I wasn't halfway through this book and I was thoroughly offended, but I finished it just to hear their point of view. 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. Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. So anything that isnt physical (like the mind/consciousness) cant studied by science. Theres not a shred of evidence to prove this. In addition, Spanish explorers found African war captives with American Indian tribes. 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. Van Sertima married Maria Nagy in 1964; they adopted two sons, Larry and Michael. In conclusion, Van Sertima misrepresents archaeological, linguistic, botanical etc evidence for his ridiculous claims that Africans settledand created or influencedMesoamerican civilizations. . [15] 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. It was with the coming of Columbus that the twilight of the red and black races began. "I kept quiet about my work. 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". While many found Van Sertimas scholarship flawed, his theory has many supporters. 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. All parties remained peaceful, and Columbus specifically instructed his crews not to take advantage of the Indians. 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. ", Van Sertima said he didn't travel much to research the book. In the documentary he says that Mansa Musa is the same person as Montezuma. 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. Columbus is not just a man, he is a symbol. 1. 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. Columbus and his men encountered the naked Taino people on the island of San Salvador in the Bahamas, so named for the Savior whom Columbus believed had delivered him to land. Did the Spanish also assay the spears of West Africa to know what ratio of gold, silver and copper alloys were found in the African spears? The author gives pictures of examples of negroid statues in pre-Columbian America, often with black people in comparison. Also, Van Sertimas case could be strengthened if statues and art known to intended to depict Native Americans were also shown in comparison. 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. [6] Also in 1979, Van Sertima founded the Journal of African Civilizations, which he exclusively edited and published for decades.[6][12]. Van Sertimas scholarship was flawed in many respects, but he made an attempt to challenge the racist scholarship of his time. Read honest and unbiased product reviews from our users. Your email address will not be published. "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. https://twitter.com/BreeNewsome/status/1404242564585246720?s=20&t=Lv4XscKZw3SR_tmBhetmbg, https://twitter.com/tariqnasheed/status/1501640824576110595?s=20&t=Lv4XscKZw3SR_tmBhetmbg, https://twitter.com/RDCRaissa/status/1503381403836293127?s=20&t=Lv4XscKZw3SR_tmBhetmbg, https://twitter.com/JaKaB0i_116/status/1503133876637638663?s=20&t=Lv4XscKZw3SR_tmBhetmbg, The Genetic Ancestry of African Americans, Latinos, and European Americans across the United States. 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. pic.twitter.com/c0OjXNOVqt, Black Americans Have the Highest Mortality Rates But Lowest Levels of Life Insurance please donate https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=ZPEYVFR6AgeofReason198EKA be a monthly supporter https://www.patreon.com/. 1337 Words. The g-spot has been referred to as the female prostate (Puppo, 2014) and, 2550 words Steatopygia is an extreme accumulatation of large amounts of fat on the buttocks, and is also known as obesity in the coccyx (Wallner, 2400 words In the year 2000, psychologist Erik Turkheimer proposed three laws of behavioral genetics (LoBG hereafter): First Law. (LogOut/ Weiant, who had a PhD in archaeology, also wrote numerous articles on extrasensory perception and was an active member of the. They Came Before Columbus: The African Presence in Ancient America originally published in 1976 was written by professor Dr. Ivan Van Sertima. They also claim slave ships are a myth. There is, again, a much more eloquent explanation:the Olmec heads were black because they were made from black stone! Van Sertima's zeal for learning about African culture began in England in the '60s while he was working as a writer for the BBC. 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. Aside from the lack of evidence for this, such a claim simply doesnt even make sense. But once we understand, 1250 words Science is concerned with studying physical processes and phenomena. This was all that I could recall being formally taught. 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). Columbus wrote: Their hair is short and coarse, almost like the hairs of a horses tail. His widow, Jacqueline Van Sertima, said she would continue to publish the Journal of African Civilizations. The story of Hannibal of Carthage always stuck with me since high school, though his story was told probably because of its relation to European history. At the time that the dominant narrative of the origins of ancient Egyptian civilization emerged, the use of African slaves was well into effect. Saying slave ships are a myth is a whole new level of ignorance . 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. 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. If I didnt look for it myself I was probably wasnt going to learn much more. EARLY PRESENCE OF BLACKS IN AMERICAS DEBATED. He published several annual compilations, volumes of the journal dealing with various topics of African history. [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". Yeah, they forget about the actual red dark Indians in India. So again, thanks. Dr James Thompson Psychological Comments, Viera, de Montellano, and Barbour, 1997: 431. (Viera, de Montellano, and Barbour, 1997: 431). Alas, none exist. Despite this, some individuals would argue: A mass colony of Africans were not shipped from Africa to America. Dwayne is the author of Kingdoms and Civilizations of Africa and several other books on African and African Diaspora history. Long time lurker, first time poster. (renews at {{format_dollars}}{{start_price}}{{format_cents}}/month + tax). There is evidence of African cotton seeds in America. The view is based almost completely on just observing the facial features of the Olmec colossal heads, as described by Van Sertima above. There is far more to Black history than the slave trade alright. The psyche of blacks is raised. The spears, he claimed, were identical to weapons from African Guinea. The others are unidentified. If you lift that shadow, you help repair that damage. With that being said, the narration isnt the best that Ive heard. How convenient. Ocean currents such as the Guinea and Canary currents were likely to have aided Africans sailing to America as well. brilliantly [demonstrates] has that there is far more to black history than the slave trade."John A. Williams They Came Before Columbus reveals a compelling, dramatic, and superbly detailed documentation of the presence and legacy of Africans in ancient America.Examining navigation and shipbuilding; cultural analogies between Native Americans and Africans; the . The description that Columbus gives certainly is not a description of black people in the Caribbean. "Human beings in any population have a great deal of variation," pointed out Barbour, whose methodical approach contrasted sharply with Van Sertima's more theatrical arguments. 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. When evidence came out refuting Van Sertimas storytelling, he concocted an ad hoc hypothesis to save his hypothesis from immunization. [5] Instead, Van Sertima replied to his critics in "his" journal volume published as Early America Revisited (1998). Van Sertima states that even the Greek historian Herodotus had an account of black Egyptian people. Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. These discs were placed above entrances of inner chambers of temples in Egypt and above temple door lintels in pre-Columbian America. 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. Unfortunately, the scholarship that he has inspired has tended to be of a worse quality than Van Sertimas was. Of course I was taken aback by the bold claim. Are you prioritizing your cable entertainment bill over protecting and investing in your family? One could do worse. So, Van Sertima had his conclusion in mind first, and looked for evidence for itmeaning he was telling just-so stories. Van Sertima also includes photos of an African man and woman for comparison, but he does not include pictures of inhabitants of the area where the artifacts were found. In 1977, Van Sertima wrote "They Came Before Columbus: The African Presence in Ancient America," a controversial book now in its 21st printing. Phil Valentine is even more confused. 'Roots' goes back to the time when the damage was beginning. {{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. The African presence in America before Columbus is of importance not only to African and American history but to the history of world civilizations. Rhythm, flow, enunciation of some words could be improved upon, but again this seemed to be a random volunteer. She also planned to publish a book of his poetry.[25]. Below are pictures of various Olmec sculptures. Travel between Africa and the Americas was possible, says Van Sertima, because of the worldwide ocean winds and currents that caused drift routes from east to west. Snow continued, "The findings of professional archaeologists and physical anthropologists are misrepresented so that they seem to support the [Van Sertima] hypothesis". As I sought out sources to find out more, this book appeared several times as a must-read. "Columbus is not just a man, lic is a symbol. Are some Black Americans trying to distance themselves from Africa and rewrite history by ignoring such evidence as DNA? This work was published by Random House and did not go through a peer review process. [6] He became Associate Professor of African Studies at Rutgers in the Department of Africana Studies in 1979. 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