[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). Change), You are commenting using your Facebook account. Van Sertima spent his career pushing pseudoscience of this type, even editing and publishing most of his own work in his own edited journals (because other journals would not accept his fringe work). 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. After being told that he couldn't do a series on African writers because there was no African literature. Van Sertima makes this claim at the very beginning of the video below. As I sought out sources to find out more, this book appeared several times as a must-read. 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. Keep reading with unlimited digital access. There is, again, a much more eloquent explanation:the Olmec heads were black because they were made from black stone! 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. Mansa Musa never sailed to America. 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. They wear the hairs brought down to the eyebrows, except a few locks behind, which they wear long and never cut. Most average 5-year olds with decent critical thinking ability can spot the cracks in the theory. 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. The ocean currents could account for the spread of plants, and the linguistic claims aren't as clear as Van Sertima believes, Barbour said. However, Afrocentrists then make the claim that the natives of Mesoamerica regarded them as gods, and so they sculpted these statues in order to honor them (sounds like Ancient Aliens, to me). "'Roots' does not do that. His widow, Jacqueline Van Sertima, said she would continue to publish the Journal of African Civilizations. Other stone heads have been uncovered in Mexico. 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 conclusion, Van Sertima misrepresents archaeological, linguistic, botanical etc evidence for his ridiculous claims that Africans settledand created or influencedMesoamerican civilizations. [6] He attended the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London from 1959. In fact, Columbus writes that they were not black. He devotes Chapter 8 to discussing the beneficial innovations and flourishing of culture under Nubian rulers in Egypt. No, since they are only telling just-so stories. The books showed an African and Arabic influence on medeival Mexican and South languages prior to European contact. 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. 'Roots' goes back to the time when the damage was beginning. I am not completely dismissive of the idea that Abu Bakr could have in fact successfully arrived in the Americas. The accounts of people such as Christopher Columbus himself, Spanish travelers, and Herodotus, though, are harder to debate. The launching of the expedition is recorded by Arab historian Ibn Fadl Allah al-Omari, according to Van Sertima. Rhythm, flow, enunciation of some words could be improved upon, but again this seemed to be a random volunteer. No man who believes his history began with slavery can be a healthy man. Sometimes the conversation will somehow, turn into a history lesson about China. 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. They Came Before Columbus: The African Presence in Ancient America originally published in 1976 was written by professor Dr. Ivan Van Sertima. Many historians have worked at debunking the They Came Before Columbus and Africans Were Already In America myth. Van Sertima does not say, but he jumps the conclusion that the spears that were sent to Spain were African spears without providing a basis for why he believes so. After divorcing his first wife, Sertima remarried in 1984, to Jacqueline L. Patten, who had two daughters. 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. His article "The Lost Sciences of Africa: An Overview" (1983) discusses early African advances in metallurgy, astronomy, mathematics, architecture, engineering, agriculture, navigation, medicine and writing. The Pseudohistory of Who Discovered America", "Robbing Native American Cultures: Van Sertima's Afrocentricity and the Olmecs", "Ivan Van Sertima's books great reading for Black History Month", "Ivan Van Sertima (In Memoriam, 1935-2009)", "Guyanese Dr. Ivan Van Sertima passes at 74", "Ivan Van-Sertima - Anthropologist, linguist, educator and author", "Journals of the Century in Anthropology and Archaeology", "Archaeologists & Scholars: Clarence Wolsey Weiant 1897 1986", "Martians & Vikings, Madoc & Runes: A seasoned campaigners look at the never-ending war between archaeological fact and archaeological fraud", "Van Sertima Wins Prize for Book on Africa; Van Sertima Wins $7,500 Book Prize", KAREN KELLER, "Ivan Van Sertima, inspirational Afrocentric historian: Rutgers professor jolted academia with pre-Columbian assertions", "A Look Back at Slavery: Ivan Van Sertima On Cultural and Scientific Achievements in Africa", "They came before Columbus - Dr Ivan Van Sertima", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ivan_Van_Sertima&oldid=1139765361, British expatriate academics in the United States, 20th-century American non-fiction writers, Short description is different from Wikidata, Pages using infobox person with multiple spouses, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, 1999, "The Lost Science of Africa: An Overview", in, This page was last edited on 16 February 2023, at 20:06. [15] 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. 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. Keep supporting great journalism by turning off your ad blocker. 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. 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. The slave ship narrative is a myth. Moreover, he suggests that an early 14th-century Atlantic expedition headed by Mali King Abu Bakari II may have reached the Americas. The Eurocentric view of history is being debunked by anthropologic research. Despite this, some individuals would argue: A mass colony of Africans were not shipped from Africa to America. "I felt like a man who had come upon a dozen clues to a sensational murder but did not feel too confident about the evidence," he has written. Van Sertima accomplishes this through chapters relying heavily on dramatic storytelling. Read honest and unbiased product reviews from our users. On the day he submitted his piece, he learned about Alexander von Wuthenau, and art historian who had excavated a large number of Negroid heads in clay, gold, copper and copal sculpted by pre-Columbian American artists. When you push one door, other doors begin to open.". Change), You are commenting using your Twitter account. Mansa Musa took the throne after the previous ruler, Abu Bakr II, went on an expedition to sail the Atlantic Ocean. The book deals mostly with his arguments for an African origin of Mesoamerican culture in the Western Hemisphere. 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. Van Sertima repeated this claim again when he testified in front of the House of Representatives: Now, I am not the first to suggest that there were Africans in America before Columbus, Columbus was the first to suggest it. Columbus actually said in the journal of his second voyage when he was in Haiti, then known as Espanola, Native Americans came to him and told him that Black people had come in large boats from the south and southeast trading in gold-tipped metal spears. Van Sertima tells of the emergence of the Mali kingdom and its seafaring ventures, thus providing evidence for sailing capabilities of West Africans. "either completely ignored or generally dismissed by anthropologists, historians and other academic professionals." Van Sertimas main evidence for his claims regarding a pre-Colombian contact between ancient Africans (Nubians) and Olmecs rests on the supposed similarities between Negroid facial features and the colossal Olmec heads. Maize has African origins. 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. Van Sertima's Journal of African Civilizations was not considered for inclusion in Journals of the Century. (Van Sertima, 1972: xiv; They Came Before Colombus). Human Biodiversity, IQ, Evolutionary Psychology, Epigenetics and Evolution, Home Refuting Afrocentrism They Did Not Come Before Columbus. History, as taught in the Western and Western-dominated world, gives the impression that the first Africans to reach the Americas were brought as slaves, in shackles on slaves-ships. [5] Except for a brief mention, the book had not previously been reviewed in an academic journal. [18] What meaning do these ideas have for 20th-century people? Unfortunately, the scholarship that he has inspired has tended to be of a worse quality than Van Sertimas was. A celebrated classic, They Came . Photo: These Sioux Indians in the Black Hills area of Custer, S.D. The Book Review received about 70 letters, the most reader reaction it's had on an issue since the reviewer attacked Robert Frost several yeas ago. 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. Snow continued, "The findings of professional archaeologists and physical anthropologists are misrepresented so that they seem to support the [Van Sertima] hypothesis". 2023 The Moguldom Nation. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. If I didnt look for it myself I was probably wasnt going to learn much more. See Grove (1976) or Ortiz de Montellano (1997). 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. There are Egyptian-like pyramids in the Americas and mummified persons similar to those in Egypt. Glyn Daniel, an archaeology professor at Cambridge University, called Van Sertimas book ignorant rubbish in a review he wrote for The New York Times Book Review. "While I was doing it," he recalls, "I asked myself why was I studying African writers in English.Why didn't I know an African language? Below are pictures of various Olmec sculptures. 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. 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. It was with the coming of Columbus that the twilight of the red and black races began. Also, Van Sertimas case could be strengthened if statues and art known to intended to depict Native Americans were also shown in comparison. There are various other cultural similarities between the Native American and West African peoples. I really have no idea. "They couldn't be slave blacks," he said. Dwayne Wong (Omowale) is a Guyanese born Pan-Africanist and author. pic.twitter.com/c0OjXNOVqt, Black Americans Have the Highest Mortality Rates But Lowest Levels of Life Insurance 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. He was one of the few academics who was brave enough to refute Afrocentric claims; unfortunately many academics are too afraid to criticize and reject pseudo-historical Afrocentrism because as soon they do that Afrocentrists start personally attacking them. So anything that isnt physical (like the mind/consciousness) cant studied by science. All of these claims are incrediblewhich means that they deserve incredible evidence in order to verify them. 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. So what does Sabres GM Kevyn Adams do this week? First discovered by Charles Spearman in 1904, noting that schoolchildren, 1550 words Introduction The role of the Jews in the slave tradeand in the civil warhas garnered a great amount of scholarly attention. I'm trying to follow all the rules but forgive me if this is a bit vague. I read They Came Before Columbus: The African Presence in Ancient America by Ivan Van Sertima. 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. here is no question but that the book is landmark." John A- Wi am. So basically the vast majority of scholars reject Afrocentrism, but are too afraid to say so in public. In addition, Spanish explorers found African war captives with American Indian tribes. "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. A celebrated classic, They Came Before Columbus, dea. [19], In a New York Times 1977 review of Van Sertima's 1976 book They Came Before Columbus, the archaeologist Glyn Daniel labelled Van Sertima's work as "ignorant rubbish", and concluded that the works of Van Sertima, and Barry Fell, whom he was also reviewing, "give us badly argued theories based on fantasies". Mike Harrington: His team looks good, even without Alex Tuch. A certain kind of shadow lifts. He posited that higher learning, in Africa as elsewhere, was the preserve of elites in the centres of civilisations, rendering them vulnerable in the event of the destruction of those centres and the loss of such knowledge. 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. Polynesians/Melanesians of today are obviously not Africans. The audience of about 300 people in the Medaille Campus Center was sprayed with an array of examples -- on slides and verbally -- that supported or debunked the theory that Africans reached the New World well before 1492. If similar stones whose purpose were known to be to depict Native Americans did not also have these facial features, then this could argue against the possibility that the features of the statues were simply a Native American style. What did we do? 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. {{start_at_rate}} {{format_dollars}} {{start_price}} {{format_cents}} {{term}}, {{promotional_format_dollars}}{{promotional_price}}{{promotional_format_cents}} {{term}}, Sabres place Alex Tuch on injured reserve; top-line winger's status is uncertain, Paula's Donuts to move Clarence store that faced backlash for tax breaks to Amherst, Nebraska cheerleader competes by herself at state competition, but crowd doesn't let her feel alone, Chad Hall's departure from Buffalo Bills to Jaguars remains a bit of a mystery. Theres not a shred of evidence to prove this. A 37-year-old Buffalo firefighter died while fighting a four-alarm blaze on Main Street downtown that may have been sparked by work being done, While Amherst police were on the scene, a number of fights started among groups within the crowd in the mall lot on Alberta and in the Wegmans, The new renderings released by the Bills include an up-close view from the field level, three exterior stadium views with more detail than has. Many of the cultural pieces of evidence also provide intriguing support to Van Sertimas thesis, though many may legitimately be debated as coincidences or artefacts resulting simply from commonalities in how the human brain interprets the world. 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. He said, "You cannot really conceive of how insulting it is to Native Americans to be told they were 'discovered'."[14]. 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. Van Sertima said: "Many people feel a certain kind of happiness when they read my book. The belief that Africans were in the Americas before the Europeans were makes sense to me. (renews at {{format_dollars}}{{start_price}}{{format_cents}}/month + tax). Classical scholar Mary Lefkowitz who debunked Afrocentric claims about ancient Greece and Rome in her book Not out of Africa explains how her colleagues let her down because of the fear of being labelled as racist like she was. In addition, there are stories of Egyptian mariners. Listen to GHOGH with Jamarlin Martin | Episode 74: Jamarlin Martin Jamarlin returns for a new season of the GHOGH podcast to discuss Bitcoin, bubbles, and Biden. "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. THEY GAME GOLUM BUS The African Presence in Ancient America Ivan Van Sertima Ncruma] has demonstrated that there is far more to hlach history than the trade. pre-Columbian contact between Africa and the Americas, "Goodbye Columbus? Van Sertima was convinced there was a connection between ancient Africa and the Americas. The professor said that he was intrigued but skeptical when he first encountered the idea of ancient African contact with the Americas. 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. One could do worse. What would the point of shipping Black Indians to Europe then to Africa and then back to America again be? How about that. The truth is that Black Indians were shipped from America to Europe! 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. 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. pic.twitter.com/GRHEgWZkZb. Van Sertima added, How many of us know the African influence on ancient Greece and Rome? In 1970 Van Sertima immigrated to the United States, where he entered Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, for graduate work. 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. As the dogma slowly gets pushed out of science and history we are coming to realize that people of all. "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.". If there were an African presence in the Americas, he asked, "why do we not find more African stylistic artifacts?". (LogOut/ 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 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.