They Came Before Columbus: The African Presence in Ancient America [Paperback]

Ivan Van Sertima (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 23, 2003

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.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

This controversial book by Ivan Van Sertima, the Guyanese historian, linguist, and anthropologist, claims that Africans had been to the New World centuries before Columbus arrived there in 1492. Citing--among other things--the huge Negroid-looking Olmec heads of Central Mexico and the similarities between the Aztec and Egyptian calendars and pyramid structures, Van Sertima pieces together a hidden history of pre-Columbian contact between Africans and Native Americans. He also puts forth the possibility that Columbus may have already known about a route to the Americas from his years in Africa as a trader in Guinea. The ideas in this book have been debated and discussed since its first publication in 1976; even those who choose not to believe Van Sertima's theories should take his argument seriously. --Eugene Holley, Jr. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

“Fascinating.”
—The Atlantic Monthly

“An immensely impressive book . . . well-written and clear.”
—Essence

“I can’t praise this book enough! I kept shaking my head over its power.”
—Ishmael Reed

“Comprehensive and convincing . . . a big boost to black cultural history.”
—Publishers Weekly

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks (September 23, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812968174
• ISBN-13: 978-0812968170
• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 0.7 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (85 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,336 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #25 in Books > History > Africa

More About the Author

Ivan Van Sertima's pioneering work in linguistics and anthropology has appeared in numerous scholarly journals. Professor Van Sertima teaches Afro-American studies at Rutgers University.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

121 of 140 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars He builds on credible evidence, July 28, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: They Came Before Columbus: The African Presence in Ancient America (Hardcover)

Sertima has presented a thoery that is not "wild afrocentric babble." Its very plausible for the following reasons:

Most everyone is familiar with the time period of the Dark Ages, which lasted from the fall of the Roman Empire until about the 1200 or 1300's. It was a time when people were intellectually non-progressive, when the average peasent/serf never traveled 20 miles from the place of his birth. What people do forget is that the Dark Age was only a Western European phenomenon. The rest of Asia and Africa were steadily advancing.

One reviewer said that Africans had no ocean trade routes with other peoples. In fact, the East African coast was dotted with powerful city states that traded all over the Indian Ocean, including China. And on the West Coast, Africans did not need trade routes per se, because half of Europe was already under their complete domination through the Islamic Empire (black Moors).

Is it a coincidence that Spain and Italy were the first two European countries to climb out of the Dark Ages? No. Italy's trade routes with Africa long brought it into contact with Moslem and Chinese advances. And Spain; Spain was part of Islam! On the streets of Cardoba, Spain you would have seen Africans, Moslems, and a bunch of other races. By the way, the Moslems invented the magnetic compass and the astrolabe. This same Moslem learning flourished at the world first university; in Timbaktu. Timbaktu was in Mali, West Africa. In this climate how could West Africans not have known about sailing and trade routes?

Incidently, where was Columbus originaly from? Italy. Which country did he go to and got financing for his trip? Spain. Strangly, the same countries we just mentioned as having had close contact with Africa for centuries.

With this background, now you can look at Sertima's book with an open mind. Anyone who thinks that this book is "Afrocentric babble" is either unfamiliar with history or afraid of the truth.

73 of 83 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a shockingly convincing well researched thesis, September 24, 2004

By 

Jeffrey Carey (willingboro, New Jersey United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: They Came Before Columbus: The African Presence in Ancient America (Hardcover)

The first time I heard Dr. Ivan Van Sertima speak was at Lincoln University a small historically black college in Pennslyvania. Dr. Van Sertima gave a powerful lecture about the African Presence in America before Columbus, a topic I never heard of before and honestly doubted it's validity.I thought I would leave the lecture only convienced that Van Sertima was a crank and his thesis was a fraud, but in fact the opposite happened. His speech was so articulate and his lecture so well researched and amazingly documented I decided I had to read his book and research the topic on my own. if skeptics think this book is solely for Afrocentrist they are wrong this book is very scholarly it gives botanical,cartographical,linguistic,artistic, and historical evidience in order to make a strong case for the African presence in America. Van Sertima shows us african cotton found in America.He shows the written accounts of the conquistadors themselves, Columbus and Balboa record the presence of Africans already arriving in America, in fact Balboa eyewitnessed Africans in Central America fighting among the "Indian" population..He highlights the mysterious Piri Reis map that shows Antartica mapped before it was covered with ice,when was the only time this could happen? 4,000 B.C.,the point is ancient man had the nautical skill to travel the world at a very early date. He touches on the journeys of Thor Heyerdahl and his ship the Ra successfully crossing the Atlantic, proving that ancient man could travel the high seas. I personally researched on my own the parallels between the Egyptian god(Osiris)and American god(Queztatcoatl)both are virgin born both are ressurection gods, it is amazing.Another enigma would be the cocaine found in the stomach of RamesesII and in many other Egyptian mummies how is it that a New World crop is found in Africa if contact was not made...scholars answer this evidience with silence.One of course can not leave out the colossal Olmec heads with clearly African features with braided hair, and of course the parallel of pyramids found in both cultures Africa and the Americas.Some say that the Olmec heads could be Pacific Islanders or people from South East Asia, but that does not explain all the other pieces of evidience Van Sertima shows, like for instance the identical reed boats used on the Nile by Nubians and on the Amazon or the hieroglyphs and the sun worship.The parallels are almost to the point of exhausting.This book is hard to explain away, and I advise all serious researches and historians to read it....challenge yourself.

43 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Authenic Reference & Resource, July 16, 2001

By 

Michael K. Epps Jr. (Herndon, VA. United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: They Came Before Columbus: The African Presence in Ancient America (Hardcover)

Any reader who has given this work a negative review, is do 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. Also for the American Indian criticizers, I am one of you, if you would only check the records of the older tribes such as the Washitaw, Jamassi/Yamasse, Mawshahk, Lenape, and even the records of the Creek, Shoshoni, and Seminole and Iriqous and many others. The records have the history on the Black Mound Builders(Eagle Mounds etc.), and how the ancestors were Black, including the Mayan and Zu-Aztec coming from the Toltecs or Olmecs. In fact in 1996 the year of the indigenous people the Washitaw nation was recognized as the oldest indigenous people in America and they are Black people with wooly hair who link themselves back to the Olmecs only supporting what Sertima has said. Their United Nations number has the prefix 215, go and check it out. People do not want to admit that Blacks were the original people on the planet and has been the root for many of these civilizations regardless of how many artifacts and facts anthropologist and archeologist uncover. Well, guess what? Now science supports everything they have been saying. Biochemist have proven that Black people were here first with the Mitochondria DNA/RNA, go look it up, it is in a case study called Mitochondria Eve. Also read National Geographic while you are at it. Only about 10%-15% of the slaves came from Africa, where do you think the rest came from? They came from the tribes already here. Due to misinformation and racism most people don't know this, all they have to do is check the records of the tribes that were here first instead of creating false theories or relying on miseducated natives and euro-americans. We as American Indians were also victims of "tying the vine" and white washing just like many other minorities in this country. Back to the book, anyone who wants to email me on the previous feel free at [e-mail], the book is excellent. It is accompanied with pictures of the monolithic Olmec statues found in Lower America. A picture is a thousand words. Then his accounts telling of the sea routes Africans or Malian Moors were able to use to sail over here prior to Columbus is supported by the engravings found in the Cockaponset forest by John Gallager (Archeologist & Professor from Fordham University)and correlates with the inscription found on the Haj Mimoun Rock in East Morocco and deciphered by Barry Fell, which records Moors (Blacks) being here a thousand years before Columbus. Also in the book "Ancient And Modern Britons" it says that "In 1676 the native races of New England were spoken of indifferently as "Indians" and "Moors";, and our British "Indians" [aboriginals] are also remembered as "Moors"". That is from European sources recognizing that there were Black people over here that were considered Indians. I could go on and on, but Sertima's book speaks for itself, not only is he an Archeologist, he is also a linguist; he knows what he is talking about. He doesn't have a PHD in these studies for nothing. He hasn't spoken at the most prestigious universities simply because he is making up things. Nuff said, this book is a five star resource, anyone that has an interest in history and ancient cultures, specifically Black peoples of Meso-America should pick it up.