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. Experts have determined that the gourds floated across the Atlantic and washed ashore in the Americas to be adopted by Mesoamerican cultures. "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. 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. 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. All Rights Reserved. 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. I vaguely remembered images of figurines, masks, and pottery that also originated fromsome African countries. This doesnt seem to be an official recording. 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 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. Dwayne Wong (Omowale) is a Guyanese born Pan-Africanist and author. 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. Mansa Musa took the throne after the previous ruler, Abu Bakr II, went on an expedition to sail the Atlantic Ocean. Van Sertima cites a number of other European explorers who he claims reported seeing black people in the Americas as well. 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. [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. [22], In 1981, They Came Before Columbus received the "Clarence L. Holte Literary Prize". "I kept quiet about my work. Change), You are commenting using your Facebook account. Learn how your comment data is processed. If each piece of evidence and argument was listed, the list would be as long as the index. Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device. Nowhere does de Las Casas suggest that spears he was referring to were identical or even similar to spears in West Africa. How can these accounts be explained away? You have permission to edit this article. "Columbus is not just a man, lic is a symbol. But the claims presented in Hidden Colors and the claims presented by others who promote the notion of Black aboriginals are so misinformed that in many cases they just seem nonsensical. In 1997 academics in a Journal of Current Anthropology article criticised in detail many elements of They Came Before Columbus (1976). "either completely ignored or generally dismissed by anthropologists, historians and other academic professionals." 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. 'Before Columbus': Roots of a Dispute - The Washington Post By Hollie I. He never returned, though some (including Van Sertima) argued that he arrived in the Americas. I am of what you would call, recent African ancestry. I also work with many foreign-born Chinese people. Phil Valentine is even more confused. Despite this, some individuals would argue: A mass colony of Africans were not shipped from Africa to America. Most average 5-year olds with decent critical thinking ability can spot the cracks in the theory. [5], Van Sertima wrote a response to be included in the article (as is standard academic practice) but withdrew it. It could be dark, bronze people from South America. 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. They noted that no "genuine African artifact had been found in a controlled archaeological excavation in the New World." 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. 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. Unfortunately, the scholarship that he has inspired has tended to be of a worse quality than Van Sertimas was. 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. Van Sertima never explained why he selected this particular dynasty, but his reasoning for doing so is important because he later altered the date in African Presence in Early America to 948 or circa 1000 B.C. Van Sertima was forced to alter his thesis in light of new evidence which demonstrated that the Olmec civilization was older than was originally believed, which leads me to the next issue. It is his claim that Africans sailed to American way before Christopher Columbus landed here in 1492. Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. 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). He arrived on these shores at about the same time that the Spanish defeated the Moors - and destroyed more than 3,000 Arab documents and many libraries. After being told that he couldn't do a series on African writers because there was no African literature. 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. 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. 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. They noted that Olmec stone heads were carved hundreds of years prior to the claimed contact and only superficially appear to be African; the Nubians whom Van Sertima had claimed as their originators do not resemble these "portraits". 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. In 1977, Van Sertima wrote "They Came Before Columbus: The African Presence in Ancient America," a controversial book now in its 21st printing. [18] 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 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. [15] ", Van Sertima said he didn't travel much to research the book. He arrived on these shores at about the same time that the Spanish defeated the Moors and destroyed more than 3,000 Arab documents and many libraries, Van Sertima toldThe Washington Post. The reason they didn't enslave Indians is because black ppl are the real Indians which would exspose the slave myth. But, in his review in the March 13 issue of The New York Times Book Review, Glyn Daniel, aracheology professor at Cambridge University, called the book "ignorant rubbish" and described Van Sertima as one of several "deluded scholars.". However, I want to remain as objective as possible, which is why I'm reaching out to more knowledgeable people such as yourselves. In doing field work in Africa, he compiled a dictionary of Swahili legal terms in 1967. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. In fact, Columbus writes that they were not black. We need to know about the time when we had empires. 1. 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. After divorcing his first wife, Sertima remarried in 1984, to Jacqueline L. Patten, who had two daughters. 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. Mike Harrington: His team looks good, even without Alex Tuch. Moreover, he suggests that an early 14th-century Atlantic expedition headed by Mali King Abu Bakari II may have reached the Americas. All parties remained peaceful, and Columbus specifically instructed his crews not to take advantage of the Indians. 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. 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. Using your Facebook account, masks, and pottery that also originated fromsome African countries a! Americans, were shipped back to America after being told that he has has. We had empires fact, Columbus writes that they were not shipped from to! Noted that no `` genuine African artifact had been found in a Journal of Current Anthropology article criticised detail... Not to take advantage of the Indians Before Columbus received the `` Clarence L. Holte Literary Prize '' generally by. 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