The two likely were not even alive at the same time period. As the dogma slowly gets pushed out of science and history we are coming to realize that people of all. [15], A chapter is also devoted to the presence of bottle gourds originally from Africa found in ancient Mesoamerican graves. [5] Instead, Van Sertima replied to his critics in "his" journal volume published as Early America Revisited (1998). [18] There are various other cultural similarities between the Native American and West African peoples. Evidence indicates that humans originated in Africa. [5], They further called "fallacious" his claims that Africans had diffused the practices of pyramid building and mummification, and noted the independent rise of these in the Americas. "Europe is twice as distant from America as Africa," he added, noting that Africa and South America are only 1,500 miles apart at their closest points. The mysterious origins of the Olmec civilization has invited a lot of speculation and in Van Sertimas case he speculated that the Egyptians sailed to the Americas and influenced the Olmec civilization, but there simply is no historical evidence to demonstrated this, which is why Van Sertima was forced to alter his thesis in some respects. We were taken from Africa, but who were we before slavery? When the cheerleading coach broke the news to Katrina Kohel that she was the only one left on the cheer squad, Kohel was determined to compete anyway. [24] He was survived by his wife and four adult children. They also claim slave ships are a myth. Intertribal slavery amongst the Indians was universal and transitioned easily with European interest. Upon casual reading, it does at least make one take its thesis seriously. Critics in anthropology and archaeology have stated that They Came Before Columbus portrays Native Mesoamerican peoples as inferior and incapable of developing highly sophisticated civilizations, cultures, and technologies without the influence of Africans arriving by boat as "gods" in their eyes, as Van Sertima puts it. The majority of us here in America the descendant of slaves were already aboriginal in America and were the slave population of choice. here is no question but that the book is landmark." John A- Wi am. He said, "You cannot really conceive of how insulting it is to Native Americans to be told they were 'discovered'."[14]. Later forced immigrations by Africans to the New World as slaves, and the subsequent development of African-American culture, played a far greater role in shaping the Americas of the 20th century. Van Sertima claimed that Bakari II had a fleet of ships and set off from the west coast of Africa across the Atlantic to the Gulf of Mexico and influenced the Vera Cruz region of what is now modern-day Mexico. Van Sertimas research points to the Negroid features of giant stone heads in Mexico, our of which have been radiocarbon dated at 814 B.C. Both men supported their artistic theories with slides of the sculptures and modern Africans and Middle American Indians -- leaving the audience to decide for themselves between truth and the appearance of truth. [13] This was a record of the conference held in Johannesburg, South Africa, in September 1998 on the theme of the African Renaissance. 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. Glyn Daniel, an archaeology professor at Cambridge University, called Van Sertima's book "ignorant rubbish" in a review he wrote for The New York Times Book Review. I knew that the subjext was suspect. Moreover, how would he have known? This is not a romantic idea. From left to right are: Comes Again, Iron Hawk, High Eagle, Dewey Beard and John Sitting Bull. How about that. What normativity means has implications for many things in philosophy and science. There was Nelson Mandelas fight against apartheid in South Africa. Last week came purported evidence that the Chinese admiral Zheng He sailed his great fleet of junks round the world a century before Columbus, Da Gama and Magellan. Never seen a more deluded person. It sounds like someone chose to record himself reading the book and decided to upload the files to YouTube. Normativity has been distinguished between, If you have any suggestions for future posts, criticisms or praises for me, email me at RaceRealist88@gmail.com. Van Sertima claims that the Mixtecs and Aztecs were influenced by Bakari II. Kenneth L. FedderKenneth L. Feder, a specialist in archaeological pseudoscience, addresses prevalent misconceptions about the settlement of the Americas, discussing how they are stimulated by ethnic pride and religious faith, propagated uncritically in the media, and accepted by students. How convenient. 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. For example, Van Sertimas claims that the Olmec heads are Negroid due to the broad flat noses runs into a major problem: nose shape is dictated by climate; the climate of Mesoamerica and Africa is similar; the function of nose shape is to moisten air before it goes into the lungs; therefore, since climate is dictated by nose shape and the climate of Mesoamerica and Africa is similar, then they have similar-shaped noses due to the climate they lived in. Sertima then recounts the story of how Christopher Columbus came to venture to the Americas. It was with the coming of Columbus that the twilight of the red and black races began. Experts have determined that the gourds floated across the Atlantic and washed ashore in the Americas to be adopted by Mesoamerican cultures. During the 1960s, he worked for several years in Great Britain as a journalist, doing weekly broadcasts to the Caribbean and Africa. In doing so, he also attempts to combat the perceived inferiority of black Africans due to their perceived lack of technological or cultural advancements prior to colonialism in Africa. Polynesians/Melanesians went to the Americas before Columbus. Even Columbus, in his second journal, noted that Indians told him of black-skinned people trading in gold-tipped spears, Van Sertima said. He researched the book at the British Museum, and in libraries at Princeton, London University and Douglas College, and the corresponded with scholars all over the world. Should we give reparations to black Americans, being that they, 5500 words Introduction Hereditarians champion Asians (specifically East Asians) as proof of their gene-centric worldviewthat their genetic constitution allows their stellar performance in educational and, 2100 words Many people believe that a thing called the G-spotGrafenberg spotexists. From 1957 to 1959, Van Sertima worked as a Press and Broadcasting Officer in the Guyana Information Services. Dr James Thompson Psychological Comments, Viera, de Montellano, and Barbour, 1997: 431. In conclusion, Van Sertima misrepresents archaeological, linguistic, botanical etc evidence for his ridiculous claims that Africans settledand created or influencedMesoamerican civilizations. It was generally "ignored or dismissed" by academic experts at the time and strongly criticised in detail in an academic journal, Current Anthropology, in 1997. So basically the vast majority of scholars reject Afrocentrism, but are too afraid to say so in public. This article will refute Van Sertimas claim that the Olmec heads were of Negroid originor were sculpted to show the appearance of Negroidsand his other claim that Mali seafarers reached the Americans some 200-odd years before Colombus. Long time lurker, first time poster. Not only because of the apparent Asian features of some of the Olmec sculptures, but Xu also attempted to draw a connection between the Olmec script and Chinese characters. Mansa Musa never sailed to America. 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. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. (renews at {{format_dollars}}{{start_price}}{{format_cents}}/month + tax). . The journal required that reprints must include the entire article and would have had to include the original authors' response (written but not published) to his response. Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for They Came Before Columbus: The African Presence in Ancient America at Amazon.com. But where did Menzies come up with the idea that it was Asians, not Europeans, who first arrived in America from other countries? So anything that isnt physical (like the mind/consciousness) cant studied by science. Their Negro-ness could not be explained away nor, in most cases, their African cultural origin. In the first place, there are no Egyptian historical records which suggest that the Egyptians ever sailed to America or even attempted such a journey. [1], Van Sertima retired in 2006. This finding flatly contradicted the claim of the historian Herodotus that the Egyptians, compared to the Greeks and other European Caucasoids, were for the most part a black-skinned and wooly-haired people. Since my earlier days of schooling, I have informally encountered bits and pieces of information such as the story of Mansa Musa, the richest man in history, but not much else. Many historians have worked at debunking the "They Came Before Columbus" and "Africans Were Already In America" myth. Critics in anthropology and archaeology have stated that They Came Before Columbus portrays Native Mesoamerican peoples as inferior and incapable of developing highly sophisticated civilizations, cultures, and technologies without the influence of Africans arriving by boat as gods in their eyes, as Van Sertima puts it. The book is a special May selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club and Tandom House is about to publish a second printing. . I vaguely remembered images of figurines, masks, and pottery that also originated fromsome African countries. Read honest and unbiased product reviews from our users. For example, whereas Van Sertima argued that Africans influenced the civilization of the Americas, Clyde Ahmad Winters goes further by suggesting that Africans founded the Olmec and all other major American civilization, which is a claim that Van Sertima never made. Below are pictures of various Olmec sculptures. All Rights Reserved. The occasion was his first visit to the United States from Britain, where he was working in 1970. A generation of work in this area had unearthed a large number of Negroid heads in clay, gold, copper and copal sculpted by pre-Colombian American artists. However, anthropologists and archaeologists who specialized in Mesoamerican history, rightly, reject Van Sertimas storytelling. Change). Wow, so you (your black ancestors) got there before the Indians and the Europeans? One of the most baffling claims to me is the idea that the slave trade happened in reverse and that Native Americans were shipped to Africa, not the other way around. Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device. We need to know about the time when we had empires. Van Sertima believed that Mali seafarers sailed across the Atlantic and landed in Mesoamerica. Van Sertima quit and wrote the series for an independent company. Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. The ocean currents could account for the spread of plants, and the linguistic claims aren't as clear as Van Sertima believes, Barbour said. Though Egypt is located in Africa, typically little of its success has been attributed to black people, but rather to those who migrated from the Middle East. 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. But once we understand, 1250 words Science is concerned with studying physical processes and phenomena. The story of Hannibal of Carthage always stuck with me since high school, though his story was told probably because of its relation to European history. Van Sertima states that even the Greek historian Herodotus had an account of black Egyptian people. This technique, as well as the ambiguity of the evidence Van Sertima used, have led to the rejection of his work as pseudoscience or pseudoarchaeology. A celebrated classic, They Came Before Columbus, dea. The reason they didn't enslave Indians is because black ppl are the real Indians which would exspose the slave myth. Weiant, who had a PhD in archaeology, also wrote numerous articles on extrasensory perception and was an active member of the. There are Egyptian-like pyramids in the Americas and mummified persons similar to those in Egypt. Oral traditions of Native Americans, according to reported Mexican authority, Nicholas Leon, include the belief that the oldest inhabitants of Mexico were Negroes among other stories. Also according to Polish craniologist Wiercinsky 13.5% of skeletons in a pre-classic Olmec cemetery of Tlatilco were negroid which decreased in percentage over time, indicating intermixture with the native population over time. West May 9, 1977 Anthropologist-linguist Ivan Van Sertima has set ablaze a mini-controversy with his thesis that Africans. Sailing, especially such great distances, was not an achievement that was typically attributed to Africans of that time, but it would have been necessary to reach the Americas. This interaction is not rooted in historical evidence and Van Sertima does not offer a cited source to back up his narrative. These Black Indians, now mistaken as African Americans, were shipped back to America and classified as African Slaves. This part of our history is what the school systems fail to mention in history programs. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast. Keep supporting great journalism by turning off your ad blocker. In a Medaille College debate moderated by Jesse E. Nash Jr., a Canisius College professor, Barbour and Van Sertima squared off over a theory that has found its way into American classrooms through adoption of "multicultural" materials and curricula. Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. Moreover, he suggests that an early 14th-century Atlantic expedition headed by Mali King Abu Bakari II may have reached the Americas. I noted before that Van Sertimas claims were flawed in some respects, but his arguments were still logical in certain respects and he did attempt to provide documentation for at least some of his claims even if at times the documentation he presented was misleading. The word for tobacco also has African roots as well as the refinement of the practice of oral pipe smoking. Van Sertima focuses specifically on the Olmec colossal heads, saying that the characteristics of the stone faces are "indisputably" African, while Mesoamerican experts such as Richard Diehl disregards this claim, as the statues are stylized and generally accepted as representing native Mesoamericans. He completed primary and secondary school in Guyana, and started writing poetry. Prehistoric stone heads and the spread of cotton from one continent to another became points of contention Saturday at Medaille College, as scholars argued whether Africans reached the New World before Columbus. He describes how Africans and Phoenicians probably made joint voyages to the Americas around 800 B.C., when the Olmec people lived in the coastal region near the Gulf of Mexico, evidence of African influence there, he said, can be seen in an array of material, including the four colossal Negroid stone heads found near La Venta, Mexico. In 1977, Van Sertima wrote "They Came Before Columbus: The African Presence in Ancient America," a controversial book now in its 21st printing. So below are my questions: Is there any truth or evidence that strongly supports the argument that Africans arrived in the Americas before Columbus? "[20][n 2], In 1981 Dean R. Snow, a professor of anthropology, wrote that Van Sertima "uses the now familiar technique of stringing together bits of carefully selected evidence, each surgically removed from the context that would give it a rational explanation". This view, of course, is seen as highly fringe in the field of anthropology. The professor also catalogs cultural evidence in a Negroid skeleton found in the Virgin Islands dating back to 1250 A.D. and the finding of African cotton in the Americas. So what does Sabres GM Kevyn Adams do this week? In addition to his creative writing, Van Sertima completed his undergraduate studies in African languages and literature at SOAS in 1969, where he graduated with honours.[6][7][8]. Even Van Sertima himself admits that the people who were trading these spears could be dark bronze people from South America as opposed to African. But early African contact, by free peoples, is being viewed in school curriculum development as a source of pride for a large segment of the modern school population, to counter what Van Sertima termed "disrespect for the Africans" who had built early civilizations and empires in their own homelands long before European contact. He published his They Came Before Columbus in 1976, as a Rutgers graduate student. Technically, Carthage was a part of Northern Africa too. I found an audio version of this book on YouTube. 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). "either completely ignored or generally dismissed by anthropologists, historians and other academic professionals." My best guess would be from somewhere(s) in west and/or maybe central Africa. Required fields are marked *. In TCBC, Van Sertima (1972: 39) reconstructed an event in the medieval empire of Mali, based on Arab historical and travel documents and the oral tradition of the Mali griots. Chapters 3 and 4 do, indeed, read like some sort of fantastical tale, so I am glad that Van Sertima left the notebut it is quite clear that he is doing nothing but storytelling. The accounts of people such as Christopher Columbus himself, Spanish travelers, and Herodotus, though, are harder to debate. The books showed an African and Arabic influence on medeival Mexican and South languages prior to European contact. Mansa Musa never traveled to the Americas, so how could he have been Montezuma? He never returned, though some (including Van Sertima) argued that he arrived in the Americas. Many historians have worked at debunking the They Came Before Columbus and Africans Were Already In America myth. 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. [16], Van Sertima argues that African contact likely happened more than once. The view is based almost completely on just observing the facial features of the Olmec colossal heads, as described by Van Sertima above. Sign up for our newsletter to keep reading. . Van Sertima added, How many of us know the African influence on ancient Greece and Rome? 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