The accounts of people such as Christopher Columbus himself, Spanish travelers, and Herodotus, though, are harder to debate. Moreover, how would he have known? New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast. Anthropologist-linguist Ivan Van Sertima has set ablaze a mini-controversy with his thesis that Africans set foot upon - and made significant cultural impact on - the New World 22 centuries before Columbus sailed into the West Indies. Hip-hop artist B.o.B,who is also a flat Earth believer. What did we believe in? here is no question but that the book is landmark." John A- Wi am. Did we learn anything in there that I had simply forgotten? 1337 Words. "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. Among those that believe African made their own way to America, they also doubt the existence of slave ships. Professor Ivan van Sertima, They Came before Columbus A review by Femi Akomolafe, 19 January 1995. [5] Instead, Van Sertima replied to his critics in "his" journal volume published as Early America Revisited (1998). When you push one door, other doors begin to open.". [6] He became Associate Professor of African Studies at Rutgers in the Department of Africana Studies in 1979. They also claim slave ships are a myth. If each piece of evidence and argument was listed, the list would be as long as the index. Its really that easy to explain the so-called similar appearances in nose shape between the Olmec heads and African noses. Van Sertima asserts that this idea is false and explains how this belief developed. The researchers wrote a systematic rebuttal of Van Sertima's claims, stating that Van Sertima's "proposal was without foundation" in claiming African diffusion as responsible for prehistoric Olmec culture (in present-day Mexico). At the time that the dominant narrative of the origins of ancient Egyptian civilization emerged, the use of African slaves was well into effect. When you push one door, other doors begin to open.. Their coloration, fullness of lip, prognathism, scarification, tattoo markings, beards, kinky hair, generously fleshed noses, and even in some cases identifiable coiffures, headkerchiefs, helmets, compound earringsall these had been skillfully and realistically portrayed by pre-Colombian American potters, jewelers and sculptures. While many found Van Sertimas scholarship flawed, his theory has many supporters. From 1957 to 1959, Van Sertima worked as a Press and Broadcasting Officer in the Guyana Information Services. However, anthropologists and archaeologists who specialized in Mesoamerican history, rightly, reject Van Sertimas storytelling. Photo: These Sioux Indians in the Black Hills area of Custer, S.D. Genome-wide ancestry estimates of African Americans show average proportions of73.2% African, 24.0% European, and 0.8% Native American ancestry, according to The Genetic Ancestry of African Americans, Latinos, and European Americans across the United States study published by U.S. National Library of MedicineNational Institutes of Health. I found an audio version of this book on YouTube. I am merely pointing out that the scholarship around this topic tends to be very flawed and misleading. There have been a number of diffusion theories regarding the Olmec. Columbus never claimed that he saw black people in the Americas. He employs a number of tactics commonly used by pseudoscientists (Cole 1980; Radner and Radner 1982: 27-52; Ortiz de Montellano 1995; Williams 1988), including an almost exclusive use of outdated secondary sources and a reliance on the pseudoscientific writing of others. Or purchase a subscription for unlimited access to real news you can count on. 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. On the cover of the book, John A. Williams writes that Van Sertima has demonstrated that there is far more to black history than the slave trade. Quite obviously, there is more to black history than the slave trade, but Van Sertimas storytelling is not it. [6] Also in 1979, Van Sertima founded the Journal of African Civilizations, which he exclusively edited and published for decades.[6][12]. Van Sertima's work on Olmec civilization has been criticised by Mesoamerican academics,[17] who describe his claims to be ill-founded and false. 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? So again, thanks. I don't buy it. 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. Also, some other West African countries had been known to both fish by boat and sail. With that being said, the narration isnt the best that Ive heard. Van Sertima tells of the emergence of the Mali kingdom and its seafaring ventures, thus providing evidence for sailing capabilities of West Africans. Change), You are commenting using your Facebook account. Van Sertima married Maria Nagy in 1964; they adopted two sons, Larry and Michael. pic.twitter.com/GRHEgWZkZb. pic.twitter.com/c0OjXNOVqt, Black Americans Have the Highest Mortality Rates But Lowest Levels of Life Insurance The view is based almost completely on just observing the facial features of the Olmec colossal heads, as described by Van Sertima above. What did I know or was taught? Mike Harrington: His team looks good, even without Alex Tuch. That's when I decided to take a degree at London University in African anthropology and linquistics.". De Las Casas gave this description in his account of Columbus voyage: Wednesday, July 4, he ordered sail made from that island in which he says that since he arrived there he never saw the sun or the stars, but that the heavens were covered with such a thick mist that it seemed they could cut it with a knife and the heat was so very intense that they were tormented, and he ordered the course laid to the way of the south-west, which is the route leading from these islands to the south, in the name, he says, of the Holy and Indivisible Trinity, because then he would be on a parallel with the land of the sierra of Loa and cape of Sancta Ana in Guinea, which is below the equinoctial line, where he says that below that line of the world are found more gold and things of value; and that after, he would navigate, the Lord pleasing, to the west, and from there would go to this Espaola, in which route he would prove the theory of the King John aforesaid; and that he thought to investigate the report of the Indians of this Espaola who said that there had come to Espaola from the south and south-east, a black people who have the tops of their spears made of a metal which they call guanin, of which he had sent samples to the Sovereigns to have them assayed, when it was found that of 32 parts, 18 were of gold, 6 of silver and 8 of copper. If you are experiencing difficulties logging in or are a subscriber getting a paywall, please try one or more of the following steps. The Olmec heads, quite obviously, represent the peoples living in lowland Mexiconot Nubians who supposedly sailed across the Atlantic and made contact with pre-Colombian civilizations (Viera, de Montellano, and Barbour, 1997). What country did your, say, grandfather or great-grandfather or whatever come from?. 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?. Columbus was quoted before as noting that the natives sometimes painted themselves black, so for all we know the black people being referred to were people who were painted black as opposed to black skinned people. One of the most baffling claims to me is the idea that the slave trade happened inreverseand that Native Americans were shipped to Africa, not the other way around. 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. He later discusses carved pipes found in Mesoamerican archaeological sites, suggesting that the use of pipes for smoking must have been an inherited practice from African or Asian visitors. Some believe that Blacks were already in America and have more Native American ancestry than African. He published his They Came Before Columbus in 1976, as a Rutgers graduate student. It sounds like someone chose to record himself reading the book and decided to upload the files to YouTube. Keep supporting great journalism by turning off your ad blocker. So what does Sabres GM Kevyn Adams do this week? In the library of a Princeton professor, he came across three volumes, "Africa and the Discovery of America," written by a Harvard Linquist, Leo Weiner, and published more than 50 years ago. He talks about the risk factors for Bitcoin as an investment asset including origin risk, speculative market structure, regulatory, and environment. Your email address will not be published. In conclusion, Van Sertima misrepresents archaeological, linguistic, botanical etc evidence for his ridiculous claims that Africans settledand created or influencedMesoamerican civilizations. ". Dr James Thompson Psychological Comments, Viera, de Montellano, and Barbour, 1997: 431. It provides further evidence that all great civilizations and races are heavily indebted to one another and that no race has a monopoly on enterprise and inventive genius. "Imagine Europeans putting slaves into their ships and saying 'hold onto your spears, brothers, you're going to need to trade them.' They were then shipped from Spain to Africa as commodity for African resources. I am of what you would call, recent African ancestry. I also work with many foreign-born Chinese people. No, since they are only telling just-so stories. The word for tobacco also has African roots as well as the refinement of the practice of oral pipe smoking. So below are my questions: Is there any truth or evidence that strongly supports the argument that Africans arrived in the Americas before Columbus? West May 9, 1977 Anthropologist-linguist Ivan Van Sertima has set ablaze a mini-controversy with his thesis that Africans. They wear the hairs brought down to the eyebrows, except a few locks behind, which they wear long and never cut. Politically correct labels have been applied to other races in the past and since Indians are always the last to be labeled for anything, I suppose our time has come. This view, of course, is seen as highly fringe in the field of anthropology. I want to make a point of clarification here. So, Van Sertima had his conclusion in mind first, and looked for evidence for itmeaning he was telling just-so stories. This two-way trade never happened. I knew that the subjext was suspect. Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. What did we do? 2023 The Moguldom Nation. From left to right are: Comes Again, Iron Hawk, High Eagle, Dewey Beard and John Sitting Bull. He said, "You cannot really conceive of how insulting it is to Native Americans to be told they were 'discovered'."[14]. Saying slave ships are a myth is a whole new level of ignorance . Black settlements developed at the end points of major currents from Africa, he contended. It is his claim that Africans sailed to American way before Christopher Columbus landed here in 1492. 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. Polynesians/Melanesians of today are obviously not Africans. These people essentially provide written testimonies that support Van Sertimas thesis. Evidence indicates that humans originated in Africa. They noted that no "genuine African artifact had been found in a controlled archaeological excavation in the New World." They follow that quote with this statement: "In spite of the above evidence, education and curriculum development literature are generally silent on the Olmecs" (pg 5). As negroid of people such as Christopher Columbus himself, Spanish travelers, and Barbour,:... Nagy in 1964 ; they adopted two sons, Larry and Michael the hairs brought down to the eyebrows except. Idea is false and explains how this belief developed from left to right are: Comes Again, Hawk... Such as Christopher Columbus himself, Spanish travelers, and Barbour, 1997 431! 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