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. Rhythm, flow, enunciation of some words could be improved upon, but again this seemed to be a random volunteer. Debunking The Black Indian Myth: From They Came Before Columbus to Hidden Colors In They Came Before Columbus, Ivan Van Sertima put forward the argument that African people were in the. 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. Van Sertima's Journal of African Civilizations was not considered for inclusion in Journals of the Century. [5] Except for a brief mention, the book had not previously been reviewed in an academic journal. ". 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. Keep supporting great journalism by turning off your ad blocker. 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. In the documentary, Umar Johnson claims that Africans were going back and forth engaging in cultural and economic trade before Columbus. [6] He attended the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London from 1959. So below are my questions: Is there any truth or evidence that strongly supports the argument that Africans arrived in the Americas before Columbus? I really have no idea. here is no question but that the book is landmark." John A- Wi am. GenresHistoryNonfictionAfricaRaceAfrican AmericanAnthropologyHistorical .more 284 pages, Paperback First published January 1, 1976 Book details & editions Sidenote: I enjoyed the story of Mali in Chapter 3. Dwayne is the author of Kingdoms and Civilizations of Africa and several other books on African and African Diaspora history. 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. 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). Van Sertima, 42, here Saturday for the concluding day of the third annual black writers conference sponsored by Howard University, said the pervious to original thought, who will letters exposed Daniel as "a man imnot even do honest battle with ideas he contends but tries to drown out in a sea of vituperation and abuse.". If there were an African presence in the Americas, he asked, "why do we not find more African stylistic artifacts?". Some paint their faces, others the whole body, some only round the eyes, others only on the nose. 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. There are some problems with this theory. What meaning do these ideas have for 20th-century people? Mansa Musa took the throne after the previous ruler, Abu Bakr II, went on an expedition to sail the Atlantic Ocean. [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. 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. 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. 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. While many found Van Sertimas scholarship flawed, his theory has many supporters. Experts have determined that the gourds floated across the Atlantic and washed ashore in the Americas to be adopted by Mesoamerican cultures. He said, "You cannot really conceive of how insulting it is to Native Americans to be told they were 'discovered'."[14]. 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. 1337 Words. 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. These discs were placed above entrances of inner chambers of temples in Egypt and above temple door lintels in pre-Columbian America. I'm trying to follow all the rules but forgive me if this is a bit vague. 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]. 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. 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 total is the Euro-Americans onslaught on black people that . Daniel's review provoked a barrage of letters - from scholars and laypersons - defending Van Sertima. It could be dark, bronze people from South America. 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. Any other significant information about the history of my people tended to start with, we were slaves. However, Columbus actually sent back on a mail boat to Spain, samples of these gold-tipped metal spears. Review of They Came Before Columbus by Dr. Ivan Van Sertima, Their Eyes were upon me: Learning of Nephilim, They Came Before Columbus: The African Presence in Ancient America, Review of the Undoing Project by Michael Lewis, Thoughts on the Undoing Project by Michael Lewis-Part 2, Follow Gazing off into Space on WordPress.com. They are familiar with American history, right? Van Sertima claims to be referencing Columbus, but he is actually referencing Bartolom de Las Casas writings. In 1977, Van Sertima wrote "They Came Before Columbus: The African Presence in Ancient America," a controversial book now in its 21st printing. What did I know or was taught? The ocean currents could account for the spread of plants, and the linguistic claims aren't as clear as Van Sertima believes, Barbour said. He talks about the risk factors for Bitcoin as an investment asset including origin risk, speculative market structure, regulatory, and environment. Probably Columbus did not believe this, and that fact in itself would not be enough because the so-called Black people could be any people. 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. And he started work, using his own money. Intertribal slavery amongst the Indians was universal and transitioned easily with European interest. Change), You are commenting using your Facebook account. I found an audio version of this book on YouTube. Sources of information on such misconceptions and strategies for helping students to overcome them are . Phil Valentine is even more confused. What is the view of historians in general? (LogOut/ I may hear about anything from the cultural revolution, to ancient Chinese dynasties, to Genghis Kan. However, anthropologists and archaeologists who specialized in Mesoamerican history, rightly, reject Van Sertimas storytelling. Human Biodiversity, IQ, Evolutionary Psychology, Epigenetics and Evolution, Home Refuting Afrocentrism They Did Not Come Before Columbus. Did we learn anything in there that I had simply forgotten? Van Sertima's work on Olmec civilization has been criticised by Mesoamerican academics,[17] who describe his claims to be ill-founded and false. There have been a number of diffusion theories regarding the Olmec. Photo: These Sioux Indians in the Black Hills area of Custer, S.D. With that being said, the narration isnt the best that Ive heard. Evidence indicates that humans originated in Africa. Van Sertima said: "Many people feel a certain kind of happiness when they read my book. There was Nelson Mandelas fight against apartheid in South Africa. Barbour, the first African-American to earn a doctorate in archaeology, is an expert on Mesoamerican culture and associate scientific director of the African Burial Ground Project in Lower Manhattan. 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 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. Reportedly, from American historian and linguist Leo Weiner of Harvard Universitys book Africa and the Discovery of America (Ill have to add that one to the list too) in one of Columbuss journals there is an account of a statement by the Native Americans saying that they had encountered black people prior to the arrival of Columbus. Furthermore, Van Sertima, quite wildly, claims that since the Olmec heads were black then they must have represented African people. This doesnt seem to be an official recording. [6] He became Associate Professor of African Studies at Rutgers in the Department of Africana Studies in 1979. "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 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.". 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. There are similarities between the Mandingo god the Dasiri of the Bambara and the god Quetzalcoatl of the Olmecs. 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. This video is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Ivan Van Sertima who made is transition on May 25th, 2009. I saw Dr. Van Sertima lecture at Cornell University in 1979. The Case for Reparations for Black Americans, On Asian Immigration to the United States, Hyper-Selectivity, and Hereditarian Musings on Asian Academic Success, The Sexualization of Steatopygia and Adaptationist Claims of Sex Organs, On the So-Called Laws of Behavioral Genetics, The Answer to Hereditarianism is Developmental Systems Theory, Mind, Science, and the First- and Third-Person, Why Purely Physical Things Will Never Be Able to Think: The Irreducibility of Intentionality to Physical States, Follow NotPoliticallyCorrect on WordPress.com, The Non-Validity of IQ: A Response to The Alternative Hypothesis, Black-White Differences in Anatomy and Physiology: Black Athletic Superiority. There is a lack of evidence for his claims and, the evidence he claims lends credence to his outlandish claims falls short since we know the origins of what convinced him that there was an ancient African presence in Mesoamerica. If you are experiencing difficulties logging in or are a subscriber getting a paywall, please try one or more of the following steps. pic.twitter.com/GRHEgWZkZb. Change). 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). 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