Notes

Ivan Van Sertima, Professor of African Studies at Rutgers University,
theorizes that Africans journeyed to the Americas from 1200 BC through
1300 AD and influenced the development of Mesoamerican culture and
language. He presents voluminous anthropological, agricultural, and linguistic
data in support of his African-diffusion theory. The evidence
presented includes the naval expeditions organized by King Abubakari II of
Mali, Arab-African linguistic influences in medieval Mexico, the influence
of black Africans on ancient Egypt, and the appearance of maize in the old
world prior to Columbus. Van Sertima’s most concrete evidence for preColumbian
African contact is the ancient stone heads of the Olmecs
unearthed in Central and South America. He declares, “There is no denying
their Negro-ness either. The features are not only Negro-African in type but
individual in their facial particulars, canceling out the possibility of ritual
stereotypes of an unknown race produced by some quirk of the sculptor’s
imagination” (p. 30). In describing a post-Classical clay sculpture, the
author explains, “No stylistic accident can account for the undisputed
Negro-ness of the features. From the full, vivid lips, the darkened grain of
the skin, the prognathic bone formation of the cheeks, the wide nostrils, the
generously fleshed nose, down to the ceremonial earring and cotton cap
Cadamoston noted on the warrior boatmen on the Gambia, the American
artist has deftly caught the face of this African” (p. 25).
Ned Wechselman is a Senior History major with an area of concentration in
Political Science at Northern Kentucky University.
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Since the mid-eighteenth century, scholars have suggested an African
presence in ancient and medieval America. In 1920 Professor Leo Wiener,
a Harvard linguist, published Africa and the Discovery of America which
postulated an African and Arabic influence on medieval American languages.
Van Sertima’s book was the first to draw all the pre-Columbian
contact evidence together and call for a reconstruction of world history.
The author wishes to dispel the notion that the Atlantic Ocean presented
a formidable obstacle to the New World before 1492. He claims that
Eurocentric notions of African inferiority have prevented historians from
coming to the inevitable conclusion and that there was indeed preColumbian
contact with Mesoamerica. Furthermore, he accuses European
historians of actively conspiring to deny Africans their rightful place as
contributors to the development of world civilization. Van Sertima’s
intention is to effect a change in consciousness by invalidating the idea that
one race can discover another.
They Came Before Columbus has a clearly Afrocentric agenda which the
author makes clear throughout the text. He makes assertions that one does
not generally associate with academicians: “We now know, without the
shadow of a doubt,” “there is no doubt,” and “there is no question whatsoever.”
A significant portion of the book is comprised of historical dramatizations.
For example, Van Sertima embellishes the mythic journey of King
Abubakari II of Mali to an astonishing degree; he includes a vivid description
of the clothing the king wore as he departed down the Senegal River.
Additionally, he portrays Columbus as an opportunist who conspired with
Portuguese King Don Juan to extract territorial concessions from the
Spanish. Since the goal of the text is to effect a change in consciousness,
these dramatizations are expected, but not necessarily desirable in a historical
work. Oddly,Van Sertima resorts to conventional classifications of race,
describing groups as Negroid, Mongoloid and Caucasoid, and proliferating
terms such as Negro-Egyptian, Negro-Nubian, and Negro-African. These
classifications seem especially archaic, as the author stated a desire to reject
Eurocentric conventions.
To call this book controversial would be an understatement. Afrocentrists
generally regard Van Sertima’s book as gospel while traditional scholars in
the fields of Archeology and Ethnohistory generally dismiss it. In the journal
Current Anthropology, Haslip-Viera, de Montellano & Barbour state: “no
genuine African artifact has ever been found in a controlled archaeological
excavation in the New World.”1 An article in Ethnohistory concluded, “It
also suggests that some Afrocentrists are willing to trample on the self-
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esteem of Native Americans and Latinos of part-Native American background
by denigrating their cultures, by minimizing their role as actors in
their own history, and by usurping their contributions to world civilizations.”2
In the journal New African, Saafu Khpera, on the other hand,
declared that Van Sertima’s book “unearthed startling evidence that points
definitely to pre-Columbian African presence in the Americas.”3
Overall, the book was provocative, intellectually stimulating, and informative
due to the wide range of evidence supporting its thesis and the
author’s elegant prose. Van Sertima’s research on the seaworthiness of
Egyptian papyrus ships, the existence of oceanic currents between West
Africa and Latin America, and the advanced state of Arab oceanic navigation
makes the case that a voyage from Africa to America was technologically
feasible. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that successful voyages
had been made to the New World before Columbus similar to the Viking
expedition to Newfoundland. However, the book’s central thesis, that
Africans arrived in ancient and medieval America in huge fleets and
influenced, and, or dominated Mesoamerican culture was not entirely
convincing. The authors of the Current Anthropology article include photographic
evidence demonstrating that Nubians do not resemble the stereotypical
photos in Van Sertima’s book. Additionally, they provide photos of
Asian populations that are more believable as the models for the giant Olmec
stone heads. Nevertheless, They Came Before Columbus is highly recommended
because it presents interesting ideas, many of which are worthy of
further study.