Customer Reviews

A History of the African-Olmecs: Black Civilizations of America from Prehistoric Times to the Present Era

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This book is awesome, some will continue to deny the ever present and overwhelming evidence of the black people in ancient history all over the earth, when european anthropologies clearly put europeans in the dark ages of caves when the black civilizations of the earth flourished. Who we know as the European dates only 3000-6000 year in existance. It is not mine nor your fault that history of my people, didn't make the history books, causing you to respond in disbelief. I employ you to do the research for yourself. In Europe, in Asia, and in the America's. Ask the people of Mexico who thier ancestors are, ask the people of Asia who thier ancestors are, ask your people who are the Moors and the Kemetics(Egyptian). Ask the Jews who the Kusites(Ethiopians) are...and so on... get over yourself and your people hijacking other peoples culture as thier own.

Hate to break it to you, folks. But a set of 13 individuals were found in Brazil a few years ago with definite African features. Racial determination is difficult using artwork, such as the Olmec heads, but these skeletons were determined, using multivariate analysis, to be from Africa. They date to 13,000 BC. Since preservation/discovery of skeletal remains is elusive in the jungle; over time more African individuals may be discovered in this area.

I have not read this book...just want to state that this theory should not be dismissed anymore. Also there is other data (botanical) that some plants were transfered back and forth. When I get to my office I'll post a title of a book there. I think it was called 'Africa and the Americas' or something similar.

Cheers,
Max Davidson
Foothill College
Dept. of Anthropology

How stereotypical is it for black people to look at these olmec heads and "assume" theyre african?! get over yourselves! youre not the only people with features like those, and has it ever crossed your minds that people traveled back then and traded items? Also if the olmec were really african dont you think i would look black since im a decendant of natives from mexico? wouldnt the mayans, mexicas, mixtec, zapotec and many more natives just from that area be african? they should of if that theory was true, but they arent and you all need to accept that we natives are the true people of this land and be happy with the tribes in your continent. To belive that the olmecs were black is disrespecful to myself and my people, and its ridiculous that Mr.Barton would lead you to belive this.

Reading a book like that is amusing but it does not provide any real knowledge. It is very sad that authors like Paul Alfred Barton and Erich von Daniken made fortunes by selling their bistorted fantasies to people that do not know better. Stay away.

These books are evidence that any culture can be ethnocentric. Here we have African ethnocentrism that denies agency to the Olmec peoples of Mexico. Has it ever occurred to any of these scholars that Indians may have been the creators of their own world?

Pseudo-scholars like Barton and Clyde Winters have been pushing out-of-Africa theories like these for years. They back up their "research" with obscure nineteenth century articles republished in junk magazines like Ancient American or found on the internet. Their so-called research has no archaeological, linguistic or ethnographic foundation. When Winters sources are challenged, he is known to fall back on name calling and insults (search for him in Google newsgroups for multiple examples). Africans did have advanced ancient cultures and civilizations, but not in the New World and to say otherwise is racist towards the native descendants of the Olmec who still reside in the region. The Olmec were most-likely of the Mixe-Zoque language group, not Manding of West Africa or the Shang language of China. If you're interested in ancient Mesoamerican and true scholarly work, see Richard Diehl's The Olmecs: America's First Civilization or The Olmec World by Michael Coe. Both have relatively up-to-date data on the Olmec (especially Diehl). Diehl and Coe have both spent years working in the Olmec and Maya regions and are considered some of the fore-most scholars on these people. Barton and Winters have probably never been outside their local libraries ancient astronauts section. Barton's rubbish deserves to by kept side-by-side with the Weekly World News and all the UFOs-built-the-Pyramids-of-Egypt garbage.

In my understanding of the Olmecs it is clearly that they were of Africans descent. The features of the head stones do not in ANY WAY resemble natives of that region!! Yes I have been there and seen the head stones. But in some natives they do the darkest one in skin complextion. Its has been widely known that when runaway slaves in S. America ran into the jungle. They encountered Africans. And spoke their language.
Again as far as the African origins of the Shang Dynasty is concern, for the ones who commented saying that their not from Africa. Would you please direct me to ONE single statue or figure from that dynasty and era deplicting a NON-AFRICAN representation of the Shang Dynasty! Because if you can find one you would be the first to find it!! All artifacts representing the rulers of Shang in physical form were all deplicted as African! ALL OF THEM! So these authors are only going off what is found and presented. Also in Egyptian writtings it is said that they explored and set forth kingship in the region of China. What I have learned about Euro-myths (e.g. greek, roman, etc) that there all some how originated from African events and religion. The Golden Fleece! What is the Golden Fleece.....really? That all man wanted to "wear" according to this myth story? So some of the reviews were clearly written by those who have issues with Africans doing anything towards the betterment of world civilizations. But that has to be expected! The only thing that non-Africans are now admitting, thanks to the Dr's Leaky, is that Egyptians were indeed dark skinned Africans. Ever since Europe step in to Africa after, Napoleon, Africa wasn't inhabitated by Africans. Now thats been proven wrong without a doubt! Now next up in S. & N. America! I've personally know Africans in China, dark skin Africans, that the people there especially the older generation. Calls them "King" is Chinese. That's the funniest thing about some of these comments is that the same people who recongize Africans as being apart of the culture and identity. Opinions will be ignored until you ask them personally, if not you get third and fifth hand info. from a party not even involved! It's seems that when people say "pseudo-science" their really saying I don't really know or din't want to believe it's fact, even though all the evidence makes sense! LOL!

"Racist and Racism in America is common to America as Apple Pie"- El Hajj Malik

I don't disagree that there were Africans in Central/South America in the distant past and may have, in fact, been the earliest inhabitants of South America. Recently, it was proven that offshoots of the Aborigines of Australia (who had migrated from Africa earlier) made it to South America and lived there for thousands of years. This was proven by real archeological evidence, not wild theories. The ancestors of the Native Americans came and drove them out later in the waning stages of the Ice Age. Later interbreeding erased most of their physical characteristics, but their descendants have been identified in the far southern tip of the continent. They have native american features, but their bone structures do not correspond to other native americans, they correspond back to their Aboriginal ancestors.

The Olmec carvings are also a clue that there might have been other Africans in South America, but there isn't currently an accepted explanation of these carvings.

But...the suppositions put forth by this author are totally over the top. The theory that Africans actually ruled the Shang Dynasty in China is particularly amusing. This is what is known as Pseudo-Science. It should be ranked right up there with Chariots of the Gods.

FINALLY, THE BOOKS THAT PRESENTS THE HISTORY OF THE FORGOTTEN AND HIDDEN BLACK AFRICAN-AMERICAN CIVILIZATIONS OF AMERICA BEFORE COLUMBUSThis book has sent shockwaves around the world. It has been written about in hundreds of journals, newspapers, magazines and books. The book History of the African-Olmecs is a must-have particularly for African-Americans in the U.S. and Blacks in other parts of the Americas as well as West Africa. The reason for having this book and passing it down to future generations is because it reveals a history of Black America that was and still is deliberately hidden as part of a great mistake made during the 1400's. That mistake was the belief that "descendants of Ham," found in the "New Lands," were to be enslaved. The first Blacks to be enslaved in the Americas were Africans who had lived in parts of the Caribbean and South America for thousands of years. Their enslavement was sunctioned by the Church and was preplanned during the mid 1400's. Another little known fact is that some of the first slaves were also American Indians and they were shipped to West Africa's Portugese plantations as well as to parts of the Caribbean.THE GREAT ANCESTORS OF AFRICAN-AMERICANSThe Olmecs are the highlight of this book, although many other civilizations and nations are discussed. The book takes a thorough look at who the Olmecs were and presents Olmec civilization as coming from West Africa, Egypt and Nubia as early as 3000 years Before Christ. In fact, the book sees a very ancient cultural connection between these areas and the transfer of people and technology to the Americas from Africa and the building of a relationship with the American Indians of Mexico. The African-Olmecs belonged to the Mende linguistic group of West Africans and were known as the "Xi" (Shee) People. The book also presents Olmec culture and its facinating and great similarities with West African, Nubian and Egyptian civilizations. In fact, the chapter dealing with religions presents with one of the most compelling pieces of evidence. That evidence is the describing of religious artifacts being held by the statuette of an Oni or Priest-King in West Africa (Nigeria) in ancient times and the same identical artifacts found held by a statue from the San Agustin Culture of Columbia as well an Olmec statuette found in Mexico. How could these artefacts, used for religious practice be held in the same way unless they were created by the same people, who practiced the same religion. That religion was thunder worship, according to the book. The religion still practiced by those who practice the Yoruba religions in Nigeria, Cuba, Brazil, the Southern U.S., Shango in Trinidad and Tobago, and elsewhere. In fact, the finding of many axes in Olmec sites as well as figurines of small children very closely connects with African religious practices. The chapter on this connection is one that must be read and understood, for even today, the Yoruba religion is one of the most important religions on earth.One gets goosebumps when this type of very important information is presented with a large variety of references. The book also examines some of the very ancient peoples whose remnants existed in the U.S. before the Westward expansion. According to the text, Lewis and Clark met some Black Nation in the Mississippi Region before it was sold at three cents an acre to the U.S. by the French, who were leasing lands belonging to the Black Washitaw Nation, the ancient, tall Black "giants" of African originsmentioned by the Indians. The Washitaw (Ouchita) or Washo still live in the Louisiana area to this day.The books also mentions the naturalist Rafinesque and his list of many Black nations he encountered in the West. The Yamassee of Florida are mentioned in the book, "A History of the African-Olmecs." The wars fought by the Yamassee against both American Indian and European slave raiders in the Carolinas is discussed. This will be shocking evidence to many African-Americans, who are not aware that there was a very large Black population of free Africans who had existed and built culture in the South for thousands of years. Yet, due to the Pontifax of the mid 1400's the European powers did not recognize them as nothing but eligible for enslavemtnt. The plight of the Black Californians is mentioned in this book. These are people of African origins who existed in California long before the Spaniards or some of the American Indians. They were targeted for enslavement, according to the book and those who enslaved them were the Californios and other Spanish ranchers. Yet, their fought a long war with Spain, Mexico and the U.S. until the mid 1800's.These pre-Columbian African peoples existed all over the region of North America, Central and South America as well as the Caribbean, as the book reveals.The book, "A History of the African-Olmecs," discusses the great prehistoric trade routes that led to the African establishment of centers of culture from West Africa and the then fertile Sahara to the Americas and from Egypt, Nubia, Ethiopia, East Africa to China in prehistoric times. The books also examines the ancient Chinese dynasty of Africoids and Black Oceanic Negroids, called the Shang Dynasty. Their connection with Olmec Mexico is also discussed in this great book. In fact, the Black Olmecs who originated in West Africa were called the "Xi" (Shi) and one Chinese Dynasty that had a significant Black presence in China was called the "Xia," (Shia) In the book, the connection is also made between the prehistoric African connection with ancient China, the great Black dynasties and the presence of Blacks in China, and the calamity that led to the migrations of a combination of Blacks and Mongoloids from China to Mexico after the fall of the Shang Dyasty. Researchers such as Sitchin, points out that the Olmecs established the first calendar directly from an ancient Egyptian type about 3113 B.C. and that by that period, they were already in the process of building culture in Mexico.A History of the African-Olmecs will bring about enlightenment to those who have had a cloud in their path. It will open the eyes of those who always felt that something was missing and that the truth had been kept hidden. It will show that some of the very people who were brought to the Americas as slaves, their relatives had been established in the Americas for thousands of years. In the case of African-Americans, Africans in the rest of the Americas, Africans on the Continent and Africoids in the Indian Ocean/Pacific region, the book "A History of the African-Olmecs," will show that they much historical amnesia exists but now, the truth can be regained. The book, "A History of the African-Olmecs," is surely one of the greatest books of the last fifty years. Any book that uplifts and inspires as well as reveals what has been a long hidden and lost chapter of the history of a people deserves to be classified as among the greatest pieces of literature.John Shakespere

Four centuries European scholars have posited that Africans have never left Africa. This is incorrect on several counts but I will only mention a few and the most compelling. The Olmec's known in their native language as the Shi originated in West Africa and spoke a Manding language which was proven by several scholars. Secondly and most compelling is the fact that a bioligical process known as differentiation occurred which transformed African people to differnt sub groups of Homo Sapiens Sapiens (Modern Day Humans). These Nilotic people were changed by the last Ice Age which forced them to "differentiate" because access to the Sun was reduced due to the arctic conditions. The person before me has never read this book and is woefully unqualified to comment about it, I have read it and found it enlightening. Some inadequate individuals claim that black scholars are Afrocentrist trying to create mythos into reality, but the truth is this information is largely gathered by non Black scholarship and those person everyone of them could not possibly be considerd Afrocentric. Also regretfull is the lack of reason present in our modern society. If you have not reviewed all of the material pertinent, it is best that you remain silent about it.