dr ivan van sertima they came before columbus

In his Journal of the Second Voyage, Columbus wrote that when he reached Haiti, then labeled Espanola, the native people told him that black skinned people had come from the south and southeast in ships trading in gold tipped metal spears. As Columbus Day (October 12) approaches and as we celebrate the 40 th anniversary of the publication of They Came Before Columbus by the late Rutgers University professor, Ivan Van Sertima, we must reveal to the world the grandeur of Africa by highlighting the achievements of some of its great navigators and rulers.Įver since Christopher Columbus first suggested that Black Africans preceded him to the New World, a number of scholars have investigated this contention. In truth, Africans began coming to the Americas thousands of years before Columbus and the evidence of their presence, though systematically ignored by mainstream scholars, is overwhelming and undeniable.

How central the role was that African Americans played has never been completely told and, unfortunately, a pivotal part of that history has been excluded from this exhibit. The New York Times has stated that this long awaited monument to centuries of African American suffering and triumphs “makes a powerful declaration: The African-American story is a central part of the American story.” On September 24 th, 2016, the National Museum of African American History and Culture opened in Washington, D.C. It is grounded now upon an overwhelming and growing body of reliable witnesses.” –Ivan Van Sertima, They Came Before Columbus. The case for African contacts with pre-Columbian America, in spite of a number of understandable gaps and a few minor elements of contestable data, is no longer based on the fanciful conjecture and speculation of romantics. When the feasibility of African crossings of the Atlantic was not proven and the archaeological evidence undated and unknown, we could in all innocence ignore the most startling of coincidences. “The African presence is proven by stone heads, terra cottas, skeletons, artifacts, techniques and inscriptions, by oral traditions and documented history, by botanical, linguistic and cultural data. By The African United Front © 2016 Professor Ivan Van Sertima

Dr ivan van sertima they came before columbus