Roseann Hall
History
Grade 132
October 31, 2014
Mrs. Dias-Brown
The claims of West African presence in the Americas prior to Columbus' arrival is unconvincing. Assess this view. (30 marks)
Historians, archeologists, anthropologists and other scientists and scholars now know that Columbus did not discover America. Not only were Native Americans present when he reached the New World, but also Africans, Asians and Europeans, among others, had been sailing to the Americas thousands of years before Columbus ventured across the Atlantic. Of the various people who reached America before Columbus, Black Africans appear to have made the most contacts and to have had the greatest impact. Evidence of the early Africans is widespread and varied. Theories regarding the pre-Columbian presence of Africans in the Americas are not new. Rather, men in various times have discussed such a possibility.
Recent discoveries in the field of linguistics and other methods have shown without a doubt that the ancient Olmecs of Mexico, known as the Xi People, came originally from West Africa and were of the Mende African ethnic stock. According to Clyde A. Winters and other writers, the Mende script was discovered on some of the ancient Olmec monuments of Mexico and was found to be identical to the very same script used by the Mende people of West Africa. From the archeological evidence gathered both in West Africa and Meso-America, there is reason to believe that the African Negritics who founded or influenced the Olmec civilization came from West Africa.
Not only do the colossal Olmec stone heads resemble Black Africans from the Ghana area, but the ancient religious practices of the Olmec priests was similar to that of the West Africans, which included shamanism, the study of the Venus complex which was part of the traditions of the Olmecs as well as the Ono and Dogon People of West Africa. The language connection is of significant importance, since it has been found out through decipherment of the Olmec script that the ancient Olmecs spoke the Mende language and wrote in the Mend script, which is still used in parts of West Africa and the Sahara to this day.
The earliest trade and commercial activities between prehistoric and ancient Africa and the Americas may have occurred from West Africa and may have included shipping and travel across the Atlantic. Although West Africa is not commonly known for having a culture of pyramid-building, such a culture existed although pyramids were created for the burial of kings and were made of hardened brick. This style of pyramid building was closer to what was built by the Olmecs in Mexico when the first Olmec pyramids were built. The fact remains, they did exist in West Africa on a smaller scale and were transported to the Americas, where conditions such as an environment more hospitable to building and free of detriments such as malaria and the tsetse fly, made it much easier to build on a grander scale.
One of the most important connections made to show that the Olmecs were West Africans is the very strong similarities in race between the Olmecs and West Africans and the ancient Nubians. The similarities between Olmec and West African civilization includes racial, religious and pyramid building similarities, as well as the similarities in their alphabets and scripts as well as both cultures speaking the identical Mende language, which was once widespread in the Sahara and was spread as far East as Dravidian India in prehistoric times as well as the South Pacific. Thus, it has been proven through linguistic studies, religious similarities, racial similarities between the Afro-Olmecs and West Africans, as well as the use of the same language and writing script that the Afro-Olmecs came from the Mende-Speaking region of West Africa, which once included the Sahara.
Dozens of majestic stone heads have been found at ancient sacred sites, such as La Venta and Tres Zapotes in southern Mexico these colossal statues depict helmeted Black men with large eyes, broad fleshy noses and full lips. They appear to represent priest-kings who ruled vast territories in the ancient New World from provinces near the Gulf of Mexico. In the holy city of La Venta, dating back to at least 1500 BC, four of these large stone heads were discovered on a ceremonial platform featuring a miniature step pyramid and a conical pyramid - the earliest of such monuments to appear in the Americas. Other art-work also serves as evidence of Africans in America before Columbus.
For years the late art historian, Alexander Von Wuthenau, collected ancient clay figurines that provide clues regarding the diversity of America's pre-Columbian population. His remarkable African collection depicts priests, chiefs, dancers, wrestlers, drummers, beautiful women and stately men - a collage of Black people who occupied every stratum of society from Mexico to South America. During the International Congress of American Anthropologists held in Barcelona, Spain in 1964, a French anthropologist pointed out that all that was missing to prove a definite presence of Negritic Blacks in the Americas before Columbus was Negroid skeletons to add to the already found Negroid featured terracotta's. Andrei Wierzinski, the Polish craniologist also concluded based on the study of skeletons found in Mexico, that a good portion of the skulls were that of Negritic Blacks.
The best evidence of the Black presence in America before Columbus comes from the pen of the "great discoverer" himself. In his Journal of the Second Voyage, Columbus reported that when he reached Haiti the Native Americans told him that black-skinned people had come from the south and southeast in boats, trading in gold-tipped medal spears. At least a dozen other European explorers, including Vasco Nunez de Balboa, also reported seeing or hearing of "Negroes" when they reached the New World. Nicholas Leon, an eminent Mexican authority, recorded the oral traditions of his people.
Some of them reported that "the oldest inhabitants of Mexico were blacks, the existence of blacks and giants is commonly believed by nearly all the races of our sail and in their various languages they had words to designate them." Early Mexican scholars were convinced that the impact of the Black explorers on the New World was profound and enduring. One author, J.A. Villacorta, has written: "Any way you view it; Mexican civilization had its origin in Africa." Modern excavations throughout Latin America appear to confirm Villacorta's conclusions.
The idea or the notion that the evidence of West African presence in the Americas seems unconvincing could be considered as unwillingness to go beyond the mere surface to see what is presented. Compelling evidences have been provided by people who have dedicated their lives to this study to prove such a theory should be proof enough of their accuracy. Various researchers, scholars, historian, anthropologists and archaeologists have all provided evidence along the same lines. So how can they all have the same thing and have compelling evidence to back up their claims and still be considered as unconvincing? The assessment is that based upon the evidences provided by people who have vast knowledge of this topic it is fair to say that there really was West African presence in the Americas before Columbus' time.
Roseann HallPage 5
