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They Came Before Columbus: The African Presence in Ancient America
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 transportation of plants, animals, and textiles between the continents; and the diaries, journals, and oral accounts of the explorers themselves, Ivan Van Sertima builds a pyramid of evidence to support his claim of an African presence in the New World centuries before Columbus. Combining impressive scholarship with a novelist’s gift for storytelling, Van Sertima re-creates some of the most powerful scenes of human history: the launching of the great ships of Mali in 1310 (two hundred master boats and two hundred supply boats), the sea expedition of the Mandingo king in 1311, and many others. 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.
284 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1976
279 people are currently reading
10612 people want to read
About the author
Ivan Van Sertima
20 books252 followersDr. Ivan Van Sertima was born in Guyana, South America. He was educated at the School of Oriental and African Studies (London University) and the Rutgers Graduate School and held degrees in African Studies and Anthropology. From 1957-1959 he served as a Press and Broadcasting Officer in the Guyana Information Services. During the decade of the 1960s he broadcast weekly from Britain to Africa and the Caribbean.
He was a literary critic, a linguist, and an anthropologist who made a name in all three fields.
As a literary critic, he is the author of Caribbean Writers, a collection of critical essays on the Caribbean novel. He is also the author of several major literary reviews published in Denmark, India, Britain and the United States. He was honored for his work in this field by being asked by the Nobel Committee of the Swedish Academy to nominate candidates for the Nobel Prize in Literature from 1976-1980. He was honored as an historian of world repute by being asked to join UNESCO's International Commission for Rewriting the Scientific and Cultural History of Mankind.
As a linguist, published essays on the dialect of the Sea Islands off the Georgia Coast. He also compiled the Swahili Dictionary of Legal Terms, based on his field work in Tanzania, East Africa, in 1967.
He is the author of They Came Before Columbus: The African Presence in Ancient America, which was published by Random House in 1977 and is presently in its twenty-ninth printing. It was published in French in 1981 and in the same year, was awarded the Clarence L. Holte Prize, a prize awarded every two years “for a work of excellence in literature and the humanities relating to the cultural heritage of Africa and the African diaspora.”
He also authored Early America Revisited, a book that has enriched the study of a wide range of subjects, from archaeology to anthropology, and has resulted in profound changes in the reordering of historical priorities and pedagogy.
Professor of African Studies at Rutgers University, Dr. Van Sertima was also Visiting Professor at Princeton University. He was the Editor of the Journal of African Civilizations, which he founded in 1979 and has published several major anthologies which have influenced the development of multicultural curriculum in the United States. These anthologies include Blacks in Science: ancient and modern, Black Women in Antiquity, Egypt Revisited, Egypt: Child of Africa, Nile Valley Civilizations (out of print), African Presence in the Art of the Americas (due 2007), African Presence in Early Asia (co-edited with Runoko Rashidi), African Presence in Early Europe, African Presence in Early America, Great African Thinkers, Great Black Leaders: ancient and modern and Golden Age of the Moor.
As an acclaimed poet, his work graces the pages of River and the Wall, 1953 and has been published in English and German. As an essayist, his major pieces were published in Talk That Talk, 1989, Future Directions for African and African American Content in the School Curriculum, 1986, Enigma of Values, 1979, and in Black Life and Culture in the United States, 1971.
Dr. Van Sertima has lectured at more than 100 universities in the United States and has also lectured in Canada, the Caribbean, South America and Europe. In 1991 Dr. Van Sertima defended his highly controversial thesis on the African presence in pre-Columbian America before the Smithsonian. In 1994 they published his address in Race, Discourse and the Origin of the Americas: A New World View of 1492.
He also appeared before a Congressional Committee on July 7, 1987 to challenge the Columbus myth. This landmark presentation before Congress was illuminating and brilliantly presented in the name of all peoples of color across the world.
He was a literary critic, a linguist, and an anthropologist who made a name in all three fields.
As a literary critic, he is the author of Caribbean Writers, a collection of critical essays on the Caribbean novel. He is also the author of several major literary reviews published in Denmark, India, Britain and the United States. He was honored for his work in this field by being asked by the Nobel Committee of the Swedish Academy to nominate candidates for the Nobel Prize in Literature from 1976-1980. He was honored as an historian of world repute by being asked to join UNESCO's International Commission for Rewriting the Scientific and Cultural History of Mankind.
As a linguist, published essays on the dialect of the Sea Islands off the Georgia Coast. He also compiled the Swahili Dictionary of Legal Terms, based on his field work in Tanzania, East Africa, in 1967.
He is the author of They Came Before Columbus: The African Presence in Ancient America, which was published by Random House in 1977 and is presently in its twenty-ninth printing. It was published in French in 1981 and in the same year, was awarded the Clarence L. Holte Prize, a prize awarded every two years “for a work of excellence in literature and the humanities relating to the cultural heritage of Africa and the African diaspora.”
He also authored Early America Revisited, a book that has enriched the study of a wide range of subjects, from archaeology to anthropology, and has resulted in profound changes in the reordering of historical priorities and pedagogy.
Professor of African Studies at Rutgers University, Dr. Van Sertima was also Visiting Professor at Princeton University. He was the Editor of the Journal of African Civilizations, which he founded in 1979 and has published several major anthologies which have influenced the development of multicultural curriculum in the United States. These anthologies include Blacks in Science: ancient and modern, Black Women in Antiquity, Egypt Revisited, Egypt: Child of Africa, Nile Valley Civilizations (out of print), African Presence in the Art of the Americas (due 2007), African Presence in Early Asia (co-edited with Runoko Rashidi), African Presence in Early Europe, African Presence in Early America, Great African Thinkers, Great Black Leaders: ancient and modern and Golden Age of the Moor.
As an acclaimed poet, his work graces the pages of River and the Wall, 1953 and has been published in English and German. As an essayist, his major pieces were published in Talk That Talk, 1989, Future Directions for African and African American Content in the School Curriculum, 1986, Enigma of Values, 1979, and in Black Life and Culture in the United States, 1971.
Dr. Van Sertima has lectured at more than 100 universities in the United States and has also lectured in Canada, the Caribbean, South America and Europe. In 1991 Dr. Van Sertima defended his highly controversial thesis on the African presence in pre-Columbian America before the Smithsonian. In 1994 they published his address in Race, Discourse and the Origin of the Americas: A New World View of 1492.
He also appeared before a Congressional Committee on July 7, 1987 to challenge the Columbus myth. This landmark presentation before Congress was illuminating and brilliantly presented in the name of all peoples of color across the world.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 139 reviews
August 21, 2012
I remember my 7th grade history teacher use to talk about Christopher Columbus, and this particular day in class I asked him “ How could he have discovered something when people were watching him from the shore.” Ivan Van Sertima is a Guyanese historian, linguist and anthropologist whose impeccable research clearly demonstrates that great African mariners visited the Americas and had major influences. Any reader who has given this work a negative review, is due to the fact they do not know history and anthropology, and their foundation has been based off of some of the pioneers and scholars who have been culturally biased against Black people and Ancient Black civilizations. After hearing a friend speak highly of it this book; I had to read this book and research the topic on my own. If skeptics think this book is solely for Afro centrist they are wrong this book is very scholarly it gives botanical, cartographical, linguistic, artistic and historical evidence in order to make a strong case for the African presence in America.
August 15, 2012
Stylistically compelling, this book can be an enchanting read, though its thesis is deeply flawed. Behind the dramatizations, Van Sertima asserts two different points: 1) that Africans travelled by sea from Egypt to America about 3000 years ago, thus sparking the first American civilization, the Olmec; and 2) that Afrikans from the Empire of Mali had extensive trading relations with the American peoples of the Caribbean from the time of Mansa Abubakari, in the early 14th century. Of these, the latter is somewhat probable, though Sertima really only proves that Mali sent fleets west (and that was known before his book was published). Sertima however fails to provide any conclusive proof of the extensive trading - it's all circumstantial.
The deepest flaws however, lie with the first point. Here, Sertima uses arguments that are very strange, such as that the famous Olmec Stone heads are "obviously" African, and thus they must be depictions of Africans. Mesoamerican scholars have disproved Sertima, but their arguments have had little spread outside of academic circles. Their article is available online here: http://www.unl.edu/rhames/courses/cur...
And should be read at least as a counterpoint to this book.
What really bugs me is that Sertima never adresses the most serious argument against his thesis: the epidemiological one. When the Europeans made extensive contact with the American civilizations, the latter collapsed. This was not due to some kind of European superiority, but rather the result of Old world microbes, against which the Americans had no resistance whatsoever. Why? Because they never had been exposed to those microbes, never developing any resistance against them. For Sertima's argument to be valid, this lack of resistance on the part of the Americans must be explained. Sertima however fails to do so.
From the epidemiological viewpoint, any pre-columbian contact would have to have been extremely marginal, not affecting the American continents as extensively as Sertima asserts. It is still possible to argue that pre-columbian contact existed, but one will need some kind of proof for this, not the kind of wishful thinking Sertima engages in in this book.
The deepest flaws however, lie with the first point. Here, Sertima uses arguments that are very strange, such as that the famous Olmec Stone heads are "obviously" African, and thus they must be depictions of Africans. Mesoamerican scholars have disproved Sertima, but their arguments have had little spread outside of academic circles. Their article is available online here: http://www.unl.edu/rhames/courses/cur...
And should be read at least as a counterpoint to this book.
What really bugs me is that Sertima never adresses the most serious argument against his thesis: the epidemiological one. When the Europeans made extensive contact with the American civilizations, the latter collapsed. This was not due to some kind of European superiority, but rather the result of Old world microbes, against which the Americans had no resistance whatsoever. Why? Because they never had been exposed to those microbes, never developing any resistance against them. For Sertima's argument to be valid, this lack of resistance on the part of the Americans must be explained. Sertima however fails to do so.
From the epidemiological viewpoint, any pre-columbian contact would have to have been extremely marginal, not affecting the American continents as extensively as Sertima asserts. It is still possible to argue that pre-columbian contact existed, but one will need some kind of proof for this, not the kind of wishful thinking Sertima engages in in this book.
January 13, 2015
Oh my goodness! Forgive me for taking forever to read this book! It was my fault alone! This book was incredible and to sum it up in a nutshell from Sertima's own words, "The African presence in America before Columbus is of importance not only to African and American history but to the history of world civilizations. 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." The variety of proof Sertima gives of the African presence is insightful and convincing and I'm inspired to read much more of historical antiquity because of it.
November 15, 2015
As the only representative of the people VanSertima is trying to steal from. I find it incredibly disrespectful that we're not even taken into consideration as if the "Nubians" were the only reason we develop a high and complex civilization like our mother culture the Olmecs. Everyone is so busy trying to defend Van Sertimas seafaring possibilities that it has blinded your logic on the obvious. WHY did the nubians fleet travel all the way to "Mexico"? Why didn't they trade with Africans, and "give them the civilization" Van Sertima claims? Why isn't there any exchange of technologies? Or immunity to "old world" diseases? Steal, corn, calendar, the concept of zero, wheat, etc. ? where's the concrete evidence we find within other trading partners? All of this evidence is absent because Van Sertima is basically a Charlatan using his creative writing degree to USE US for him money making scheme, and trick African descent people into believe the nonsense of Nubians coming to give us civilization??? With NO evidence what's so ever. SMH Can you be more racist than this? it's as if we don't even exist. This article,http://www.unl.edu/rhames/courses/cur... explains it well. As well as this book "Thieves of Civilization: Afrocentric Attempts to Appropriate the Cultural Heritage of Native Americans" By Gabriel Hassip-Viera
July 7, 2012
I read this book nearly 18 years ago in college and never doubted it bc i always believe there were an african present here before columbus. I also would recommend people read diaries from columbus and other early settlers. U can really learn history far from what the textbooks teach one in school. Im grateful to my history teacher who taught me how to find these first person resources bc i have learned alot about why blacks were enslaved and who idea it was to enslave my ancestors
October 31, 2011
This is another informative book that tells more truth about the Ancient Africans. These Africans travelled to the Americas, namely central America and Mexico. They didn't have steam ships; they had man power and Atlantic trade winds. Africans were doing it before the white man came and told the world that we didn't do anything. DON'T BELIEVE THE HYPE!
March 6, 2014
Outstanding - well documented tracings of voyages, immigrations and trading secrets which go far toward solving mysteries in the Old and New World - of cultural similarities which had heretofore seemed impossible to reconcile with Euro-centric versions of history. Centuries before Columbus or even Eric the Red, commerce and exploration between Africa and the Americas blossomed, and an entire African kingdom seems to have immigrated to South America. It was exciting to read Van Sertma's discussion the plotting and avarice by Columbus against his Queen, and soul-crushing to see the consequence of his 'conquest' and enslavement of the native populations which fell under his sword. I highly recommend this book.
October 11, 2016
Seeing how another Columbus Day has come and gone, it's important to add this book to my read shelf. If you've never read anything by Ivan Van Sertima, this book is an excellent must-read.
December 31, 2008
Very interesting alternative interpretation of well known data about pre-columbian america. After doing some more research inspired by reading this book I've learned that the Moors did indeed have very advanced navigational technology way ahead of the Europeans. So it would not be surprising in the least if they were here before Europeans.
November 10, 2016
Couldn't put this down. At the time this book was first published in 1976, unfortunately I read Erich Von Daniken's 'Chariots of the Gods' as a result it has taken me forty years to venture back into this subject.
Thankfully I came across Ivan Van Sertima's book purely by accident and now I know it wasn't spacemen but West Africans and before them it was Nubian/Egyptian/Phoenician mariners that struck the land of the Olmecs around 600 B.C.
Mr. Columbus really missed the party! By 1495 there had been a couple thousand years of contact backward and forward across the Atlantic. (I didn't know that American Indians sailed across the Atlantic and arrived on the coast of northern Europe in the first century B.C.)
'They Came Before Columbus' is such a well written and comprehensive catalogue of data, providing African artifacts, stone heads, pottery, skeletons, carbon dating, linguistic links, botanical data, anthropological evidence and so much more. Every chapter is accompanied with relevant Notes and References that are most interesting in themselves.
With such a fascinating and wide sweep of historical information that debunks so much tripe that has been published in the past, although it has been on the bookshelves for forty years, this is recommended reading.
Thankfully I came across Ivan Van Sertima's book purely by accident and now I know it wasn't spacemen but West Africans and before them it was Nubian/Egyptian/Phoenician mariners that struck the land of the Olmecs around 600 B.C.
Mr. Columbus really missed the party! By 1495 there had been a couple thousand years of contact backward and forward across the Atlantic. (I didn't know that American Indians sailed across the Atlantic and arrived on the coast of northern Europe in the first century B.C.)
'They Came Before Columbus' is such a well written and comprehensive catalogue of data, providing African artifacts, stone heads, pottery, skeletons, carbon dating, linguistic links, botanical data, anthropological evidence and so much more. Every chapter is accompanied with relevant Notes and References that are most interesting in themselves.
With such a fascinating and wide sweep of historical information that debunks so much tripe that has been published in the past, although it has been on the bookshelves for forty years, this is recommended reading.
February 4, 2017
a really engaging account of how there is a widespread body of evidence for African contact with the Americas on numerous occasions throughout history. this really is one of the most groundbreaking works on an unknown aspect of history I've ever read. I'm not one for books based around archaeology or anthropology but this weaved the research from these fields brilliantly into the narrative of the work. definitely one worth reading for anyone interested in history
November 8, 2018
i've always believed that it was a moral imperative - getting to take credit for and expecting gratitude because of "introducing the African to the world" - and not a slight on technology that prompted many to deny a pre-Columbian African presence in America and it was great to see my sentiment echoed here... or something like that.
October 24, 2014
Read the book 1.5 times. This text should be required reading for all high school students.
June 24, 2009
Read this at a suggestion of a co-worker. Though I do not believe the man definitively makes his case concerning a longstanding trade relationship between Africa and the Americas - his theory concerning the Mayan pyramids being built by the Nubian Era Egypt is particularly glaring since he never acknowledges or explain how, for some mysterious reason, they had forgotten to transfer the invention of the wheel. The sad irony is that by charging Western historians of base racism for discounting any possible evidence that might support his theory, he, in effect, is guilty of the same towards the Mayans, Incans and other native races by suggesting that they were incapable of coming up with these developments on their own.
But I do encourage everyone to read it, largely as an exercise to think through what he states, and find the holes in his theory yourself.
I will say that he definitely does establish for me, that there is definitely a good chance of some cultural transference do to a ship waylaid or suffering some other mishap - but he just doesn't establish a case to support his many fictionalized "historic" accounts of a trading relationship.
But I do encourage everyone to read it, largely as an exercise to think through what he states, and find the holes in his theory yourself.
I will say that he definitely does establish for me, that there is definitely a good chance of some cultural transference do to a ship waylaid or suffering some other mishap - but he just doesn't establish a case to support his many fictionalized "historic" accounts of a trading relationship.
January 21, 2013
"how you like us now?"
December 3, 2021
Eleven colossal Olmec stone monuments, “colossi” eight and a half feet tall, dating to 800 to 700 B.C. and found in Central America clearly show “Negroid” facial features; how could that be imagined so accurately unless an Olmec had seen faces such as these? Found at three sites, they faced east staring at the Atlantic. The likely explanation for the kettle hats of the Olmec colossi is that Phoenician servants wore them and these captured Blacks then made it to the Olmecs. At Monte Alban also were found over 140 figures on stone slabs showing Blacks swimming or dancing. The Indians on Hispaniola told Columbus of black people who used spear heads called guanin which, when examined back in Spain, contained the same metallurgic alloy ratios as African Guineans used. The word “guanin can be traced back to the Mande languages of West Africa. Yes, the first Columbus voyage was “discovery and exploration,” but his second voyage was “colonization and consolidation”. His third voyage brought even more evidence of contact between Guinea and the New World through the appearance of “handkerchiefs” of cotton alike in style, color and function to Guinean clothing.
Balboa ran across African war captives. New World Blacks were found in Columbia and the isthmus of Darien (Panama). It would be easy for ocean currents from Africa to reach these points. We know there was an expeditionary fleet of Abubakari the Second of Mali, whose travelers looked like the found pre-Columbian heads. We know that Abubakari set sail on the Atlantic with a large fleet of boats entering “the river in the middle of the sea” (as a crew member of the one boat that returned described it). He told the Captains of the boats “do not return until you have reached the end of the ocean, or when you have exhausted your food and water.” They packed two years of food – four times the provisions amount taken across the Sahara on the biggest trips. 200 Master boats were built for this voyage, in addition to 200 supply boats.
If Blacks found in the New World were probably ex-slaves or menials, then why did the Aztecs and Maya venerate some of them as deities? Africans didn’t make statues to arriving whites, so why did New World statues involve Black faces? Cabello Balboa talks about 17 Blacks in Ecuador who went from being shipwrecked to being Governors over the Indigenous, how did that happen? In Peru, there is a traditional story of black people coming through the Andes Mountains. What makes this so important is that Olmec culture historically and ultimately acts as the base of Mesoamerican culture (Mexican, Maya, etc). Hanno the Navigator did many African/Mediterranean voyages (circa 500 BC) which shows how possible these early long voyages could be. West Africans say a good ship could easily cross the ocean on purpose, while a poor ship might cross easily by mistake. At the time of Amerigo Vespucci, it was known that in the proper season near the Equator you could cross in small boats. Vespucci crossed from Cape Verde to South America in sixty-four days. Portuguese first encountered Africans on their boats in 1455; they wrote that the boats were very long and swift using oars, not paddles. European navigators didn’t use longitude until the eighteenth century. “Africans were navigating the Atlantic before Christ.” Accidentally voyages “from Asia to America is far more complicated” longer and tortuous but apparently it still did sometimes happen. In the 13th Century, the Swahili shipped an elephant to the emperor of China in a vessel made of palm-fiber lashings and no nails. History has shown that seaworthiness has little to do with boat size.
Thor Heyerdahl’s importance (1947 & 1969 voyages) was showing that “primitive” craft could make long voyages. He went from West Africa to Barbados on his second trip in a simple papyrus reed boat (used before wood boats) which gives huge weight to author Sertima’s ideas. In 1952, Dr. Alain Bombard drifted from Casablanca to Barbados without food and water. He arrived in perfect health sixty-five days later due to having with him two fishing spears, a fishing line with a hook, and a cloth net. In 1955, Hannes Lindemann crossed using the current in a dugout in fifty-two days. There is proof of a Norse site in Newfoundland (L’Anse aux Meadows). Africans left more of a presence in the Americans than the Norse did.
Mexican Quetzalcoatl has a beard but indigenous don’t. The African Mandingo Bambara have a werewolf cult that is identical to the “amanteca” clothing and mask of a Mexican ritual. There are connections between Mande and Maya dialects. Scientists in Egypt under Napoleon concluded that “Egyptian civilization owed its inspiration to a black race”. Herodotus said Egyptians were a “black-skinned and wooly-haired people.” One expert said that pre-dynastic Egyptians would have looked like the melting pot of Blacks on a Caribbean island. These people later mixed with Asians and Caucasians entering North Egypt. Until the Fifth Dynasty, ¼ of the males were Black. The bird and animal deities found depicted in the tombs of the pharaoh’s originated among Black Africans “south and west of the Nile”, like the Nubians. Blacks were painting with realism “before 3000 BC”. The oldest ivory figurines come from the Black Badari. Images show Sudanese Blacks domesticating cattle as early as 4500 BC. Black Africans introduced to Egypt “the bottle gourd, the watermelon, the tamarind fruit and cultivated cotton”. The drying up of the Sahara sent Blacks toward the Nile where they were the dominant force “essentially an African colonization”. India as early as 1300 BC was importing African crops.
“The Sphinx was a portrait statue of the black Pharaoh Khafre.” The greatest of all the pyramids was built during the reign of the African Khufu” (2590-2567 BC). The famous cults of Seth and Amon were Black. The Black cult of Amon later fuses with Ra, the bird headed sun god which gives you the famed Amon-Ra of the Raiders of the Lost Ark fame. Ethiopia has such a Black history that “Ethiops” literally means “burnt face”. This is why Balboa thought the Blacks he met on the isthmus of Darien were Ethiopian. Phoenicians were a semi-literate sea people, think of them as a subject race of Assyria and Egypt that would ship stuff for clients.
Necho II (609-593 BC) paid Phoenician navigators to send a fleet east from Ezion-Geber and go around all of Africa and come back through the Mediterranean. It took three years. The best theory for the colossi is that one of those Phoenician ships got blown off course rounding Africa and ended up in the New World in Olmec territory.
Here’s where it gets really cool: There were no pyramids built in the Americas before those kettle-headed Blacks landed (800-680 BC) in “Olmec Land”. The earliest Egyptian pyramid was built 2700 BC. The earliest American Pyramid was made by the Olmecs. Coincidence? Embalming techniques in Peru are identical to mummification in Egypt, yet the formula is very “complex and elusive”. The famed “murex purple” came from the murex shell from Crete. Making the purple was a complex process; historically purple was a color that came not naturally nor easily. 10,000 snails died to make one purple robe for the powerful. Sertima finds under 30 people who made it to America from Asia on an accidental drift. It’s too hazardous and too long a journey. He also believes African cotton came to American shores before Columbus via a Black man. Studies show that gourds can float for seven months and still have seed viability. Turns out saltwater can have a stimulating effect on seeds. All parts of Mexico show Black’s being portrayed in archaic and pre-Classic sites. Two “Negroid” males were found in the soil layers in Virgin Islands who dated to 1250 AD. And finally, the Popul Vuh (Mayan bible) mentions “black people, pale skinned people”.
A great book; wonderful to have had all this information in one place. Quite a compelling argument that “Atlantic migrations from the African continent are responsible for the black pre-Columbian presence in America from the Olmecs onward.”
Balboa ran across African war captives. New World Blacks were found in Columbia and the isthmus of Darien (Panama). It would be easy for ocean currents from Africa to reach these points. We know there was an expeditionary fleet of Abubakari the Second of Mali, whose travelers looked like the found pre-Columbian heads. We know that Abubakari set sail on the Atlantic with a large fleet of boats entering “the river in the middle of the sea” (as a crew member of the one boat that returned described it). He told the Captains of the boats “do not return until you have reached the end of the ocean, or when you have exhausted your food and water.” They packed two years of food – four times the provisions amount taken across the Sahara on the biggest trips. 200 Master boats were built for this voyage, in addition to 200 supply boats.
If Blacks found in the New World were probably ex-slaves or menials, then why did the Aztecs and Maya venerate some of them as deities? Africans didn’t make statues to arriving whites, so why did New World statues involve Black faces? Cabello Balboa talks about 17 Blacks in Ecuador who went from being shipwrecked to being Governors over the Indigenous, how did that happen? In Peru, there is a traditional story of black people coming through the Andes Mountains. What makes this so important is that Olmec culture historically and ultimately acts as the base of Mesoamerican culture (Mexican, Maya, etc). Hanno the Navigator did many African/Mediterranean voyages (circa 500 BC) which shows how possible these early long voyages could be. West Africans say a good ship could easily cross the ocean on purpose, while a poor ship might cross easily by mistake. At the time of Amerigo Vespucci, it was known that in the proper season near the Equator you could cross in small boats. Vespucci crossed from Cape Verde to South America in sixty-four days. Portuguese first encountered Africans on their boats in 1455; they wrote that the boats were very long and swift using oars, not paddles. European navigators didn’t use longitude until the eighteenth century. “Africans were navigating the Atlantic before Christ.” Accidentally voyages “from Asia to America is far more complicated” longer and tortuous but apparently it still did sometimes happen. In the 13th Century, the Swahili shipped an elephant to the emperor of China in a vessel made of palm-fiber lashings and no nails. History has shown that seaworthiness has little to do with boat size.
Thor Heyerdahl’s importance (1947 & 1969 voyages) was showing that “primitive” craft could make long voyages. He went from West Africa to Barbados on his second trip in a simple papyrus reed boat (used before wood boats) which gives huge weight to author Sertima’s ideas. In 1952, Dr. Alain Bombard drifted from Casablanca to Barbados without food and water. He arrived in perfect health sixty-five days later due to having with him two fishing spears, a fishing line with a hook, and a cloth net. In 1955, Hannes Lindemann crossed using the current in a dugout in fifty-two days. There is proof of a Norse site in Newfoundland (L’Anse aux Meadows). Africans left more of a presence in the Americans than the Norse did.
Mexican Quetzalcoatl has a beard but indigenous don’t. The African Mandingo Bambara have a werewolf cult that is identical to the “amanteca” clothing and mask of a Mexican ritual. There are connections between Mande and Maya dialects. Scientists in Egypt under Napoleon concluded that “Egyptian civilization owed its inspiration to a black race”. Herodotus said Egyptians were a “black-skinned and wooly-haired people.” One expert said that pre-dynastic Egyptians would have looked like the melting pot of Blacks on a Caribbean island. These people later mixed with Asians and Caucasians entering North Egypt. Until the Fifth Dynasty, ¼ of the males were Black. The bird and animal deities found depicted in the tombs of the pharaoh’s originated among Black Africans “south and west of the Nile”, like the Nubians. Blacks were painting with realism “before 3000 BC”. The oldest ivory figurines come from the Black Badari. Images show Sudanese Blacks domesticating cattle as early as 4500 BC. Black Africans introduced to Egypt “the bottle gourd, the watermelon, the tamarind fruit and cultivated cotton”. The drying up of the Sahara sent Blacks toward the Nile where they were the dominant force “essentially an African colonization”. India as early as 1300 BC was importing African crops.
“The Sphinx was a portrait statue of the black Pharaoh Khafre.” The greatest of all the pyramids was built during the reign of the African Khufu” (2590-2567 BC). The famous cults of Seth and Amon were Black. The Black cult of Amon later fuses with Ra, the bird headed sun god which gives you the famed Amon-Ra of the Raiders of the Lost Ark fame. Ethiopia has such a Black history that “Ethiops” literally means “burnt face”. This is why Balboa thought the Blacks he met on the isthmus of Darien were Ethiopian. Phoenicians were a semi-literate sea people, think of them as a subject race of Assyria and Egypt that would ship stuff for clients.
Necho II (609-593 BC) paid Phoenician navigators to send a fleet east from Ezion-Geber and go around all of Africa and come back through the Mediterranean. It took three years. The best theory for the colossi is that one of those Phoenician ships got blown off course rounding Africa and ended up in the New World in Olmec territory.
Here’s where it gets really cool: There were no pyramids built in the Americas before those kettle-headed Blacks landed (800-680 BC) in “Olmec Land”. The earliest Egyptian pyramid was built 2700 BC. The earliest American Pyramid was made by the Olmecs. Coincidence? Embalming techniques in Peru are identical to mummification in Egypt, yet the formula is very “complex and elusive”. The famed “murex purple” came from the murex shell from Crete. Making the purple was a complex process; historically purple was a color that came not naturally nor easily. 10,000 snails died to make one purple robe for the powerful. Sertima finds under 30 people who made it to America from Asia on an accidental drift. It’s too hazardous and too long a journey. He also believes African cotton came to American shores before Columbus via a Black man. Studies show that gourds can float for seven months and still have seed viability. Turns out saltwater can have a stimulating effect on seeds. All parts of Mexico show Black’s being portrayed in archaic and pre-Classic sites. Two “Negroid” males were found in the soil layers in Virgin Islands who dated to 1250 AD. And finally, the Popul Vuh (Mayan bible) mentions “black people, pale skinned people”.
A great book; wonderful to have had all this information in one place. Quite a compelling argument that “Atlantic migrations from the African continent are responsible for the black pre-Columbian presence in America from the Olmecs onward.”
May 12, 2007
This book provides the underpinnings for my novel "The Nubian Codex" (See under "writing" and "thrillers.")It is an awesome, necessary piece of scholarship of which most Americans are totally oblivious.
December 10, 2016
Incredibly eye opening. Van Sertima lays out an overwhelming amount of evidence of a constant African presence in Ancient America, centuries before Columbus set sail. The evidence in undeniable and illustrates how history can easily be distorted by the political climate of the time. After all, the US economy could never be what it is today if it were not for African slaves, and such slavery relied on 'scientific racism'. However, if it became common knowledge that Africans were in America well before Europeans arrived, then the basis for this scientific racism would be undermined - they could not maintain their inferiority if the Africans were capable of achieving things long before them. The presence and influence of Africans had to be covered up wherever it was found.
Sertima has an ability to turn what would otherwise be a tedious amount of information into an easy and engaging read. This book left me questioning the legitimacy of all the history lessons I have been taught, and whether they too are mere fictions that were created to support the political agenda of their time.
Sertima has an ability to turn what would otherwise be a tedious amount of information into an easy and engaging read. This book left me questioning the legitimacy of all the history lessons I have been taught, and whether they too are mere fictions that were created to support the political agenda of their time.
October 26, 2011
I wasted no time procuring this excellent read by literary scholar, Ivan Van Sertima. I was fortunate to witness one of his talks as a student while attending Cal-State University, Long Beach. The research is outstanding, rooted in truth and well documented!
October 10, 2011
Read in college. Very eye opening and informative book that inspires you to read and learn more. Waiting for the day our educational system stops lying about and watering down history.
June 21, 2021
I was very disappointed with this read. When I first heard of the book I was very excited to explore the theory of Africans visiting the Americas before Columbus. However, after a few chapters in, the book became heavily confusing with a lot of linguistic jargon and a lot of back and forth between evidence that made no sense. One big issue I had with the book was its structure. It seemed as if Van Sertima was dropping a lot of information and I felt that I didn't have enough time to understand his evidence.
Overall I was super unhappy while reading and felt his argument was very weak. Partially because he based a large portion of his finding on featurism and the Darwinist categorization of features such as skeletal remains. What I was hoping was substantial evidence that Africans could have visited America, I got a book that seemed to have been motivated to disprove racist assertions by white people who discredited African contributions. While I understand that Africa and its contribution to the world are greatly underappreciated and undermined, I believe Van Sertima's book just wasn't strong enough to present evidence on African arrival in the Americas. Though I wasn't too pleased with his findings, I am still open to the thought that Africans did travel to the Americas but this book doesn't seem to convince me that it actually happened.
Overall I was super unhappy while reading and felt his argument was very weak. Partially because he based a large portion of his finding on featurism and the Darwinist categorization of features such as skeletal remains. What I was hoping was substantial evidence that Africans could have visited America, I got a book that seemed to have been motivated to disprove racist assertions by white people who discredited African contributions. While I understand that Africa and its contribution to the world are greatly underappreciated and undermined, I believe Van Sertima's book just wasn't strong enough to present evidence on African arrival in the Americas. Though I wasn't too pleased with his findings, I am still open to the thought that Africans did travel to the Americas but this book doesn't seem to convince me that it actually happened.
August 12, 2012
I thought this would be an interesting read, but it was terrible.. It almost ended up om my 'abandoned' shelf but I just needed to finish it to be certain ;)
Sure, i believe people could have made it from Africa to America in the ages before Columbus or even the Vikings, but Van Sertima just isn't convincing. I've read far more plausible evidence against his case. The dramatization doesn't help either.
Sure, i believe people could have made it from Africa to America in the ages before Columbus or even the Vikings, but Van Sertima just isn't convincing. I've read far more plausible evidence against his case. The dramatization doesn't help either.
October 14, 2014
Should be required reading in Junior High maybe even elementary schools in the U.S.
July 16, 2014
Powerful and detained argument for African presence in Mesoamerica centuries ahead of Columbus.
February 20, 2014
The best book I've read on African American history. I enjoyed Mr. Sertima's even handed approach. He stayed away from simply proving his point and that African American's need to be more respected for their contribution to society. Rather, he provided information for the reader to decide. He blew holes to some long-standing beliefs. Mr. Sertima use of documented evidence speaks for itself. It was well written and countered point-by-point many "evidence" people believe. I especially liked that he gave credit to authors that he disagreed with. I liked how he used writings during the same time of the naysayers wrote their articles and books. He masterfully wove in threads of information from botanical, linguistics, archeology and anthropology to prove his points.
The book, while primarily speaking on the Black African experience, provides great insight into the great skills and discoveries by Japanese, Chinese, Arabs, Portuguese, Indian (Original Americans)) and others. Further, it highlights the ingenuity of the Indians, Scandinavians, Arabs, Mexican, Spaniards and others. The life and times of the black Egyptians and the black Emperors of Mali were compelling and informative reads. Mr. Sertima also introduced evidence that the American Indians discovered Europe as early as 62 BC. He makes an excellent quote in regards to discovering new lands. Mr. Sertmia says, "No one discovers a fully thriving civilization.
I learned a lot about how the navigational skills of the American Indians and North African transpired. The insightful study of how 77 American Indian tribal names were the same as those of the Berbers in Africa will leaving you wanting to discover more about this information.
All-in-all this wasn't a "pro-black" book rather it was an affirmation of less documented and talked about successes of the black race and others.
The book, while primarily speaking on the Black African experience, provides great insight into the great skills and discoveries by Japanese, Chinese, Arabs, Portuguese, Indian (Original Americans)) and others. Further, it highlights the ingenuity of the Indians, Scandinavians, Arabs, Mexican, Spaniards and others. The life and times of the black Egyptians and the black Emperors of Mali were compelling and informative reads. Mr. Sertima also introduced evidence that the American Indians discovered Europe as early as 62 BC. He makes an excellent quote in regards to discovering new lands. Mr. Sertmia says, "No one discovers a fully thriving civilization.
I learned a lot about how the navigational skills of the American Indians and North African transpired. The insightful study of how 77 American Indian tribal names were the same as those of the Berbers in Africa will leaving you wanting to discover more about this information.
All-in-all this wasn't a "pro-black" book rather it was an affirmation of less documented and talked about successes of the black race and others.
July 28, 2014
I feel like I would have rated this book higher if I had read it earlier in life when I was inundated with material that perpetuated social darwinistic myths about the inadequacies of non-european cultures. Since then however I had read better researched and better written material which supports the (now seemingly obvious) notion that civilizations of all cultural and ethnic stripes and in many geographic locations made very similar technological advances around the same period and those that ultimately came to prominence on a world wide scale had the help of other geographic factors and just dumb luck. Other authors make this point in a more reasoned manner supported by more research.
August 22, 2024
I was drawn to the thesis: what strange heritage does America draw from early African immigrants? What stories and images come hencefrom?
The author draws on a good amount of evidence to make his point, but maybe draws too much evidence. It almost feels like he is desperately trying to convince us that this theory is TRUE, while forgetting to tell the story. Maybe I'm just not scientifically minded enough.
I was searching for stories and myths, but it feels like I found a conspiracy theory.
The author draws on a good amount of evidence to make his point, but maybe draws too much evidence. It almost feels like he is desperately trying to convince us that this theory is TRUE, while forgetting to tell the story. Maybe I'm just not scientifically minded enough.
I was searching for stories and myths, but it feels like I found a conspiracy theory.
September 16, 2013
On page 115, of the 2003 Random House copy of this book, there is an apparent TYPO, first Paragraph, eighth line down, "Nacron (a "preservative Egyptians used for Mummification)" should actually be "Natron."
Besides that, and a few other typos, I found this book epically worth studying. Besides making a brief mention of Eric Von-Danniken, one of my favorite Anthropologists ever, Ivan carelessly states that Von-Danniken "made up" his "spaceman theory," a horrible misnomer as the actual Acheological Evidence says that The Egyptians themselves believed several of their Gods came from the Binary-Star System "Sirius," and indeed both Egyptian and Mayan/Aztec Pyramids are laid out Astronomically, often oriented to Sirius. Likewise numerous studies of the Dogon Tribe of West/Central Africa have some Astonomical knowledge of the Sirius Star system which we "Modern's" did not know until the Hubble Telescope.
Though filled with Sources and Citations, Ivan falls short in a few areas. First, he ends up treating the Pre-Columbian, South American Natives in exactly the same manner as he accuses others of treating Africa!!! Namely, he insists that all the "major civilization improvements" came directly from "revered and Conquering" Africans. And though he spends many pages proving exactly how easy it is to get to South America from Africa and back; He never once speculates the very obvious possibility that TRADE WENT BOTH WAYS! Even on his chapter dedicated to the "Mystery of American Tobacco in Africa," he never once submits, that maybe, just maybe, South American Natives brought Tobacco to Africa.
He also shows an incomplete knowledge of West African Religions and customs. In an early chapter about how the African Gourd reached America he says something like," it makes no sense that an African of that time would simply put a gourd full of seeds in the Ocean to drift away..." ACTUALLY, that makes PERFECT SENSE! West African's of that period often made offerings to the Ocean, a gourd filled with seeds would be most appropriate.
Finally he gives no heed at all to the "Hundredth Monkey Theorem," which came after him time, but still informs us that it IS POSSIBLE for two different humans, separated by distance, and unable to communicate; CAN AND DO come up with "the same" Ideas, at the same time.
So; a very, very good book. I learned a ton. But, as always, read carefully, read critically, and read between the lines!
Besides that, and a few other typos, I found this book epically worth studying. Besides making a brief mention of Eric Von-Danniken, one of my favorite Anthropologists ever, Ivan carelessly states that Von-Danniken "made up" his "spaceman theory," a horrible misnomer as the actual Acheological Evidence says that The Egyptians themselves believed several of their Gods came from the Binary-Star System "Sirius," and indeed both Egyptian and Mayan/Aztec Pyramids are laid out Astronomically, often oriented to Sirius. Likewise numerous studies of the Dogon Tribe of West/Central Africa have some Astonomical knowledge of the Sirius Star system which we "Modern's" did not know until the Hubble Telescope.
Though filled with Sources and Citations, Ivan falls short in a few areas. First, he ends up treating the Pre-Columbian, South American Natives in exactly the same manner as he accuses others of treating Africa!!! Namely, he insists that all the "major civilization improvements" came directly from "revered and Conquering" Africans. And though he spends many pages proving exactly how easy it is to get to South America from Africa and back; He never once speculates the very obvious possibility that TRADE WENT BOTH WAYS! Even on his chapter dedicated to the "Mystery of American Tobacco in Africa," he never once submits, that maybe, just maybe, South American Natives brought Tobacco to Africa.
He also shows an incomplete knowledge of West African Religions and customs. In an early chapter about how the African Gourd reached America he says something like," it makes no sense that an African of that time would simply put a gourd full of seeds in the Ocean to drift away..." ACTUALLY, that makes PERFECT SENSE! West African's of that period often made offerings to the Ocean, a gourd filled with seeds would be most appropriate.
Finally he gives no heed at all to the "Hundredth Monkey Theorem," which came after him time, but still informs us that it IS POSSIBLE for two different humans, separated by distance, and unable to communicate; CAN AND DO come up with "the same" Ideas, at the same time.
So; a very, very good book. I learned a ton. But, as always, read carefully, read critically, and read between the lines!
January 31, 2015
This book makes you want to read something with actual hard evidence. The theories he presents are completely plausible and in some cases backed by actual evidence but the majority of the book is based on the idea "why not". Don't get me wrong, his history is accurate but the direction he goes just doesn't have enough hard evidence for his ideas to become mainstream, it's almost as if Sertima started a journey he knew he wouldn't be able to finish with the evidence and research at his disposal. The book straddles the Atlantic Ocean and between the Americas and Africa the evidence is much more solid in Africa but when it comes to the Americas his story devolves into a narrative laced with some historical anecdotes and the occasional tidbit of weak evidence. The joy of this book came from his ideas, propositions, and historical hypotheticals. In my opinion it's only a matter of time until another historian/author digs up the right evidence and finally proves many of Sertima's assertions true. It took several decades for people to accept the Vikings as Pre-Columbian explorers but that eventually changed as the right evidence was dug up. I believe we will see the same with the African presence in America and you can say you read it first with Sertima's excellent book.
October 12, 2020
Obviously this is a controversial book, but it's a good book. It begins with some really engrossing explorations that challenged my understandings, and who doesn't like that? Overall I'm not sure the narrative is succinct enough to convince the average reader. I find some of his postulates highly effective, and I do believe Africans were on this continent long before Columbus. I don't know enough about archaeology to say for sure how valid his arguments are in that regard, but they certainly hold their own logically. As for the concerns that Van Sertima belittles the accomplishments of Indigenous Americans- he makes quite clear that is not his intent, at least in an Afrocentric context. And he does specifically mention that he does not seek to undermine the accomplishments of Native America.
And even if he's dead wrong on everything... why not??? Why not shake it up a bit?? I'm utterly tired of conventional history and how it panders to White Supremacy. Have a look!
And even if he's dead wrong on everything... why not??? Why not shake it up a bit?? I'm utterly tired of conventional history and how it panders to White Supremacy. Have a look!
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