|
Writings
of Runoko Rashidi
Introduction to African Civilizations /
African Presence in Early Asia /
Introduction to the Study of African Classical Civilizations
* * * * *
A Tribute to Ivan Van Sertima
By Runoko Rashidi
|
We have come to reclaim
the house of history. We are dedicated to
the revision of the role of the African in
the world's great civilizations, the
contribution of Africa to the achievement of
man in the arts and sciences. We shall
emphasize what Africa has given to the
world, not what it has lost.—Ivan
Van Sertima |
With absolute
certainty it can stated that, due to his consistent and
unrelenting scholarship over the past twenty-five years
in the rewriting of African history and the
reconstruction of the African's place in world history,
particularly in the field of the African presence in
ancient America, Ivan Van Sertima has cemented his
position as one of our greatest living scholars. Indeed,
during this turbulent and exciting period, he has been
in the vanguard of those scholars fighting to place
African history in a new light.
Simply put, Van Sertima's clarion call has been: "We
shall follow the trail of the African in Europe, in
Asia, and in every corner of the New World, seeking to
set the record straight. This is no romantic exploration
of antiquities. It is a search for roots."
Ivan Van Sertima was born in Kitty Village, Guyana,
South America on January 26, 1935. He was educated at
the School of Oriental and African Studies at London
University where he graduated with honors. From 1957 to
1959, he served as a Press and Broadcasting Officer in
the Guyana Information Services. During the decade of
the 1960s, he broadcasted weekly from Britain to both
Africa and the Caribbean. He came to the United States
in 1970, where he completed his post graduate studies at
Rutgers University in New Jersey. Dr. Van Sertima began
his teaching career as an instructor at Rutgers in 1972,
and remained Professor of African studies in the
Department of Africana Studies until recently.
Van Sertima is a literary critic, a linguist, and an
anthropologist, and has made a name for himself in all
three fields. As a linguist, he is the compiler of the
Swahili Dictionary of Legal Terms, based on his field
word in Tanzania, East Africa in 1967. As a literary
critic, he is the author of Caribbean Writers, a
collection of critical essays on the Caribbean novel. He
is also the author of several major literary reviews
published in Denmark, India, Britain, and the United
States. He was recognized for his work in this field by
being requested by the Nobel Committee of the Swedish
Academy to nominate candidates for the Nobel Prize in
Literature from 1976 to 1980.
The cornerstone of
Dr. Van Sertima's legacy will probably be his authorship
of They Came Before Columbus: The African Presence in
Ancient America. According to Van Sertima:
The African presence in America before
Columbus is of importance not only to
African and American history, but to the
history of world civilizations. The African
presence is proven by stone heads, terra
cottas, skeletons, artifacts, techniques and
inscriptions, by
oral traditions and documented history, by
botanical, linguistic and cultural data. |
They Came Before Columbus is a groundbreaking
historical work and a literary hallmark. The ideas and
themes presented in They Came Before Columbus
were not novel. Indeed, many people had written on the
African presence in pre-Columbian America before Van
Sertima, notably Leo Wiener, Kofi Wangara, R.A.
Jairazbhoy, Legrand H. Clegg II, and Floyd W. Hayes III,
but Van Sertima's book was the first such work of its
type written by an African to comprehensively address
the subject. In his own words, Van Sertima notes that:
| What I have sought to do in this book,
therefore, is to present the whole picture
emerging from these disciplines, all the
facts that are now known about the links
between Africa and America in pre-Columbian
times. |
They Came Before Columbus
has now gone through more than twenty printings. It was
published in French in 1981, and in the same year was
awarded the Clarence L. Holt Prize, a prize awarded
every two years "for a work of excellence in literature
and the humanities relating to the the cultural heritage
of Africa and the African diaspora." In 1979 Dr.
Chancellor Williams received the Clarence L. Holte prize
for the Destruction of Black Civilization.
Following upon the publication of They Came Before
Columbus, and equally momentous, in 1979 Dr. Van
Sertima founded the Journal of African Civilizations
which quickly gained "a reputation for excellence and
uniqueness among historical and anthropological
journals. It is recognized as a valuable information
source for both the layman and student." The late St.
Clair Drake described the Journal of African
Civilizations as "one of the most important events in
the development of research and publication from the
perspective of Pan-African scholarship." Van Sertima set
the tone early on when he stated that:
The destruction of African high-cultures
after the massive and continuous invasions
of Europe left many Africans surviving on
the periphery or outer ring of what
constituted the best in African
civilizations. New facts that challenge this
image create such
consternation and incredulity that an
extraordinarily emotional campaign is
mounted by some of the most respected voices
in the scientific establishment to explain
away the new data.
That drift of dynastic Egypt from Africa has
now dramatically slowed. Recent
archeological finds have caught up with the
mythmakers. More and more the history of
Africa is being reconstructed upon the basis
of hard, objective data rather than upon the
self-serving speculations and racist
theories about the black barbarians |
From 1979 the
Journal of African Civilizations published works by
and about many of the world's finest Africanist scholars
in a series of magnificent anthologies. These works
include Blacks in Science, Nile Valley
Civilizations, African Presence in Early America,
Black Women in Antiquity, Egypt Revisited,
Egypt: Child of Africa, African Presence in
Early Europe, Golden Age of the Moor,
African Presence in the Art of the Americas,
Great Black Leaders, Great African Thinkers (coedited
with Larry Obadele Williams), and African Presence in
Early Asia (coedited with Runoko Rashidi). In 1998
Transaction Press produced produced Van Sertima's newest
text—Early America Revisited—the definitive
statement on the subject.
On July 7, 1987 Dr. Van Sertima appeared before a
Congressional Committee to challenge the Columbus myth.
In November 1991 he defended his thesis in an address to
the Smithsonian Institute. In this arena Ivan Van
Sertima has emerged as an undefeated champion.
Sources:
Ivan Van Sertima.
They Came Before Columbus
Make liberal use also of
The
Global African Presence
If you like this article consider making a donation.
* * * * *
posted 5 February 2008 |
