West African Presence in the New World
Chérise Bacchus
Lower 6
Mrs. Chung
History Essay
TOPIC: Discuss the evidence of a West African presence prior to 1492 in the New World
West Africans’ presence in the New World, prior Christopher Columbus, has always been downgraded, simply because historians and teachers have failed for years to recognize their actual existence in the Americas. Individuals must pay homage to dedicated historians, such as: Ivan Van Sertima, Leo Wiener and Alexander Van Wuthenau; they have proven that Africans were actually present in the New World prior to 1492 through research on Africans’ immigration in the New World, either through tangible or non-tangible evidence. The first of the two is shown through visible witnesses; first-hand and archaeological encounters, Negroid physiognomy, radio-carbon dates, seacraft and oceanography, botany and the influence of African and Egyptian cultural history. The latter is demonstrated through the study of philology. Sertima said in his book, ‘They Came Before Columbus’,
With respect to the visible witnesses, there were two instances: first hand and archaeological encounters. The first hand encounters were actually the findings of Vasco Nuñez de Balboa, Fray Gregoria Garcia and the Spanish. Vasco Nuñez de Balboa, a Spanish explorer, discovered an African presence in Darien on 25th September, 1513. Darien is a term previously referred to the Isthmus of Panama and Balboa was there on the basis for gold. Based on advice by the son of the Indian cacique, Comogre, and the Native Indians, he ventured further south past the sierra de Quarequa mountains by the Mal de Sur and came across black war captives among an Indian settlement. These were described as tall, black men of ‘military bearing’, who were in war with neighbouring Natives. According to Lopez de Gomara in ‘Historia de Mexico’, “These were the first Negroes that had been seen in the Indies.” Fray Gregoria Garcia reiterates this point through his own personal discovery of
Lower 6
Mrs. Chung
History Essay
TOPIC: Discuss the evidence of a West African presence prior to 1492 in the New World
West Africans’ presence in the New World, prior Christopher Columbus, has always been downgraded, simply because historians and teachers have failed for years to recognize their actual existence in the Americas. Individuals must pay homage to dedicated historians, such as: Ivan Van Sertima, Leo Wiener and Alexander Van Wuthenau; they have proven that Africans were actually present in the New World prior to 1492 through research on Africans’ immigration in the New World, either through tangible or non-tangible evidence. The first of the two is shown through visible witnesses; first-hand and archaeological encounters, Negroid physiognomy, radio-carbon dates, seacraft and oceanography, botany and the influence of African and Egyptian cultural history. The latter is demonstrated through the study of philology. Sertima said in his book, ‘They Came Before Columbus’,
With respect to the visible witnesses, there were two instances: first hand and archaeological encounters. The first hand encounters were actually the findings of Vasco Nuñez de Balboa, Fray Gregoria Garcia and the Spanish. Vasco Nuñez de Balboa, a Spanish explorer, discovered an African presence in Darien on 25th September, 1513. Darien is a term previously referred to the Isthmus of Panama and Balboa was there on the basis for gold. Based on advice by the son of the Indian cacique, Comogre, and the Native Indians, he ventured further south past the sierra de Quarequa mountains by the Mal de Sur and came across black war captives among an Indian settlement. These were described as tall, black men of ‘military bearing’, who were in war with neighbouring Natives. According to Lopez de Gomara in ‘Historia de Mexico’, “These were the first Negroes that had been seen in the Indies.” Fray Gregoria Garcia reiterates this point through his own personal discovery of
Bibliography: * They Came Before Columbus, Ivan Van Sertima (United States; Random House Publishing Group; 1976) * The History For the Caribbean In the Atlantic World, Cateau and Campbell