Ivan Van Sertima (1)

7/30/2019 Ivan Van Sertima (1)

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Reception

Van Sertima's work has been strongly criticized by opposing academics, who describe his claims to be ill-

founded and false. Van Sertima's Journal of African Civilizations was not considered for inclusion

in Journals of the Century.[10]

In 1997 academics in a Journal of Current Anthropologyarticle criticized in

detail many elements ofThey Came Before Columbus (1976).[5]

Except for a brief mention, the book hadnot previously been reviewed in an academic journal. The researchers wrote a systematic rebuttal of Van

Sertima's claims, stating that Van Sertima's "proposal was without foundation" in claiming African

diffusion as responsible for prehistoricOlmecculture (in present-day Mexico). They noted that no

"genuine African artifact had been found in a controlledarchaeologicalexcavation in the New World."

They noted thatOlmec stone headswere carved hundreds of years prior to the claimed contact and only

superficially appear to be African; the Nubians whom Van Sertima had claimed as their originators do not

resemble these "portraits".[5]

They further noted that in the 1980s, Van Sertima had changed his timeline

of African influence, suggesting that Africans made their way to the New World in the 10th century B.C.,

to account for more recent independent scholarship in the dating of Olmec culture.[5]

They further called "fallacious" his claims that Africans had diffused the practices ofpyramidbuildingandmummification, and noted the independent rise of these in the Americas. Additionally, they wrote that

Van Sertima of "diminishe[d] the real achievements ofNative Americanculture" by his claims of African

origin for them.[5]

Van Sertima wrote a response to be included in the article (as is standard academic practice) but

withdrew it. The journal required that reprints must include the entire article and would have had to

include the original authors' response (written but not published) to his response.[5]

Instead, Van Sertima

replied to his critics in his journal volume published asEarly America Revisited(1998).[11]

In a New York Times 1977 review of Van Sertima's 1976 They Came Before Columbus, the

archaeologistGlyn Daniellabeled Van Sertima's work as "ignorant rubbish", and concluded that the

works of Van Sertima, andBarry Fell, whom he was also reviewing, "give us badly argued theories basedon fantasies". In 1981 Dean R. Snow, a professor o fanthropology, wrote that Van Sertima "uses the now

familiar technique of stringing together bits of carefully selected evidence, each surgically removed from

the context that would give it a rational explanation". Snow continued, "The findings of professional

archaeologists and physicalanthropologistsare misrepresented so that they seem to support the [Van

Sertima] hypothesis".[12]

In response to Daniel's review, archeologist and engineer Dr. Clarence Weiant (1897-1986) wrote a letter

to the New York Times supporting Van Sertima's work.[13][14]

Following his B.S. inanthropologyin 1937

from Columbia University, Weiant worked in excavation of Olmec heads in Mexico in 1938[14]

, and then as

an assistant archeologist in 1939 for the firstNational Geographic Society-Smithsonian

Institutionexpedition to Tres Zapotes,Veracruz, where ceramics were discovered.

[13]

Weiant's letter,published in May 1977 in the New York Times, asserted that Van Sertima's work was "a summary of six

or seven years of meticulous research based upon archeology, egyptology, African history,

oceanography, astronomy, botany, rare Arabic and Chinese manuscripts, the letters and journals of early

American explorers and the observations of physical anthropologists...As one who has been immersed in

Mexican archeology for some forty years, I am thoroughly convinced of the soundness of Van Sertima's

conclusions."[citation needed]
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In 1981, They Came Before Columbus received the "Clarence L. Holte Literary Prize".[15]

Sertima was

inducted into the "Rutgers African-American Alumni Hall of Fame" in 2004.[16]

Afrocentric Comparative and Historical Linguistic Methods

In this paper we explore the linguistic methods used by Afrocentric linguists to

document the relationship between Black African languages and their sister languages

in Africa and Asia.

By

Clyde A. Winters

Abstract

In this paper the author reviews the authentic historical

and linguistic methods traditionally employed by

Afrocentrists. We learn that Africalogical research has

long been researched by Afrocentric scholars; and that up

until the 1930's the history of African civilizations and

people was the "preserve" of Afrocentric scholars .

There are two schools of Africalogical research: the

African-American school (AAS) of Afrocentric research

(Dubois, 1915, 1946) , and the French-speaking African

and Afro-Caribbean school (FAACS) of Afrocentricity

(Diop, 1974). The AAS was concerned with historical

research while the FAACS has made linguistic research

their domain of intellectual inquiry. A third school of

Afrocentric researchers we will call pluridiscipli-

narians led by Anselin (1982,1993) and Winters (1985,

1989,1994) combine both historical and linguistic methods

to explain the heritage of African people.
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An Afrocentric view of African history is written from

the perspective of the Africans themselves. This type of

writing on African history is centered on the role of

Blacks/ Africans in Africa, and the fact that there was,

and is a history of Africa.

The central element in all Afrocentric research is the

fact that ancient Kemet (or Egypt) was a Black African

civilization. As a result of this theoretical base, most

of the arguments made by contemporary Afrocentrists

including the :

(1) African origin of Egypt (Delany, 1879); and

(2) African origin of civilizations in Europe and

Asia (Johnson, 1971 pp.388-389; Dubois, 1946 p.122)

were first made over a hundred (100) years ago by members

of the AAS Afrocentrist group.

Eurocentric School

The major spokesman for the Eurocentric view of African

history is Dinesh D'Souza (1995). Mr. D'Souza, a non-

historian, linguist, etc., has made his mission in lifethe destruction of Multiculturalism, and Afrocentricism

in particular, additions to the curriculum of American

schools. D'Souza (1995 p. 360) believes that

"...Afrocentrism fundamentally remains a pedagogy an

initiation into a new form of black consciousness and

also into manhood". Given this Eurocentric view of

Africalogy, D'Souza (1995) sets out to prove that slavery

was not racist; that segregation was established by

paternal whites to protect the former slaves; and

especially that "Egypt was a multiracial society" (p.367) dominated by white skinned Egyptians, and that the

only time that Blacks/Africans ruled Egypt, was during

the Nubian dynasty (p. 368).

African-American School


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The AFROCENTRIC historical method was developed over a

hundred years ago. African-American researchers,

including R. B. Lewis,Light and Truth, collected from the

Bible and the ancient and modern history, containing the

universal history of the Colored and Indian race from

creation of the world to the present (Boston 1844);George W. Williams, History of the Negro race in America

from 1619 to 1880...and an Historical sketch of

Africa (New York 1982) and Rufus L. Perry, The Cushite or

descendants of Ham (Springfield, Mass. 1893) used these

methods to present a realistic picture of the African

past.

As you can see from the above titles most of these early

works were based on material found in the Bible.

According to the Bible, Blacks are the descendants of Hamwho had four sons: Kush, Mizraim (Egypt/Kemet), Phut

(Punt) and Canaan. these sons represent founders of the

first world civilizations, such as Sumer, Phonecia,

Arabia and Hatti. This recognition of the African origin

of civilization in Africa and Mesopotamia was soon

confirmed by the archaeological discovery of Sumer and

Egypt.

The AAS Afrocentrists developed a systematic group of

principles for critically examining and presenting thebody of source material related to the history of African

people. Scholars such as W.E.B. DuBois, J.A. Rogers and

Carter G. Woodson honed the AFROCENTRIC historical method

to fine a edge. Woodson and DuBois made sure to employ

the historical method in their careful research into the

African past. And Rogers was a master of many languages

which he used to gain insight into the history of African

people from the numerous European sources he used to

write the multivolume series Sex and Race.

Knowledge about African people, especially the ancient

history, has been hard to come by, because much of the

"authentic" history of African people has often been

published in non-English sources. This has meant that

Afrocentric historians recognized the term document to

include both written accounts about things said and done


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in the past, and also archaeological records. This broad

interpretation of document has meant that these

historians have been concerned with primary documents

produced by eyewitnesses (e.g., the classicists of Greece

and Rome) and also secondary sources related to

archaeological research and the classical literature.

The AAS Afrocentrists have mainly been concerned with the

history of African people, in Africa and the world. It

was the African American scholars who dominated the field

of African historiography from the nineteenth century up

into the 1930's (Dubois ,1971 p. 373).

The founders of the Afrocentric schools of research have

been careful to use many primary sources. These sources

were written by the major classical authors (Johnson1971) : Homer (DuBois, 1946; Diop 1974), Herodotus

(DuBois, 1946 p.121; Diop 1974) and Diodorus Siculus

(DuBois 1946, p.122; Diop 1974), and long ago were

authenticated and are recognized as credible.

The writings of the classicists have been important in

establishing a foundation for the claims of the

Afrocentrists because they have temporal proximity to

many important events in the history of African people.

Moreover, although the documents of the classicists wereoften biased, they report in clear prose the African role

in the rise of civilization and culture in Africa and

Asia and give internal credibility to their statements

about African people.

The major African American Afrocentrist such as J.A.

Rogers, and W.E.B. DuBois have usually been able to read

one or more foreign languages. There has been a need for

learning a foreign language by members of the AAS because

much of the literature dealing with African and Blackcivilizations has been written in French , Greek and

German rather than English. Moreover, familiarity with a

foreign language allows the Afrocentrist to check

carefully all translations to insure that the documents

they use in their research has internal credibility.


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Afrocentrists have traditionally been immensely concerned

with contemporary archaeological finds related to African

people. This emphasis on archaeological research is

evident in the work of DuBois (1915,1946), and Woodson

(1936,1949).

The major secondary sources used by the early

Afrocentrists include the work of Johnston (1910),

Frobenius (1913), Boas (1911), Arnold L. von Heeren and

Volney. DuBois (1915, p.147)notes that although many of

these sources were used "none of these authors write from

the point of view of the Negro as a man, or with anything

but incidental acknowledgement of the existence or value

of history".

The first trained historian-sociologist to examine theAfrican past was Dr. W.E.B. DuBois. In 1915, Dr. DuBois

published the little book called The Negro. This book

served as inspiration for many later AFROCENTRIC

historians. This book, as obvious from the title, was

concerned with the African both at home and abroad. The

Negro, opened the field of AFROCENTRIC historiography. In

this book DuBois collected the most recent materials on

African affairs up to 1915, and presented a comprehensive

whole, of the different elements of African history.

In 1946, DuBois published The World and Africa. The World

and Africa, was an important book in AFROCENTRIC research

because in it DuBois outlined a world history on the

Black races. In this book DuBois (1946, pp. ix-xi) makes

it clear that he admired the work of many of his

contemporaries such as J.A. Rogers and Hansberry, authors

who had began their quest to discover the African past

after reading The Negro.

DuBois (1946) used up-to-date references to prove histhesis that Blacks founded civilization in Kemet (Egypt ,

pp.98-100), Africa and Arabia (pp.176-194). His

discussion of the raise of Kemet and the importance of

the Nubians and Thebaidgroup of upper Kemet in

maintaining Egyptian traditions (DuBois 1946, pp. 104-

108) is very well written. In addition, many scholars


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look to Bernal (1987, 1991) as the premier text on the

falsification of Black history due to slavery and

Eurocentricism, but in The World and Africa, DuBois

pointed out clearly the role of European slavery and

greed as the main motivating factors for the lack of

truth in writing African history (DuBois, 1946 p.80).

As a result of The Negro and The World and Africa, DuBois

left a great deal of material that stimulated many Black

scholars who read them, to become interested in the

history of the African/Black race.

In our opinion an influential pioneer historian and

anthropologist researching the African past was Joel A.

Rogers. James Spady has observed that Rogers' research

encompasses three major areas: (1) the antiquity ofBlacks; (2) how, when and why races mix; and (3)

inspirational and biographical sources of great Black men

and women. Rogers' research has deeply influenced all of

my research.

Rogers made it clear that Afrocentrists must (1) visit

European museums where many artifacts of Africa which

were stolen are now housed; (2) learn to speak and read

more than one European language, so ; (3) the scholar

should seek primary documents which must be reinterpretedto present the truth to the world. The greatest books

written by Rogers include the best selling100 Amazing

Facts about the Negro, which gave the reader over 100

facts about the history of African people; and

especiallySex and Race, a three volume series of books

which discuss the world history of Blacks from ancient

times to our modern age.

Another AAS historian was Drusilla D. Houston of the

state of Oklahoma. Houston's major work was thebook Wonderful Ethiopians of the Ancient Cushite Empire.

In this book she shows that the civilizations of southern

Arabia, Greece, India and Persia were founded by Africans

from the Nile Valley and beyond. Houston had hoped to

write another volume of this book but she died before it

was completed.


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The fourth most important AAS africalogists after DuBois,

Houston and Rogers was Leo Hansberry. Hansberry was born

in 1894, and was the first historian to teach African

studies at a major University in the world. Dr. Hansberry

became interested in African history after reading

DuBois'The Negro. this book led Hansberry to decide tolearn more about Kush and ancient Ethiopia.

In 1922, Hansberry went to Howard University in

Washington, D.C., where he taught courses in African

history. He never received proper support from the

University, but he did influence many African-American

and African scholars who studied under him. Professor

Hansberry died in Chicago on November 3, 1965.

Carter G. Woodson (1936,1949) following DuBois (1915)legitimized the writing of African history. In his

premier books on Africa, Woodson (1936, 1949) illuminated

the civilizations of Africa, and the rich cultural

heritage of African people. Woodson is also credited with

founding the Journal of Negro History, which published

numerous articles on African history.

John J. Jackson, was a self-trained anthropologist. He

taught at universities on the eastcoast and in the

midwest, including the Northeastern Illinois Center forInner City Studies in Chicago, now called the Kemetic

Institute.

Jackson's most popular book is Introduction to African

Civilization. In this book Jackson used old and new

sources to discuss the role of Blacks in civilizations

around the world. In his book he makes it clear that

Africa and her people are the founders of world

civilization.

Jackson presents striking evidence that Indo-Europeans

have played a major role in the destruction of African

centers of civilization. He cites for example, the Romans

partial destruction of the library of Alexander, and its

later total destruction by fanatical Christians in A.D.

389. Prof. Jackson also discussed the Romans burned down


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the library of Carthage which contained 50,000 volumes in

146 B.C. And in Spain, Europeans destroyed great

libraries of the Moors.

By the 1960's Africalogical historical research, formerly

the "preserve" of African Americans (DuBois, 1971 p.373),was beginning to be dominated by Europeans. The only

AFROCENTRIC historian to come on the scene during this

period was Dr. Joseph Ben-Jochannan.

Ben-Jochannan is an historian and cultural-

anthropologist. His major works are Black Man on the

Nile, African Origin of the Major Western Religions,

and Africa: Mother of western civilization. In these

books Ben-Jochannan provides the reader with a wealth of

information on the African origin of Egypt, and theAfrican influence on many common civilizing elements

found in Western societies today.

French Speaking Afrocentrists

Most of the contemporary dynamic historians and

anthropolo-gists writing from the AFROCENTRIC perspective

and making important original contributions to

Africalogical research in Africa and the Caribbean speak

French. These scholars were heavily influenced by thework of Diop.

The FAACS Afrocentrists have their roots inNegritude.

Aime Cesaire (1956) originated the termNegritude, which

is a cultural expression of "Blackness". In a poem

written during World War II, Cesaire coined the phrase

"African personality". It is the idea of an original and

unique personality peculiar to Africans, that manifest

the foundation Afrocentrism in the African diaspora where

French is spoken.

Leopold Senghor of Senegal became a major proponent of

Negritude. Senghor argued that the African emotional

quality to life is different from the materialism of

Europeans.


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Leopold Senghor not only accepted the idea of an "African

Personality", he also helped develop the idea of

"Africanity". Africanity is a word which relates to the

entire African continent's cultural heritage (Fanon,

1967; Loventhal, 1972).

Negritude has usually been described as "passive" by many

social critics (Loventhal, 1972 p.283; Fanon, 1967 p.45).

But one of the followers of this movement, Chiekh Anta

Diop used the idea of "Africanity" to add a historical

research component tonegritude, that explained and

discussed the African origin of Egyptian and Mesopotamian

civilization. Diop (1974, 1981) proved the African origin

of Egyptian civilization and made it a major component

of negritude.

Diop established an important base of Africalogical

research at the University of Senegal. Until Diop died in

1986, he was a major advocate of the continuity of

African history from Egypt to the medieval African

civilizations. He is one of the founders of the African

Historical Science and Philosophy of history first

practiced by DuBois and Rogers. Like J.A. Rogers, Diop

called for scholars to stop dabbling here and there, and

become well trained , pluridisciplinary specialists.

Chiekh Anta Diop has made important contributions to

linguistic theory in relation to African historiography.

Diop's work illustrates that it is important for scholars

to maintain a focus on the historical and linguistic

factors which define the "personnalit culturelle

africaine" (Diop 1991, 227).

Language is the sanctum sanctorumof Diop's Afrocentric

historical method. The Diopian view of historiography

combines the research of linguistics, history andpsychology to interpret the cultural unity of African

people.

There are three components in the genetic model: 1)

common physical type, 2) common cultural patterns and 3)

genetically related languages. (Winters 1989a) Diop over


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the years has brought to bear all three of these

components in his illumination of Kemetic civilization

(Diop 1974,1977,1978,1991).

Recently, Eurocentric American scholars have alleged to

write reviews of Diop's recent book (Diop 1991). Althoughthese reviewers mention the work of Diop in their

articles, they never review his work properly, because

they lack the ability to understand the many disciplines

that Diop has mastered (Lefkowitz 1992; Baines 1991).

In the recovery of information concerning the African

past, Diop promotes semantic anthropology, comparative

linguistics and the study of Onomastics (Diagne 1981).

Onomastics is the science of names (Diagne 1981). Diop

has studied legends, placenames and religious cult termsto discover the unity of African civilization. The main

thesis of Diop is that typonymy and ethnonymy of Africa

point to a common cradle for Paleo-Africans in the Nile

Valley (Diop, 1978, 67).

In Precolonial Black Africa, Diop used ethnonyms to chart

the migrations of African people in West Africa. And

in The African Origin of Civilization, Diop

used "analyses acculturaliste" or typological analysis to

study the origin and spread of African cultural featuresfrom the Nile Valley to West Africa through his

examination of toponyms (Diop 1974, 182-183). In

theCultural Unity of Black Africa, Diop discussed the

common totems and religious terms many African ethnic

groups share (Diop 1978, 124).

This linguistic research has been based on linguistic

classification or taxonomy. Linguistic taxonomy is the

foundation upon which comparative and historical

linguistic methods are based (Ruhlen 1994). Linguistictaxonomy is necessary for the identification of language

families. The determination of language families give us

the material to reconstruct the proto-language of a

people and discover regular sound correspondences( Hock

1988; Crawley 1992; Bynon 1978; Lord 1966; Robins 1974).


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Diop is a strong supporter of the comparative linguistic

method in the rediscovery of Paleo-African. The

reconstruction of Paleo-African involves both

reconstruction and recognition of regular sound

correspondence. The goal of reconstruction is the

discovery of the Proto-language of African people is therecovery of Paleo-African. To reconstruct a Proto-

language the linguist must look forpatterns of

correspondences.

Linguistic resemblances denote a historical relationship.

This suggest that resemblances in fundamental vocabulary

and culture terms can help one reconstruct the culture of

the speakers of genetically related languages.

LINGUISTIC CONSTANCY

The rate at which languages change is variable. It

appears that linguistic change is culture specific.

Consequently, the social organization and political

culture of a particular speech community can influence

the speed at which languages change.

Based on the history of language change in Europe most

linguists believe that the rate of change for all

languages is both rapid and constant (Diagne,1981,p.238). The idea that all languages change rapidly

is not valid for all the World's languages.

African languages change much slower than European

languages. (Armstrong, 1962) For example, African

vocabulary items collected by Arab explorers over a

thousand years ago are analogous to contemporary lexical

items (Diagne,1981, p.239). In addition there are

striking resemblances between the ancient Egyptian

language and Coptic, and Pharonic Egyptian and Africanlanguages (Diagne, 1981; Diop, 1977; Obenga, 1988, 1992a,

1992b, 1993,).

The political stability of African political institutions

has caused languages to change very slowly in Africa

(Winters 1994). Pawley and Ross (1993) argue that a


13/32

sedentary life style may account for the conservative

nature of a language Diop, 1987, 1991; Niane, 1984).

The continuity of many African languages may result from

the steady state nature of African political systems, and

long standing cultural stability since neolithic times(Diop, 1991 ; Winters 1985; Anselin 1992a, 1992b). This

cultural stability has affected the speed at which

African languages change.

This leads to the hypothesis that linguistic continuity

exist in Africa due to the continuity or stability of

African socio-political structures and cultural systems.

This relative cultural stability has led African

languages to change more slowly then European and Asian

languages. Diop (1974) observed that:

First the evolution of languages, instead of moving

everywhere at the same rate of speed seems linked to

other factors; such as , the stability of social

organizations or the opposite, social upheavals.

Understandably in relatively stable societies man's

language has changed less with the passage of time

(pp.153-154).

In Nouvelles recherches sur l'egyptien ancien et leslangues Negro-Africaine Modernes, Diop wrote that:

The permanence of these forms not only, constitute today

a solid base...upon which...[we are to re-]construct

diachronic African [languages], but obliges also a

radical revision of these ideas, a

priori...on the evolution of these languages in general

(p.17).

There is considerable evidence which supports the Africancontinuity concept. Dr. Armstrong (1962) noted the

linguistic continuity of African languages when he used

Glottochronology to test the rate of change in Yoruba.

Comparing modern Yoruba words with a list of identical

terms collected 130 years ago by Koelle , Dr. Armstrong


14/32

found little if any internal or external changes in the

terms.

Diop's theory of linguistic constancy recognizes the

social role language plays in African language change.

Language being a variable phenomena has as much to dowith a speaker's society as with the language itself

(Labov 1965, 1972). Meillet (1926, p. 17) wrote that:

Since language is a social institution it follows that

linguistics is a social science, and the only variable

element to which one may appeal in order to account for a

linguistic change is social change, of which language

variations are but the consequences.

Thus social organization can influence the rate of changewithin languages.

Diop's major linguistic effort has been the

classification of Black African and Egyptian languages .

Up until 1977 Diop's major area of interest were

morphological and phonological similarities between

Egyptian and Black African languages. Diop (1977, 77-84)

explains many of his sound laws for the Egyptian-Black

African connection. These sound laws have been further

elaborated by Anselin (1989, 1992, 1993) and Obenga(1988, 1993b).

Diop has noted that the reconstruction of Paleo-African

terms can help us make inferences about an ethnic group's

culture going backwards in time to an impenetrable past

undocumented by written records. This is semantic

anthropology, a linguistic approach which seeks to

discover aspects of man's culture from his language.

Thusly, linguistic resemblances can help the

anthropologists make precise inferences about alinguistic group's cultural elements. In Obenga (1988)

the Paleo-African terms for cattle, goat, sheep, rams and

the monkey were reconstructed.

Diop has contributed much to the extra-African linguistic

relationship. He was a major proponent of the Dravidian-


15/32

African relationship (Diop 1974, 116), and he illustrated

the African substratum in Indo-European languages in

relationship to cacuminal sounds and terms for social

organiza-tion and culture (1974, 115). Diop (1978, 113)

also recognized that in relation to Arabic words, after

the suppression of the first consonant, there is often anAfrican root. This is not surprising because Edward

Blyden found evidence that the Arabic writing system was

created by an African from the modern country we call

Egypt.

The major student of Diop is Obenga (1974, 1978,1995).

Th. Obenga is a linguist and historian. He has done

remarkable work in the reconstruction of Paleo-African

and a brilliant study of the philosophical views of the

Egyptians.

Formerly the major work of Obenga was L'Afrique dans

l'Antiquitie . In this book Th. Obenga discussed the

African origin of Egypt and the cultural and linguistic

unity of Blacks world wide.

Obenga (1978a, 1978b, 1988) has shown the unity of

ancient and modern African languages and the close

relationship of ancient Egyptian to his own language

Mbochi. And in The Peopling od ancient Egypt and theDecipherment of the Meroitic script, Obenga and Diop give

a superb discussion of the reality of an African origin

of Egyptian civilization.

Obenga (1978b, 1988) concentrate on two areas of

linguistic research. Firstly, he has shown striking

affinities between Egyptian and Mbochi. Secondly, Obenga

(1988, 1993) has been concerned with the reconstruction

of Paleo-African and the shared grammatical features of

Egyptian and Black African languages.

In 1993, Obenga published Origine commune de l'Egyptien

ancien du copte et des langues Negro Africaines modernes.

This book provides a detailed discussion of the

historical links between African and Egyptian languages.

In Obenga (1993) African languages are divided into three


16/32

Superfamilies the Black African-Egyptian , the Berber and

the Khoisan languages.

Obenga maintains that the Egyptian-Black African family

is classified into the following subfamilies: Egyptian,

Cushitic, Tchadian, Nilo-Saharan and the Niger-Kordofanian families. Most of these subfamilies of

Egyptian-Black African were first grouped by Greenberg

(1963).

Obenga (1993) in addition to providing a detailed account

of the Egyptian-Black African genetic connections also

provides keen insight into the so called Afro-Asiatic

family of language.

He proves that the Egyptian language is closer to Africanlanguages than the non-African languages grouped in the

Afro-Asiatic family of languages. Recently, this theme

was also taken up by Tounkara (1989), he explained how

Diop's theory of an Egyptian-Black African language

connection has more linguistic and historical support

than the Afro-Asiatic hypothesis.

Gilbert Ngom (1986) has done a fine examination of the

correspondence between the Bantu, Duala and the ancient

Egyptian language. Ngom (1986) elaborates on the BlackAfrican-Egyptian phonology. He also makes it clear that

Egyptian is closer to the Black African languages, than

the Berber and Semitic languages in syntax, morphology

and phonology (Ngom, 1986 pp.48-52). Anselin (1989, 1993)

provide an outstanding discussion of the affinity between

the Egyptian and Black African verbal systems.

The most interesting research inspired by Diop is in the

area of semantic anthropology. Using linguistic data

Anselin ( 1989, 1992, 1993) and Pfouma (1987) havecompared Black African and Egyptian terms to illuminate

the common royal heritage and religion shared by Blacks.

Winters (1985a, 1985d, 1989, 1991) also used this method

to confirm the unity between the African, the Dravidian,

the Elamite and the Sumerian languages.


17/32

Dr. Diop has called on Africalogical researchers to

become pluridisciplinarians. A pluridisciplinary

specialist is a person who is qualified to use more than

one discipline, for example history, linguistics and

etc., when researching aspects of African history and

Africalogy in general. Two major Afrocentricpluridisciplinarians are Alain Anselin (1993) and Clyde

Ahmad Winters (1989, 1994).

Anselin is an AFROCENTRIC pluridisciplinarian researcher.

Anselin is the Director of Studies at the Laboratory of

Research the A.M.E.P., at Fort-de-France Martinique. He

has written three important AFROCENTRIC works: La

Question Peule, Le Mythe d'Europe, and Samba and numerous

articles.

In Samba, Alain Anselin illustrates how the corpus of

Egyptian hieroglyphics explains not only the Egyptian

civilization, but also the entire world of the Paleo-

Africans. In this book following Winters (1985, 1991) he

makes it clear that Kemetic civilization originated in

the Fertile African Crescent (Anselin, 1992 pp.20-22).

And that Black African and Kemetic civilization at its

origination was unified from its foundations in the

Sahara, up to its contemporary manifestations in the

language and culture of Black Africans.

In La Question Peule, Anselin again moves back to his

theme of unity for Egyptian, West African and Dravidian

languages, political traditions and culture. The unity

between Dravidian and African cultures was also examined

by Th. Obenga (1973), Anta Diop (1974), Cheikh Tidiane

N'Diaye and Winters (1980a, 1985c, 1985d, 1986c, 1991a).

Anselin (1982, p.190) provides a detailed discussion of

the " Black Ageans". There is also a fine examination ofthe affinities between the Agean and Dravidian

civilizations (Anselin , 1982 pp.135-149).

Another pluridisiciplinarian Afrocentrist is Clyde Ahmad

Winters. He is the only African-American attempting to

confirm the theories of Diop in relation to the genetic


18/32

unity of the Egyptian , Black African , Elamite, Sumerian

and Dravidian languages. Winters' is mainly concerned

with the unity of ancient old and new world Black

civilizations (Winters 1985a,1985d, 1989) and

decipherment of ancient Black writing systems used by

these Africans (Winters 1985b). This led Winters to learnmany foreign languages including French, Tamil ,

Malinke/Bambara, Chinese , Arabic, Otomi and more.

Winters has used Diop's genetic model in his research

which combines anthropological , linguistic and

historical methods to confirm that the center for the

rise of the originators of the Egyptian and Manding

civilizations (1977, 1979b, 1986a, 1986f, 1983), the

Magyar or Hungarian civilization (1984a, 1986e); the

Dravidian civilization (1980a, 1981d, 1985c, 1985d 1986c,1986d, 1986e, 1988a, 1989b) and the Sumerian and Elamite

civilizations was the Fertile African Crescent of the

highland regions of Middle/Saharan Africa (1984, 1985a,

1991, 1994). In addition he has explained how Blacks

founded civilization in the Americas (Winters 1977a,

1981d, , 1983b, 1986); and East and Southeast Africa

(1979, 1979a, 1980b, 1981a, 1981b, 1981c, 1983c, 1983d,

1986c, 1987b).

An important finding of Winters is that the ancestors ofthe Dravidian and Manding speaking people appear to have

left Africa at the same time around 2600 B.C. (Winters

1985c). And that these people founded civilization in

Europe , Elam, India and ancient China (1991a).

Winters' (1988, 1989c,1990, 1991a), like Diop before him

has also discussed (1) the African substratum in European

languages; (2) explained the conflict between African

people and Indo-European speaking people ; and (3) the

loss of early African settlements in Europe to thecontemporary European people due to natural catastrophes

and wars after 1000 B.C. This research provides valuable

source material for the elaboration of the African

influence on European languages and the languages of East

and Central Asia (Winters, 1989b, 1990, 1991b).


19/32

During the research of Winters' (1985b) it was discovered

that the Proto-Saharan people used a common writing

system. Winters (1983) found that he could read the

ancient inscriptions left by these people in the Sahara

dating to 3000 B.C. A comparison of the Manding language

and the Elamite, Sumerian and Dravidian languagesconfirmed there genetic unity.

The evidence of a genetic relationship between the

Manding languages, which was used to decipher the

earliest Proto-Saharan writings and other languages

spoken by the founders of civilization in India and

Mesopotamia, led to the assumption that the writing

systems used by these ancient founders of civilization

could be deciphered. The confirmation of Diop's theory of

linguistic constancy made it possible for to confirm thishypothesis and read the common signs used to write the

Harappan script ( Winters, 1982b, 1984b, 1984d, 1984e,

1985b, 1987), the Minoan script and the Olmec script

(Winters, 1977a, 1977b, 1979b).

The most important finding of Winters (1984) was the

cognate language of Meroitic. Using the evidence

presented by the Classical sources that the Kushites

ruled empires in Africa and Asia, Winters (1984, 1988,

1989) illustrated that the cognate language of Meroitic,was the Tokharian language spoken by the Kushana people

of Central Asia. Using the Kushana/Tokharian language

many Meroitic inscriptions have been deciphered (Winters,

1984,1988, 1989, 1995a,1995b).

Another important Afrocentrist is Molefi Asante at Temple

University. Asante has been active in the field of

Afrocentric studies for over twenty years. He is also

founder, at Temple , of the major center of academic

Afrocentrism outside of the University of Senegal whenDiop was living.

In numerous articles and books Asante ( 1988, 1990, 1987)

has laid out the foundations of Africalogical research .

Much of Asante's theoretical foundations of Afrocentrism

is found in his book Kemet, Afrocentricity, and


20/32

Knowledge. In this book Asante gives keen insight into

the role of Egypt in the creation of an Africalogical

humanities. He also shatters many of the long held myths

perpetuated by Europeans that Africans failed to invent

writing, and strong highly organized nation-states and

empires.

But he does not stop here in making a case for

Africalogical research. He also explains and discusses

European attitudes toward race and ethnicity in the

United States.

In addition to arguing persuasively for the establishment

of Afrocentrism "as a legitimate response to the human

condition" (Asante, 1990, p.5), Asante has written a fine

introductory text on Egypt and other ancient Africannations that can be used in Upper grades and High School.

This text is called Classical Africa. In this timely book

Asante explains the rise and fall of many African

civilizations from ancient Egypt to the Western Sudani

kingdom of Songhay.

In conclusion, africalogical research, is not new, it has

been conducted by Afro-Americans for over 150 years.

African-American Afrocentrists dominated the field of

African-American and African history from the 1870's upto the 1930's(DuBois 1971).

Beginning in the 1940's "established" Euro-American

writers became interested in African-American history;

and in the 1960's as many African nations became

independent other European scholars began to dominate the

interpretation and writing of African history. These

scholars began to decide on the criterions that make the

"proper" research of ancient African history.

By the 1970"s many Afrocentrists in French speaking

Africa began to assert themselves, and write highly

readable and intelligent prose on the African origin of

Egypt and the genetic unity of the Black African and

Egyptian languages. This group of researchers were

complemented by scholars like Ben Jochannon and C.A.


21/32

Winters. Today the research efforts of both the FAACS and

AAS afrocentrists continue to confirm the great history

of African people from a falsificationist perspective.

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24-29,58.

Who Came Before Columbus?by Hisham Aidi

According to Malian historian and playwright Gaoussou Diawara, Africans may have "discovered"America nearly two centuries before Christopher Columbus's famous landing. In his forthcomingbook, The Saga of Abubakari II...He Left with 2000 Boats, Diawara describes an African monarch whoabdicated his throne in 1311 and set off to discover whether the Atlantic Ocean, like the vast River Niger,"had another bank."

Diawara contends that in 1312 Abubakari II, who ruled over a vast West African empire including modern-day Mali, landed in Recife, on the coast of Brazil. The scholar, who heads a research project dedicated toexploring the history and heritage of Abubakari II, marshals considerable archaeological and linguisticevidence demonstrating the African presence in pre-Columbian America.

He's not the first to do so. The thesis of an early African presence in the Americas was prominentlyadvanced by Guyana-born anthropologist Ivan Van Sertima in his 1977 book, They Came BeforeColumbus. Van Sertima argues that Africans reached the Americas in two stages. The first wave, ancient

Egyptians and Nubians, reached the Gulf of Mexico around 1200 BCE and 800 BCE, respectively,bringing with them writing and pyramid-building. Centuries later, around 1310 CE, the Mande people ofWest Africa went to Mexico, Panama, Ecuador, Colombia, Peru and various Caribbean islands, accordingto Van Sertima. The Olmec stone heads of Mexico, which have astonishingly African features, are amongthe archaeological and linguistic evidence Van Sertima presents.

Van Sertima describes how, according to Columbus's own writings, the people living on the island ofHispaniola (later Haiti and the Dominican Republic) told him that "black-skinned people had come fromthe south and southeast trading in gold-tipped metal spears. Columbus sent samples of these spearsback to Spain to be tested, and they were found to be identical in their proportions of gold, silver andcopper alloys to spears then being forged in African Guinea. Columbus' son, Ferdinand, said his fathertold him that he had seen black people north of what is now Honduras."

The evidence, Van Sertima concludes, "argues overwhelmingly against a mere coincidence." Indeed, theidea that Columbus was not the first person from across the ocean to "discover" the Americas iscommonplace, and shared by the Society of American Archaeology, which declared in 1968 that "therecannot be now any question, but that there were visitors to the New World from the Old in historic or evenprehistoric time before 1492."

But did they come from Africa?


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Unlike theories that Viking explorers from Northern Europe arrived on the North American continenthundreds of years before Columbus - theories that are debated but generally treated with cautiousrespect - Van Sertima's assertions drew angry fire from those who disagreed.

A New York Times reviewer dismissed Van Sertima as a "deluded scholar" writing "ignorant rubbish" with"abysmal" historical and research methods. Students of Meso-America have also strongly disputed Van

Sertima's characterization of the Olmec people as African. David Grove, an expert on Olmec civilization,notes that Van Sertima's claims about the Olmecs' blackness are suspect because "the Olmecs did nothave a selection of skin tones to choose from in making their monuments. The only stone available tothem was black stone. The source of the stone is the Tuxlas Mountains, of volcanic origin." A particularlycaustic critique, titled "Van Sertima's Afrocentricity and the Olmecs," even scoffed that "native Americanswould have sacrificed and eaten the Africans if they came."

Such attacks don't surprise Richard Poe, the author ofBlack Spark, White Fire: Did African ExplorersCivilize Ancient Europe?, which addresses the possibility of Africans taking transatlantic trips beforeColumbus.

"Ivan Van Sertima is a courageous and brilliant scholar, who has done ground-breaking work," says Poe."His findings have never received the fair hearing that they deserve. Rather than refuting his arguments,

Van Sertima's critics habitually resort to mean-spirited, personal attacks. The anger and indignation histheories provoke seems to go beyond mere scholarly disagreement."

Such fierceness, Poe says, has a lot to do with race -- black scholars generally embraced Van Sertima'swork. "Consciously or unconsciously, some of Van Sertima's critics may still be clinging to the 19th-century notion that seafaring is a European monopoly," he says. "Seafaring is the quintessentialEuropean achievement, the single endeavor of which we are most proud. It was seafaring that enabledEurope to conquer the world. White people have a deep sense of themselves as explorers. The idea thatblack Africans might have beaten us to the New World threatens our sense of ownership over the seas.Maybe it's a bit like the way some black people dislike hearing white musicians do rap. A hundred yearsago, it was common for scholars to claim that peoples of so-called 'Aryan' or Nordic race possessed apeculiar combination of courage and wanderlust that made them natural sailors. Non-Aryans were viewedas poor sailors, even when the evidence proved otherwise -- as in the case of the Egyptians, who are

known to have made long sea voyages to Somalia, Crete, Greece and probably beyond."

The evidence, Diawara argues, can still be found in Africa. Both Van Sertima and Diawara say that Mali'sgriots (oral historians) tell of the African king who sent an expedition to the "Western Ocean." His voyageis mentioned not only in the griots' narratives, but also in Arabic texts, including a 14th century Egyptianbook by the historian al-Omari.

In an interview with the BBC, Tiemoko Konate, one of the researchers working with Diawara, offeredother evidence of Abubakari's landing in Recife, Brazil: "Its [Recife's] other name is Purnanbuco, whichwe believe is an aberration of the Mande name for the rich gold fields that accounted for much of thewealth of the Mali Empire, Boure Bambouk." Konate also cites tests, similar to those Van Sertimadescribed, showing that the gold tips of spears found by Columbus in the Americas may be made oforiginally West African gold.

In an interview with Emerge magazine, Van Sertima argued that the Atlantic's currents serve as naturalmarine conveyer belts: "Once you enter them, you are transported (even against your will, even with nonavigational skill) from one bank of the ocean to the other," he said. "Thor Heyerdahl crossed the Atlanticin 1969 in a papyrus boat like those built by Africans before the time of Christ. Hannes Lindemanncrossed the Atlantic in an African dugout in 12 days less than it took Amerigo Vespucci or Columbus tocross. Three currents can carry Africans to the Americas: off the Cape Verde islands, off the Senegambiacoast, and off the southern coast of Africa. It is at the end of these currents that we have found Africans inAmerica before Columbus."


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Interestingly, Diawara thinks that the story of Abubakari II, who apparently never returned to Africa, hasimportant lessons to offer Africans today - particularly African leaders in the states that used to constitutethe ancient Malian empire. "Look at what's going on in all the remnants of that empire, in Ivory Coast,Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea," Diawara said in a BBC interview. "Politicians are bathing their countries inblood, setting them on fire just so that they can cling to power. They should take an example fromAbubakari II. He was a far more powerful man than any of them. And he was willing to give it all up in thename of science and discovery. That should be a lesson for everyone in Africa today."

Documents

Ivan Van Sertima (1)