05. They Came Before Columbus

In this episode Engineer and Black history influencer Brittany Wilkins, discusses The African Presence in Ancient America before the slave trade and the controversy surrounding Christopher Columbus discovering America.


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Transcript

Welcome to Episode 5 The Coin: Black History on the other side podcast hosted by Brittany Wilkins. The world has given Christopher Columbus his flowers and cemented his legacy as being one of the greatest explorers to discover America. Today the world honors him by observing this day as Columbus Day commemorating him  for landing in the America’s in 1492.  While I don’t deny Christopher Columbus was an explorer who went on many voyages throughout his life. The history written about his story is  inaccurate in my opinion.  A discovery is something found or learned for the first time. How can he be the first to discover a new world when there were indigenous people already There upon his arrival.  In my mind logic tells me the people living within the region where the first to discover America.  Prior to COVID 19 pandemic I traveled throughout the United States to various places. Although it was my first time visiting  the Grand Canyon in Arizona, I didn’t discover it . It was already there with millions of people who visited before me. It was a new destination but not a discovery. The New World was new to Christopher Columbus.  The context in which we use words shapes the perception.  Really when you think about it . Nothing is new under the sun.  In the  business world many new inventions go though the patent process. The inventor claims the idea to be new discovery  never be done before.  Within the process after doing a thorough search patent lawyer comes back to say there is some prior art/invention similar your idea. Already there is  a baseline/foundation that exist for the invention, ultimately what the inventor is doing is building on that invention by adding some new non-obvious features. I said all this to ask this question: Was he really the first to claim he discovered America. Have there been prior explorers before him who sailed those seas?  Some probably never made it if they did or some made to America but had not done in the way Christopher Columbus did to get the recognition. Did he take a different route or get to America faster than all the other expeditions, which is led him being the darling of history.

Here is something interesting to note about the Year 1492. The same year Christopher Columbus  allegedly discovered was also when the last Moorish King surrendered in defeat  to King 

Ferdinand and was kicked out of Spain.  Coincidence or planned European World Dominion beginning the era of colonialism. 

In grade school I remember doing assignments about Christopher Columbus. If I would have known back then what I know now, I wouldn’t have participated in any Christopher Columbus festivities. Flipping the coin in learning the other side of history I’ve come to learn he was the one who initiated slavery in the America’s. The motives for his voyages were first for discovery and exploration. Second was colonization and consolidation. Columbus gave the order to take two thousands Spaniards. Plant colonies, build  churches, build cities, forts, farms. The Bible says where your treasure is there your heart will be also. Columbus underlying motive was his search for Gold. His quest was for more. His greed led to the exploitation and victimization of indigenous people. In fact he demanded from Spain one third, one eighth , and one tenth of everything he found in the new world.  A man with this type of character did not change the world for better. While cities may remove his statues across the globe, history books remain unchanged. As previously stated he initiated slavery America, so the narrative paints a picture that Africans only arrived in America’s via the slave trade. In todays podcast I share with you the scholarly  works of Dr. Ivan Van Sertima.  For those of you listening  who do not know Dr. Sertima, he was  associate professor of Africana studies at Rutgers University. He is best known for his pre Columbia’s trans oceanic research. this is the story of They Came Before Columbus, The African Presence in Ancient America.

Earliest Documented Traces of African Presence

Was in Espanola, which today is present day Haiti and the Dominican Republic, the Indians provided proof to Christmas Columbus that they were trading with black people. The Indians of this Espanola said that there had come a black people who have the tops of their spears made of metal which they call guanin. Columbus has sent samples of the tops assayed. Assayed is an analysis designed to measure and test the composition in ore, alloys, and precious metals.  Results of this analysis found that of the 32 parts, 18 were gold, 6 of silver, and 8 of copper. These metal tops were produced from guanin.  The origin of the word guanin may be tracked down in the Mande languages of West Africa.  This was not Columbus first time in hearing about black people trading with Indians. Portuguese King Don Juan had told Columbus stories about African presence in America. The Indians confirmed it by providing him concrete evidence. In the quest for Gold he now learned the source of where he could gain more.  Without being there is hard to conclude why the Indians would tell Columbus this information in the first place. Was it a casual dialogue, did Columbus use forceful measures   The trading of between Africans and Indians was a business transaction. Guanin was like intellectual property. In todays culture Intellecutal property is protected through Non-disclosure agreements. NDA’s probably didn’t exist to the extent we have them today. I believe moments like this in history and others were game changers and the ships were then turned toward Africa headed for the Gold Coast. No disrespect to   Indegious people, would you consider them to be whistleblowers in todays culture?

On Columbus third voyage he came upon more evidence of the contact between Africa and the new world.  From a settlement along South America coast on which his men landed  the natives brought handkerchiefs of cotton very symmetrically woven and worked in colors like those brought from Guinea(Gi nee) from the rivers of Sierra Leone and of no difference. The handkerchiefs resembled Guinea(gi nee) headdresses and loincloths

Visible Witnesses of Africans in Ancient America 

A Spanish explorer by the name of Vasco Nunez Balboa discovered an Indian Settlement off the southern sea of Quarequa. (Quar qua) is He found a number of war captives who were African. He observed tall black men of military bearing who were waging war with natives from some settlement in the neighborhood. These were the first negroes that had been seen in the Indies. 

An encounter with New World Negros was also reported off Colombia. A priest of the Dominican named Fray Gregoria Garcia pinpointed an island off Cartagena, Colombia as the place where the Spanish encountered blacks in the New World. Just as Balboa witnessed, Fray Gregorian stated blacks were found as captives of war among Indians. 

In the sixteen century Cabello de Balboa cited a group of seventeen negros shipwrecked in Ecuador who had become governors of an entire province of American Indians. 

Darien and Colombia were easily accessible to African ship wrecked mariners. These places lied within the terminal area of currents that move with great power and swiftness from Africa to America.

Outro:

These were the earliest documented traces of the African presence that occurred within the first and second decades of Columbus so called discovery. In their voyages to the new world the Spanish had discovered African settlements and artifacts. What I have shared with you today only begins to scratch the surface. I am grateful for the work that Dr. Van Sertima has done. He has given us a foundation to build upon. They ,our people came before Columbus.  For those of you listening who have not read They Came Before Columbus,I recommend you add this to your reading list.  In future podcast and courses I may do a part II of African Presence in Ancient America based upon the feedback and number downloads this episode receives. You will hear me say it many times there is so much more to our history than the slave trade.  What does it benefit the dominant culture to teach us about ourselves.  Until the lion learns how to write, every tale will glorify the hunter.

The best investment we can make is investing in ourselves and program that enable us to learn our history, explore our history, and create our history. If you enjoyed the show and would like to support the creation of more content use the link in the show notes to donate to our mission of bridging the gap between African history and culture. Until my next episode take care.