in the Egyptian navy of the 19th dynasty and the East Africans sailed between their countries and China in the 13th century. He also points to the Negroid features of giant stone heads in Mexico, our of which have been radio carbon dated at 814 B.C. He devotes Chapter 8 to discussing the beneficial innovations and flourishing of culture under Nubian rulers in Egypt. In this book, the author presents evidence and arguments for the existence of black Africans in America before the arrival of Columbus and the beginning of the Atlantic Slave Trade in 1492. In addition, there are stories of Egyptian mariners. There is hardly a claim in any of Van Sertimas writings that can be supported by the evidence found in the archaeological, botanical, linguistic, or historical record. The view is based almost completely on just observing the facial features of the Olmec colossal heads, as described by Van Sertima above. In They Came Before Columbus, Van Sertima argues that Egyptian journey to the Americas happened during the rule of the 25th dynasty, which was the Kushite dynasty that ruled Egypt. "People have different definitions of realism," he added, pointing out stylistic conventions and showing slides that depicted convincingly similar but totally unrelated rattlesnake scale designs from the early American city of Teotihuacan and decorations on a Louis XVI commode. [1], He was best known for his Olmec alternative origin speculations, a brand of pre-Columbian contact theory, which he proposed in his book They Came Before Columbus (1976). The sickle cell trait, an adaptation to ward off malaria found mostly in people from West Africa, was also discovered in the secluded Mayan tribe, the Lancodon Indians by Dr. Alfonso de Garay, Director of the Genetic Program of the National Commission for Nuclear Energy in Mexico. Any other significant information about the history of my people tended to start with, we were slaves. Despite this, there were however, agreed upon black kings of the 25th dynasty such as Taharqa. In doing this, primary source anecdotes are often the evidence cited by Van Sertima combined with inference and exaggeration, though he implies to his readers that the narrative is based in fact. Evidence indicates that humans originated in Africa. I really have no idea. Weiant wrote: "Van Sertima's work is a summary of six or seven years of meticulous research based upon archaeology, egyptology, African history, oceanography, astronomy, botany, rare Arabic and Chinese manuscripts, the letters and journals of early American explorers, and the observations of physical anthropologists. As one who has been immersed in Mexican archaeology for some forty years, and who participated in the excavation of the first giant heads, I must confess, I am thoroughly convinced of the soundness of Van Sertima's conclusions. "The problem was not that the research hadn't been done," he says, "but that no one had examined the available documents and material and pulled from together.". The truth is that Black Indians were shipped from America to Europe! There are Egyptian-like pyramids in the Americas and mummified persons similar to those in Egypt. Recently, I've been handed a book called "They Came before Columbus" by Ivan Sertima, which asserts that Africans had discovered and traded with the native people of the Americas long before Columbus arrived. Ocean currents such as the Guinea and Canary currents were likely to have aided Africans sailing to America as well. Van Sertima, who stressed that he makes no claims that blacks "discovered" America or launched the ancient cultures of Middle America, said well-known ocean currents acted as a "marine conveyor belt" that brought early voyagers easily from Africa to America. Columbus' "accidental stumbling into the Caribbean," theorist Ivan Van Sertima of Rutgers University said, followed incursions by native Africans who left traces in art, artifacts, maps, language, cultural influences and accounts related to early European explorers. After divorcing his first wife, Sertima remarried in 1984, to Jacqueline L. Patten, who had two daughters. This work was published by Random House and did not go through a peer review process. But where did Menzies come up with the idea that it was Asians, not Europeans, who first arrived in America from other countries? Barbour, who has studied more than a quarter million figurines from Mesoamerican areas cited by Van Sertima, said the depictions even more easily could portray facial types of native Americans, and no convincing evidence supports African influence on Mesoamerican architecture or culture. Many historians have worked at debunking the "They Came Before Columbus" and "Africans Were Already In America" myth. [6] He became Associate Professor of African Studies at Rutgers in the Department of Africana Studies in 1979. In response to Daniel's review Clarence Weiant, who had worked as an assistant archaeologist specialising in ceramics at Tres Zapotes and later pursued a career as a chiropractor, wrote a letter to the New York Times supporting Van Sertima's work. We were taken from Africa, but who were we before slavery? From left to right are: Comes Again, Iron Hawk, High Eagle, Dewey Beard and John Sitting Bull. Columbus never claimed that he saw black people in the Americas. There are, of course, numerous problems with these claims: most importantly, the evidence that Van Sertima provides in his book to prove an ancient African presence in America is highly lacking. Other stone heads have been uncovered in Mexico. In his book, "They Came Before Columbus," Van Sertima, a Rutgers professor, says that African influences can be found in an array of cultural similarities between Africa and the ancient Americas - pyramid construction, the use of boat litters, the parasol, the plumed serpent motif, bronze-casting techniques. They can find a billion year old dinosaur bone but cant find any slave ships, B.o.B wrote in a 2017 Instagram post. Was no African literature is one of many examples of van Sertima believed that Mali seafarers sailed across the and... Of Pre-Columbian statues in Mesoamerica which contained facial features referred to as negroid Africans. The vast majority of scholars reject Afrocentrism, but who were we before slavery a Instagram! Ratings for They Came before they came before columbus debunked i have, 2600 words what do normativity and intentionality mean inspired! Speculative bubble South languages prior to European contact start with, we were taken from Africa, he.. 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