Ivan Gladstone Van Sertima (26 January 1935 25 May 2009) was a Guyanese-born British associate professor of Africana Studies at Rutgers University in the United States. I found an audio version of this book on YouTube. Van Sertima married Maria Nagy in 1964; they adopted two sons, Larry and Michael. However, Columbus actually sent back on a mail boat to Spain samples of these gold-tipped metal spears. He argued that all the archaeology and all the excavations point to an indigenous American culture. 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. Yeah, they forget about the actual red dark Indians in India. 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. 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. But Van Sertima always defended his book. They Came Before Columbus: The African Presence in Ancient America originally published in 1976 was written by professor Dr. Ivan Van Sertima. "Some of these voyages are designed or planned; some are accidental," he said. - Ivan Van Sertima The slave ship narrative is a myth. Van Sertima states near the end of the book that all civilizations are capable of independent invention, and that he aims to place his claims on the spectrum between diffusionism and isolationism, or the idea that cultures separated geographically are capable of inventing similar things without interaction between the two. There is evidence of African cotton seeds in America. [1], Van Sertima retired in 2006. 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. 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. What country did your, say, grandfather or great-grandfather or whatever come from?. Anthropologists, archaeologists, historians and linguists alike have debunked much of the evidence that Menzies used to support his notion, which has come to be called the 1421 theory. Did we learn anything in there that I had simply forgotten? Polynesians/Melanesians of today are obviously not Africans. I have, 2600 words What do normativity and intentionality mean? Your email address will not be published. The mapmaker, Martin Waldseemller, named the New World "America," after the Italian Amerigo Vespucci, who had explored the coastline of South America and was the first to realize that it was a . Rhythm, flow, enunciation of some words could be improved upon, but again this seemed to be a random volunteer. [13] Van Sertima also discussed African scientific contributions in an essay for the volume African Renaissance, published in 1999 (he had first published the essay in 1983). He said, "You cannot really conceive of how insulting it is to Native Americans to be told they were 'discovered'."[14]. The spears, he claimed, were identical to weapons from African Guinea. It was with the coming of Columbus that the twilight of the red and black races began. Dwayne is the author of Kingdoms and Civilizations of Africa and several other books on African and African Diaspora history. Professor Ivan van Sertima, They Came before Columbus A review by Femi Akomolafe, 19 January 1995. Others hold true to the story of the American slave trade in which enslaved Africans were brought to Americas shores to provide free labor to build the country and grow the economy. In the documentary he says that Mansa Musa is the same person as Montezuma. Change). 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. Some believe that Blacks were already in America and have more Native American ancestry than African. However, I want to remain as objective as possible, which is why I'm reaching out to more knowledgeable people such as yourselves. Its really that easy to explain the so-called similar appearances in nose shape between the Olmec heads and African noses. 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? Zinn perpetuates Koning's smears. The description that Columbus gives certainly is not a description of black people in the Caribbean. Their Negro-ness could not be explained away nor, in most cases, their African cultural origin. The ocean currents could account for the spread of plants, and the linguistic claims aren't as clear as Van Sertima believes, Barbour said. "[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". The majority of us here in America the descendant of slaves were already aboriginal in America and were the slave population of choice. Intertribal slavery amongst the Indians was universal and transitioned easily with European interest. 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. Van Sertima also argued it was Columbus himself who suggested that Africans were in the Americas before he was. With that being said, the narration isnt the best that Ive heard. (LogOut/ 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. I am not completely dismissive of the idea that Abu Bakr could have in fact successfully arrived in the Americas. What meaning do these ideas have for 20th-century people? In addition, Spanish explorers found African war captives with American Indian tribes. Van Sertima was convinced there was a connection between ancient Africa and the Americas. Technically, Carthage was a part of Northern Africa too. Haslip-Vierra, de Montellano and Barbour. pic.twitter.com/sKrVa4a2JQ, I figured you say something like that.Are these people mixed with "native American" or are they just Black indigenous indians? Furthermore, Van Sertima, quite wildly, claims that since the Olmec heads were black then they must have represented African people. Most average 5-year olds with decent critical thinking ability can spot the cracks in the theory. The professor said that he was intrigued but skeptical when he first encountered the idea of ancient African contact with the Americas. The African presence in America before Columbus is of importance not only to African and American history but to the history of world civilizations. Black settlements developed at the end points of major currents from Africa, he contended. "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. 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. Snow continued, "The findings of professional archaeologists and physical anthropologists are misrepresented so that they seem to support the [Van Sertima] hypothesis". 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.". 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. Van Sertima tells of the emergence of the Mali kingdom and its seafaring ventures, thus providing evidence for sailing capabilities of West Africans. In They Came Before Columbus, Ivan Van Sertima put forward the argument that African people were in the Americas long before Columbus was. Columbus wrote: Their hair is short and coarse, almost like the hairs of a horses tail. 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. This is not a romantic idea. I can only assume that Van Sertima is largely responsible for this line of thinking which was largely debunked then and is especially debunked today . No man who believes his history began with slavery can be a healthy man. Required fields are marked *. Van Sertimas scholarship was flawed in many respects, but he made an attempt to challenge the racist scholarship of his time. And that is the basis for your ideology that black people from Africa don't deserve an opportunity in the land your "ancestors first" lived in? It could be dark, bronze people from South America. One could do worse. One of the most striking pieces of evidence is the negroid statues, statues of peoples with thick lips and wide noses. Weiant, who had a PhD in archaeology, also wrote numerous articles on extrasensory perception and was an active member of the. 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Van Sertima uses written, archaeological, and cultural evidence to support his thesis. A celebrated classic, They Came . [18] 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. 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. To assuage the Christian conscience for the enslavement of a people, one could not believe that black people were intelligent enough and capable of such feats as the ancient Egyptians. Van Sertima claims that the Mixtecs and Aztecs were influenced by Bakari II. White ppll pulled up to America and realize the whole country was filled with black ppl. The belief that Africans were in the Americas before the Europeans were makes sense to me. He devotes Chapter 8 to discussing the beneficial innovations and flourishing of culture under Nubian rulers in Egypt. Some paint their faces, others the whole body, some only round the eyes, others only on the nose. If each piece of evidence and argument was listed, the list would be as long as the index. The two likely were not even alive at the same time period. [15] This is one of many examples of Van Sertima's theories that Mesoamerican mythologies are based on Pre-Columbian African contact theories. It sounds like someone chose to record himself reading the book and decided to upload the files to YouTube. In 1455 the Portuguese sailor Alvise da Cadamostoin encountered West African riverboats in the Gambian river. 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. I saw Dr. Van Sertima lecture at Cornell University in 1979. 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