Ivan Van Sertima facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Ivan Van Sertima
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Sertima in 1995
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| Born | 26 January 1935 Kitty Village, British Guiana
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| Died | 25 May 2009 (aged 74) Highland Park, New Jersey, United States
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| Nationality | Guyanese |
| Citizenship | United Kingdom |
| Alma mater | University of London, Rutgers University |
| Known for | pre-Columbian contact between Africa and the Americas |
| Spouse(s) | Maria Nagy (m. 1964; divorced) Jacqueline L. Patten
(m. 1984) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Africana Studies |
| Institutions | Rutgers University |
Ivan Gladstone Van Sertima (born January 26, 1935 – died May 25, 2009) was a professor who taught about African cultures and history. He was born in Guyana (which was then called British Guiana) and later became a professor at Rutgers University in the United States.
He is most famous for his book They Came Before Columbus (published in 1976). In this book, he suggested that people from Africa traveled to the Americas long before Christopher Columbus. He believed they might have influenced ancient cultures like the Olmec civilization. While his ideas became very popular in the African American community, most experts who study ancient American cultures did not agree with his theories. They often called his work "pseudoarchaeology" or "pseudohistory," meaning it wasn't based on strong scientific evidence. Some critics also felt his ideas took away from the amazing achievements of Native American cultures.
Contents
His Early Life
Ivan Van Sertima was born in a small place called Kitty Village, near Georgetown, Guyana. This was in a British colony called British Guiana. He kept his British citizenship throughout his life. He went to primary and secondary school in Guyana and started writing poetry there.
Later, he studied at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London starting in 1959. He earned a degree in African languages and literature in 1969. Before becoming a professor, Van Sertima worked as a journalist in Great Britain during the 1960s. He made weekly radio broadcasts to the Caribbean and Africa.
In 1964, he married Maria Nagy, and they adopted two sons, Larry and Michael. He also worked in Africa, where he helped create a dictionary of legal terms in the Swahili language. In 1970, Van Sertima moved to the United States and began studying at Rutgers University. After divorcing his first wife, he married Jacqueline L. Patten in 1984. She had two daughters.
His Main Book: They Came Before Columbus
Ivan Van Sertima published his most famous book, They Came Before Columbus, in 1976. He was still a student at Rutgers University at the time. The book mainly discusses his arguments that Africans arrived in the Americas and influenced ancient cultures there.
Instead of being published by a university, the book was released by Random House, a general publisher. They Came Before Columbus became a best-seller and gained a lot of attention, especially in the African-American community. However, many academic experts at the time largely ignored or disagreed with his claims. The book was strongly criticized in an academic journal in 1997.
Van Sertima finished his master's degree at Rutgers in 1977. In 1979, he became an Associate Professor of African Studies at Rutgers. That same year, he started a journal called Journal of African Civilizations. He was the editor and publisher of this journal for many years.
What Was They Came Before Columbus About?
In They Came Before Columbus, Ivan Van Sertima explored his theory that Africans landed in the Americas. He believed they had a big impact on the native people, especially the Olmec civilization. Van Sertima often told stories in his book, which made it exciting to read. However, the evidence he used was sometimes unclear. This led many experts to call his work "pseudoscience" or "pseudoarchaeology." This means it looked like science but didn't follow strict scientific rules.
The book was published by a regular publishing house, not an academic one. This meant it didn't go through a peer review process, where other experts check the research before it's published.
Van Sertima tried to reach a wider audience by including chapters narrated by historical figures. These included Christopher Columbus and the Mali king Abu Bakr II. He often used stories from old sources and then added his own ideas or made things sound more dramatic. For example, he wrote about Abu Bakr II arriving in Mexico in 1311 and meeting the Aztecs. He even compared the Mali king to the Aztec "sun god" Quetzalcoatl. However, there is no historical proof for this story, and Van Sertima didn't provide sources to back it up. This is one example of how Van Sertima linked Mesoamerican myths to his theories about African contact.
Ideas About African Travel
In his book, Van Sertima also included pictures of ancient objects. Many of these were photos of ceramic heads that he said looked like African people. He showed pictures of an African man and woman for comparison. However, he didn't show pictures of the people who actually lived where these objects were found. Van Sertima focused on the Olmec colossal heads. He claimed that the features of these huge stone faces were "clearly" African. But experts like Richard Diehl disagree. They say the statues are just a certain style of art and represent native Mesoamericans.
Van Sertima thought that Africans probably traveled to the Americas more than once. He wrote about different ways Africans could have sailed across the ocean. He suggested that even very old Egyptian ships were strong enough to cross the Atlantic. He believed they could have used the ocean currents that flow from northwest Africa to the Americas.
He also discussed bottle gourds, which are plants originally from Africa, found in ancient American graves. Experts generally believe these gourds floated across the Atlantic on their own. They then washed ashore in the Americas and were used by local cultures. Van Sertima also talked about carved pipes found at ancient American sites. He suggested that the idea of smoking pipes must have come from African or Asian visitors.
African Influence on Egypt
Van Sertima also spent part of his book discussing how different cultures within Africa interacted. He wrote about the influence of West and Southern African people on ancient Egyptian civilization. He highlighted the helpful new ideas and cultural growth that happened under Nubian rulers in Egypt. These sections helped support his main argument: that African cultures, especially black African cultures, have made important contributions to world civilizations.
Why Some Experts Disagreed
Near the end of his book, Van Sertima stated that all civilizations can invent things on their own. He said his goal was to find a middle ground between two ideas: diffusionism (the idea that cultures spread ideas to each other) and isolationism (the idea that cultures develop things on their own without outside help).
However, many of his main ideas suggested that Mesoamerican pyramids, mummification, symbols, myths, calendar technology, and much of their art came from African influence. Critics in archaeology and anthropology said that They Came Before Columbus made it seem like Native Mesoamerican people were not capable of developing their own advanced civilizations and technologies. They felt the book suggested that Africans had to arrive by boat as "gods" to guide them. Because of these reasons, the claims in this book are generally not accepted by scientists who study ancient cultures.
Other Works and Legacy
Ivan Van Sertima retired in 2006. He passed away on May 25, 2009, at the age of 74. He was survived by his wife and four adult children.
His wife, Jacqueline Van Sertima, said she would continue to publish the Journal of African Civilizations. She also planned to publish a book of his poetry.
See also
In Spanish: Ivan Van Sertima para niños
