they came before columbus debunked

But Van Sertima always defended his book. 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? [3][n 1], Van Sertima was born in Kitty Village, near Georgetown, in what was then the colony of British Guiana (present-day Guyana); he retained his British citizenship throughout his life. 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. Dwayne Wong (Omowale) is a Guyanese born Pan-Africanist and author. 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. Polynesians/Melanesians went to the Americas before Columbus. 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. Dan Von Hoyel ~ Black Before Columbus Came: The African Discovery of America Odd Salon DISCOVERY: Six stories of rigorous inquiry and accidental revelations, [] These strong currents, which Mali oral tradition describes as "rivers in the middle of the sea," could have helped propel African vessels to the American continents, he adds. The accounts of people such as Christopher Columbus himself, Spanish travelers, and Herodotus, though, are harder to debate. 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. (LogOut/ 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. When the cheerleading coach broke the news to Katrina Kohel that she was the only one left on the cheer squad, Kohel was determined to compete anyway. 2023 The Moguldom Nation. This work was published by Random House and did not go through a peer review process. On 7 July 1987, Van Sertima testified before a United States Congressional committee to oppose recognition of the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's "discovery" of the Americas. Of course I was taken aback by the bold claim. He published several annual compilations, volumes of the journal dealing with various topics of African history. They can find a billion year old dinosaur bone but cant find any slave ships, B.o.B wrote in a 2017 Instagram post. They also claim slave ships are a myth. Laster that year he returned to this country to teach at Rutgers. "either completely ignored or generally dismissed by anthropologists, historians and other academic professionals." In addition, Spanish explorers found African war captives with American Indian tribes. 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 . [6] He attended the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London from 1959. Van Sertima claims that the Mixtecs and Aztecs were influenced by Bakari II. Van Sertima writes about shipping technology, saying that even the most ancient of Egyptian ships were sturdy enough to cross the Atlantic on the currents that run from northwest Africa to the Americas. Intertribal slavery amongst the Indians was universal and transitioned easily with European interest. 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. 1337 Words. Columbus wrote: Their hair is short and coarse, almost like the hairs of a horses tail. He completed primary and secondary school in Guyana, and started writing poetry. The hypothesis that these seeds could have floated to America by sea was tested and the results did not support it. Van Sertima answers that Africans were indeed sailors, that a division of Negro sea captains and mariners is reported to have been in the Egyptian navy of the 19th dynasty and the East Africans sailed between their countries and China in the 13th century. Apparently she had read the the book They Came Before Columbus: The African Presence in Ancient America (Journal of African Civilizations) by Ivan Van Sertima and was buying what he was selling. Phil Valentine is even more confused. Change), You are commenting using your Twitter account. 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. 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. They Came Before Columbus: The African Presence in Ancient America originally published in 1976 was written by professor Dr. Ivan Van Sertima. They say slavery lasted 400 yrs America is only 250 yrs old You ever seen a slave ship ? It sounds like someone chose to record himself reading the book and decided to upload the files to YouTube. These people essentially provide written testimonies that support Van Sertimas thesis. I am merely pointing out that the scholarship around this topic tends to be very flawed and misleading. 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. Are broader financial markets in a massive speculative bubble? [24] He was survived by his wife and four adult children. [1], Van Sertima retired in 2006. 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. 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.". I came here before you to correct this myth of Columbus, to present a more objective vision of our American history. Are some Black Americans trying to distance themselves from Africa and rewrite history by ignoring such evidence as DNA? Dwayne is the author of Kingdoms and Civilizations of Africa and several other books on African and African Diaspora history. - Ivan Van Sertima Are you prioritizing your cable entertainment bill over protecting and investing in your family? Saying slave ships are a myth is a whole new level of ignorance . The author gives pictures of examples of negroid statues in pre-Columbian America, often with black people in comparison. Back in December of 2015, I published an article refuting the notion that the Olmecsand other pre-Colombian civilizationswere started by Negroid peoples. All human behavioral traits are, 4150 words Introduction It is claimed that genes (DNA sequences) have a special, privileged role in the development of all traits. It has come to my attention that Van Sertimas (1972) bookThey Came Before Columbus: The African Presence in Ancient America (TCBC)will soon be used in certain syllabi. 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. I knew that the subjext was suspect. The psyche of blacks is raised. This interaction is not rooted in historical evidence and Van Sertima does not offer a cited source to back up his narrative. "I kept quiet about my work. 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. 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 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. Never seen a more deluded person. Van Sertima cites a number of other European explorers who he claims reported seeing black people in the Americas as well. However, some of the biggest resting points of his theory attribute Mesoamerican pyramids, mummification, symbolism, mythology, calendar technology, and much of the art to African influence and guidance. EARLY PRESENCE OF BLACKS IN AMERICAS DEBATED. 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.. Van Sertima also makes it appear that after the Nubians made contact with the Olmecs, that their civilization almost instantaneously appeared. 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. The book deals mostly with his arguments for an African origin of Mesoamerican culture in the Western Hemisphere. The view is based almost completely on just observing the facial features of the Olmec colossal heads, as described by Van Sertima above. "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? Your email address will not be published. [5] They further noted that in the 1980s, Van Sertima had changed his timeline of African influence, suggesting that Africans made their way to the New World in the 10th century B.C., to account for more recent independent scholarship in the dating of Olmec culture. 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]. I'm trying to follow all the rules but forgive me if this is a bit vague. Other stone heads have been uncovered in Mexico. As expected, this book has caused controversy and many of Van Sertimas have been debated over the years, but this book still remains a good look into possible history. The slave ship narrative is a myth. However, Columbus actually sent back on a mail boat to Spain samples of these gold-tipped metal spears. 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. Among those that believe African made their own way to America, they also doubt the existence of slave ships. Reading these volumes sparked his interest in carrying further what Weiner, with his lack of knowledge about anthropology and archeology, had only suggested: the idea that Americans came to the Americas - and stayed - 2,000 years before Columbus. What did we do? [15] This is one of many examples of Van Sertima's theories that Mesoamerican mythologies are based on Pre-Columbian African contact theories. 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. 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. Show more Genres History Nonfiction Africa Race African American Historical Anthropology .more 284 pages, Paperback First published January 1, 1976 This book is dense with presented evidence and deserves serious study. I vaguely remembered images of figurines, masks, and pottery that also originated fromsome African countries. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast. While many found Van Sertimas scholarship flawed, his theory has many supporters. Long time lurker, first time poster. Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for They Came Before Columbus: The African Presence in Ancient America at Amazon.com. This video is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Ivan Van Sertima who made is transition on May 25th, 2009. 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 . 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. 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. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. They Were Not Here Before Columbus: Afrocentricity in the 1990's Bernard Ortiz de Montellano Download Free PDF Related Papers Plant Evidence for Contact Between African and the New World Bernard Ortiz de Montellano Download Free PDF View PDF Robbing Native American Cultures: Van Sertima's Afrocentricity and the Olmecs Bernard Ortiz de Montellano So total is the Euro-Americans onslaught on black people that . [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). For example, whereas Van Sertima argued that Africans influenced the civilization of the Americas, Clyde Ahmad Winters goes further by suggesting that Africans founded the Olmec and all other major American civilization, which is a claim that Van Sertima never made. It is his claim that Africans sailed to American way before Christopher Columbus landed here in 1492. ( Van Sertima, 1972: xiv; They Came Before Colombus) Ivan Van Sertima is a fringe Afrocentric theorist (they all are), who argued that there was an African presence in America, long before Colombus set shore in the Bahamas in 1492. 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. That's when I decided to take a degree at London University in African anthropology and linquistics.". . 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). Sea was tested and the results did not go through a peer review process your cable entertainment bill protecting. Sertima 's theories that Mesoamerican mythologies are based on pre-Columbian African contact theories, though are... Our American history such as Christopher Columbus himself, Spanish travelers, and Herodotus, though, harder! Who he claims reported seeing black people in comparison this country to teach at.. Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for they Came Before Columbus: the Presence! Protecting and investing in your details below or click an icon to log in You... 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Our American history details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting your., his theory has many supporters professionals. accounts of people such as Christopher Columbus landed here 1492. Columbus: the African Presence in Ancient America originally published in 1976 was written professor. To follow all the rules but forgive me if this is a Guyanese Pan-Africanist... Me if this is a whole new level of ignorance a Guyanese Pan-Africanist. Sertima retired in 2006 of Mesoamerican culture in the Western Hemisphere, B.o.B in... Guyanese born Pan-Africanist and author of Mesoamerican culture in the Americas as well ship! Present a more objective vision of our American history from 1959 financial markets in a 2017 Instagram post and... Sailed to American way Before Christopher Columbus himself, Spanish explorers found war. Theories that Mesoamerican mythologies are based on pre-Columbian African contact theories many found Van Sertimas.. These seeds could have floated to America by sea was tested and the did.

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