African Presence in Ancient America

African Presence in Ancient America (Part I)

In the history of America, Christopher Columbus is generally known for the first contact of the New World (the America’s). Although having concrete evidence most historians deny the African presence in the Americas before Columbus in spite of the physical and cultural evidence presented by Ivan Van Sertima and other scholars. Despite academic resistance and racist ideology, Ivan Van Sertima provides, in his book, They Came Before Columbus: African Presence in Ancient America, not only evidence of African people in the Americas prior to 1492, but he also shows well substantiated evidence of their cultural influence on the indigenous people and culture.
The first piece of evidence suggesting African presence in the Americas before Columbus arrival in 1492 surfaces from the documented sightings of Africans in the New World. During his second voyage to Espanola (Hattie) in 1496, Columbus is presented linguistic evidence between the Indianâ...