West African contact with

Americas:
Arguments for and against
For

1. Van Sertima, “They came before Columbus”

2. Leo Weiner’s “Africa and the discover of America”
3. North African Sources
4. Niede Guidon
5. Stephen (1966)

Criticism

1. Michael Coe (1983), he studied Aztec and other indigenous societies and
said that Africanist Historian such as Sertima and Weiner undermine the
accomplishments of the indigenous people
2. Gabriel Haslip-Vera, Bernard Ortiz de Montellano, Warren Barbour
(1997) agrees… "CA Forum on Anthropology in Public: Robbing Native
Cultures: Van Sertima's Afrocentricity and the Olmecs", Current
Anthropology, Vol. 38, no. 3 (June 1997), 419–441.
3. Michael R. Waters,
Romero, Simon (March 27, 2014). "Discoveries Challenge Beliefs on Humans' Arrival in the
Americas". The New York Times. Retrieved December 4, 2014
Van Sertima’s claim
1. Archeological evidence: Pyramid, depictions, carvings of stone heads
2. Botanical Evidence
3. Olmec head facial similarities
4. Mummification
5. Trade wind story
6. Calendar technology
7. Aztec god Quetzalcoatl reparented an African visitor

Leo Wieners claim

1. Similarities between Mandinka and native Mesoamerican religious
symbols like the winged serpent and the sun disk
2. Words that have mande roots and share similar meaning across both
cultures, such as “kore”, “gadwall”, and “quilba”
3. Leo Wiener, Africa and the Discovery of America (Philadelphia: Inness and Sons, 1922), Vol. 3, p.
259.
4. ^ Leo Wiener, "Africa and the Discovery of America", American Anthropologist, New Series, Vol.
23, No. 1 (Jan.–Mar. 1921), pp. 83–94

North African Sources

1. Visits to the new world by a fleet from the Mali empire lead y Abu Bakr
11
Joan Baxter (December 13, 2000). "Africa's 'greatest explorer'". BBC News. Retrieved February
12, 2008

2. So King John ii of Portugal said that “canoes had be found which set out
from the coast of Guinea (west Africa) and sailed to the West with
merchandise. And according to Columbus’ log made by Bartolome de las
Casas, the purpose of Columbus’ third voyage was to test that theory
3. The claim that native in habitants of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola
that “from the south and southeast had come black people whose spears
were made of a metal called guanin…from which it was found that of 32
parts: 16 were gold, 6 were silver, and 8 copper.”
Morison, Samuel Eliot (1963). Journals & Other Documents on the Life & Voyages of Christopher
Columbus. New York: The Heritage Press. pp. 262, 263.
 ^ Thacher, John Boyd (1903). Christopher Columbus: his life, his work, his remains, as revealed
by original printed and manuscript records, together with an essay on Peter Martyr of Anghera and
Bartolomé De Las Casas, the first Historians of America. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons.
pp. 379, 380.

^ Olson, Julius E.; Bourne, Edward Gaylord, eds. (1906). The Northmen, Columbus and Cabot,
985-1503. New York City: Charles Scribner's Sons – via Project Gutenberg.

Brazilian researches Niede Guidon who led the Pedra Furada sites excavation
1. “…she believed that humans…might have come not overland from
Asia but by boat from Africa”, with the journey taking place 100,000
years ago, well be the accepted dates for the earliest human migrations
that led to the prehistoric settlement of the Americas.
Michael R. Waters, who is a geoarcheologist at Texas A&M
university noted the absence of genetic evidence in modern population
to support Guidon’s claim
Romero, Simon (March 27, 2014). "Discoveries Challenge Beliefs on Humans' Arrival in the
Americas". The New York Times. Retrieved December 4, 2014
 Points For and Against
1. Stone Heads
FOR
Many indigenous societies in south and central America had some art
forming indicating teachings
Mayan communities like Tres Zapotes and La Venta in Mexico colossal
Stone heads were found, Dr. Michael Sterling said “were bold and
amazingly negroid in feature”
Jose Melgar, who discovered the first colossal head at Hueyapan (now tres
zapotes) in 1862 suggested that the olmecs were related to Africans.
(Stirling, p. 2, who cites Melgar, Jose (1869) "Antigüedades mexicanas, notable escultura
antigua", in Boletín de la Sociedad Mexicana de Geografía y Estadística, época 2, vol. 1, pp.
292–297, Mexico, as well as Melgar, Jose (1871) "Estudio sobre la antigüedad y el origen de
la Cabeza Colosal de tipo etiópico que existe en Hueyapan del cantón de los Tuxtlas"
in Boletín de la Sociedad Mexicana de Geografía y Estadística, época 2, vol. 3, pp. 104–109;
Mexico.)

They had full lips, broad noses, lines on cheeks and Ethiopian styled braids
Sterling who said “The features are bold and amazingly negroid in
character”2
“When, after a relentess search, this head, eventually emerged, it was found
to be 8 ft high, and like the one at Trez Zapotes, vividly Negroid
“The lines of check, and jaw, the fullness of the lips, the broadly fleshed
noses, the actuely observed and faithfully reproduced facial contour and
particulars bore eloquent witness to a Negro-African Presence
“the Olmecs were a people of three faces…the second face or influence was
Negroid. The Third suggests a trace of Mediterranean Caucasoids – some
with Semtici noses…”
Page 147
La venta
Trez zapotes
San lorenzo
AGAINST
(summary)
So the first big issue is that van Sertima uses is the heads to show that the
presence of Africans is confirmed because the heads look like black (African)
people. However, not all Africans look the same. If the heads were to resemble
a particular set of black people it could be guessed that it’d be the West
Africans (because of the broad nose and thick lips) BUT the African people
who van Sertima claims reached the Americas were in fact not the west
Africans but instead the Northern and Eastern Africans who look more
Arabic/Caucasian1….so then…who do the stone heads depict? Clearly not the
African people in question but rather indigenous Indians of which people who
still live in the lowlands of Mexico resemble2. And even if it were the African
there a key features common to the stone heads that are not common to either
North Africans and West Afrians. These include the epicanthic fold of the eye 3
and big dolichocephalic and prognathous4 and the fact that the Nubians and
Egyptians did not have a broad nose or thick lips. And the olmec head with the
braid in question was suggested to be Ethiopian styled, this puts in question as
once again is the Egyptians and Nubians who are being proposed so did an
Ethopian person enter the boat? It would make more sense for the people to
have adopted Egyptian and Nubian hairstyles instead5
“Black looking heads, with their thick lips and flat noses, must be images of
Africans…this is a fundamental error. The people claimed by Van Sertima and
other afro centrists to have influenced the Olmecs (and to be the models for the
heads) are Nubians and Egyptians, that is, North and East Africans, whereas
the slave ancestors of African-Americans came primarily from tropical West
Africa. These groups are very different and do not look alike.”

REASONS WHY THE OLMEC HEADS DO NOT DEPICT AFRICANS

1. Nose
The biggest difference between the Nubians and Egyptians and the west
Africans is the nose. It is said that because the former inhabited drier regions, a
longer and narrower nose evolved to be able to have a greater surface area for
the moisturization of air in the mucus membrane. However because west
Africans inhabited wet, tropical climates it therefore resulted in them having a
shorter and flatter nose.

“Flat noses are particularly inappropriate as racial markers, because the

shape of the nose is primarily a function of climatic factors such as the ambient
temperatures and the moisture content of the air.”
“in areas where the air is very dry, such as deserts, a larger mucous area is
required to moisten inspired air, and this necessitates a longer and narrower
nose (Molnar 1983:71-73)”)
“Both the Olmecs and the West African ancestors of African Americans have
short, flat noses because they lived in wet, tropical cliamtes; Nubians and
Egyptians have longer, thinner noeses because they have lived in a desert.”

2. Dolichocephalic and Prognathous

Another aspect is the fact the Nubians, Egyptians were dolichocephalic (big
forehead) and prognathous (projecting jawlines). But 13 of the 16 of the olmec
heads found had neither of those features, the 3 that are excluded is because
they show a degree of prognathism. The features that the Olmec heads did have
though were
- Broad noses
- Thick lips
- Epicanthic folded eye
- Short and round face (small forhead, no projecting jawling therefore
creating a round face)
the Nubians had none of these features, and the west africans did not have the
last 3 of these features
“the people represented in the Olmec sculptures had short, round, flat faces
with thick lips, flat noses, and epicanthic folds; that is, they resembled people
who still live in the tropical lowlands of Mexico.”

3. Braids
The other claim to blacks was the braids hanging on the back of one of the
second head foundin Tres Zapotes, who he claimed were Ethiopian in heritage.
The problem is that to support his claim he sites a wonderful lady who although
at first said something along the lines of believing in negroes in the Americas,
she then continued to explicitly say that they do not represent anyone of the
negro or Ethiopian race as Jose Melgar (who was the first person to see the
heads way back in the 1800’s and also recorded the ethnic characteristics of the
ancient inhabitants) supposed.
“…because it has seven braids dangling from the back, which he claims
(19922c:57; 1994:296, fig. ic) citating no supporting evidence, to be a
characteristically Ethiopian hairstyle.”
“…he quotes the Mexican Olmec scholar Beatriz de la Fuente, who states, “if
at any time one could imagine that there were negroes in Mesoamerica, it
would be after seeing Head 2 of Trez Zapotes, the one that is most removed
from the physiognomy of our indiand ancestors” (de la Fuente 1971:58)”
“however, he overlooks her comment on the next page that “certainly the
colossal heads do not represent individuals of the negro or ethippian race as
Jose Melgar, the frist Westener to see one more than a hundred years ago,
supposed. We have to agree that in them are recorded, on a heroic scale, the
ethnic characteristics of the ancient inhabitants of Mesoamerica,
characteristics that are still preserved in some contemporaneous natives.”
OTHER QUERRIES
(Is he arguing that an Ethiopian was included in the ship that reached America
and provided a model for the Olmec head? Why would the Olmecs not have
used and Egyptian hairstyle? Frank Yurco (personal communication, 1995)
(the Olmec braids do not look like either Egyptian or Nubian ones. What
evidence is there that a seven braided hairdo was characteristic of Ethiopia in
the period 1200-700 B.C.? If Van Sertima’s evidence comes from colonial or
modern Ethiopia, why should we believe that this hairstyle has prevailed
unchanged for thousands of years? Extraordinary claims require extraordinary
evidence. (an Egyptologist at the Field Museum in Chicago)
Archeological Evidence perspective
The whole point here is that they had been made and buried way before the
proposed African contact
“Some olmec heads are dark not because they represent black people but
because they were made of dark stone. Luckert (1976:41-49, 70-76, 90-107)
“To date, 17 heads have been found, 10 in San Lorenzo, 4 in La Venta, 2 in tres
zapotes and 1 in Cobata (Cyphers 1995:16)
“However, Cypher’s (Cypher 1996:16) definitive dating of San Lorenzo head 7
proves that “Negroid-looking” heads were being carved, mutilated, and buried
between 1428 and 1011 B.C., that is, prior to 1200 B.C., and centuries before
the alleged arrival of Van Sertimas Nubian voyagers”

4. Botanical evidence
FOR

Plants like cotton, bottle gourd and jack beans were found in the Caribbean
before the arrival of Columbus, specifically, cotton was found growing in the
Caribbean when Columbus arrived
John L. Sorenson, Carl L. Johannessen, Scientific Evidence for Pre-Columbian Transoceanic
Voyages, Sino-Platonic Papers, Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of
Pennsylvania, no.133, 2004

“…seeds of the African diploid cotton could not have drifted by themselves
across the ocean but had come to the New World in the hands of African man.”
“…African man, bearing cottons, made the drift journey to the Americas in the
fourth millennium B.C”
“…in another series of African-American contacts in the 15th century Africans
took a tetraploid cotton from the New World, which was introduced into the
Cape Verde islands between 1462 and 1466.”

“There were Haitian reports of large boats from Guinea trading with them
before Colombus. These reports would seem to be supported by evdiecne that
these African-Atlantic traders, on one of their return voyages about the year
1462 broght back a species of the New world cotton with them and introduced it
into the Cape Verde islands.”
“Europeans first became aquainted with the Cape Verde islands, according to
Ribeiro, between 1460 and 1462 in which time there were no signs of former
habitation”

“Tests of seed buoyance and seed viability in experiment tanks of saltwater…

indicate that the upper time limit for seed buoyancy is a little over two months.
This is sufficient to effect the transport of seeds over relatively short ditances…
but totally inadequate for trans-atlantic or trans-pacific dispersal.” Professor
Stephen experiment 1965

AGAINST
So the point is that in order to prove that there was meaningful interaction, the
plants that are questioned need to have been used and domesticated way before
they were found in the Americas. Remember when something is domesticated it
is used to make fabrics and clothes and stuff like that. However the evidence
shows plant domestication and cultivation was largely from northwest and south
east Africa. It only reached other parts of Africa in 500 and 300 B.C. so waayyy
after 4000 B.C., in fact plant domestication in the New World began in 7000
B.C. so the only countries in Africa that had plant domestication before that
time was Egypt and Sahel so the rest of sub Saharan Africa (which is the part of
Africa Van Sertima claims that encountered the Americas) could not have been
a source of domesticated plants in the Americas as the domestication of their
plants are way too recent. So besides this there are 3 crops which are refuted.
These are Bottle Gourd, Cotton and Maize
“The plants in question must be shown to have been used or domesticated
earlier in the proposed place of origin than in the proposed destination”
Baker (1979:62) summarizes his discussion of possible contacts thus: “On the
present evidence it can hardly be said that cultivated plants of the New World
provide a foundation for the belief that there were important cultural exchanges
between the Americas and the Old Word in pre-Columbian days.”
“The conesus of botanical evidence given in the symposium seems to be that
there is no hard and fast evidence for any pre Columbian introduction of any
single plant of animal across the ocean from the Old World to the New World
or vice versa. This is emphatically not to say that it could not have occurred”
(Riley et al. 1971:452-53)
Burenhlt p.46 “Whenever various plants were domesticated, plant cultivation
was largely, if not entirely restricted to the northwestern and southeastern parts
of sub-Saharan Africa until between 500 B.C. and 300 B.C.:
“Since plant domestication in the New World began in 7000 B.C, it is clear
only Egypt and Sahel are areas in which domestication preceded or was
contemporaneous with that in the New World and that sub-Saharan African
agriculture is too recent to have been a source of domesticated plants in the
New World.”

1. Bottle Gourd
So, the whole point here is that bottle gourd was cultivated in the Americas
before it was in Egypt and was domesticated before it was in West Africa. The
other point is that these crops can transport themselves as they can float for as
long as a year and the seeds can still germinate plus why would anyone fill up a
boat with a whole bunch of bottle gourds you can’t even eat them…like tf??
“…Gourds were cultivated in the New World much earlier than in Egypt.”
“Remains of L. siceraria were found in Egyptian tombs dated about 3300-3500
B.C” (Whitaker and Bemis 1976)
“The presence of the gourd in the New World predates any domestication in
West Africa”
“…cultivated bottle gourds earlier than 7000 B.C.were recovered in the
Ocampo caves in Mexico (Whitaker, Cutler, and MacNeish 1957, Whitaker and
Bemis 1976)
“…the oldest cultivated forms in South America date to about 3000 B.C”
(Whitaker 1971)
“There is no need to posit human transport to the New World for this plant”
“Whitaker and Carter (1954, 1961) have shown that gourds can float for as
long as a year without the seeds’ losing the capacity to germinate.”
“if a gourd on its arrival in the New World was tossed up on the beach by a
storm and broke so that the seeds could escape by a storm and broken so that
the seeds could escape…and transported inland, the gourd could spread.”
“…makes little sense for a persons accidentally making a sea voyage to load up
the boat with these bulky, nearly inedible fruits.” (Baker 1970:49-50)

2. Cotton
the whole thing with the cotton is that old world cotton has 13 large
chromosomes and new world cotton has 26 chromosomes 13 which are large
and 13 small (AADD). Now in the new world, there isn’t a cotton with just 13
chromosomes, and in the old world there isn’t any cotton with only 13 small
chromosomes. Therefore, the cotton in the new world must have come from
hybridizaition
Old world (13)
1. African cotton – Gossypium Herbarium
2. Asian cotton – Gossypium Arboreum
New world (26)
1. Central America – Gossypium hirsutum
2. South America - Gossypium barbadense

So if that was the cotton type that was found in the new world, then the
questions is, when did this occur, so like when did this foreign gene get
introduced and how
Van Sertima basically says that they couldn’t float and retain their viability long
enough to cross the Atlantic or pacific, and that they could not do so by
themselves, so African men brought it over in the fourth millennium B.C
The main argument that im going to point out is that this hybridized form of
cotton was in use, cultivated, and spread throughout many islands at a very
close time after van Sertima proposed it was there. So like, the difference is
about 500 years and these people are saying it would have taken thousands of
years for the hybridized cotton to have spread, been domesticated and then
subsequently used afterwards. 500 years is too little of a time
Another point that basically disproves van Sertima’s claim is the fact that a wild
cotton species from Mexico made its way to Hawaii which is a much longer
distance between Africa and the America, this was said by the person who van
Sertima relies on for much of his information. This person also said that the
cotton seed would have been transported by a natural raft

“Since no cotton with 13 large chromosomes is found in the New World and no
cotton with only 13 small chromosomes if native to the Old World, the New
world tetraploid cottons must have arisen from a hybridsation of a New World
species (DD) with an Old world species (AA) leading to a doubling of the
chromosome number (Baker 1970:57-61).”
“Seeds of the African diploid cotton could not have drifted by themselves across
the ocean but had to come to the New World in the hands of African men…
African men, bearing cottons, made the drift journey to the Americas in the
fourth millennium B.C.” (Van Sertima 1976:191)
“Junius Bird found evidence for the long use of cotton textiles (Barbadense) at
Huaca Prieta, Peru, dated at 2500 B.C (Hutchison 1962, Phillips 1976). The
oldest archeological remains containing cotton cloth fibers and boll fragments
of G. hirsutum come from the Tehuacana Mexico, dated about 3500 B.C (Smith
1968)”
“Phillips (1976) and Wendel, Brubaker, and Percival (1992) point out that this
cotton was fully domesticated and does not represent the earliest domestication
of G. hirsutum.”
“Baker (1970:61) point out that wild G. hirsutum has been found on islands in
the Caribbean and in the Yucatan and that G. barbadense is found on the coasts
of Ecuador and Peru and the wild form on the Galapagos Islands.”
“Baker concludes that “All of this evidence suggests that man had nothing to
do with the origins of tetraploid cotton, but that the domesticated hirsutum and
barbadensis separately in the New World”
“The time involved in forming hybrids and subsequently diffusing these
tetraploid species as widely as they are found means that the time of initial
hybridization was thousands of years prior to Van Sertima’s postulated 4th
millennium – B.C. deift voyage Phillips (1976)”
“even Stephens (1971:406-7), upon whom Van Sertima relies, argued that
cotton seed would have been transported y some form of natural raft and points
out that an exclusively wild tetraploid species G. tomentosum, probably derived
from an ancestor in Mexico, had somehow become established in Hawaii (a
much longer distance than the one involved in a trans Atlantic crossing)”
Stephens conclusion (1971:407) “Because of the possibilities of the natural and
accidental dispersal, one is forced to the conclusion that the geographical
distributions of the ‘wild’ forms of cotton per se cannot be used critically as
supporting evidence for early transoceanic cultural contacts. Archeological
evidence of spindle world, cordage fabrics, or any other artifice indicating the
use would be for more satisfactory”

3. Maize
The whole point here is that van Sertima says that the Arabs not only made
round trips to the new world but also introduced maize to Africa before 1492,
however the basis of his arguments have been criticized as being primarily
linguistic and mythological with little archeological support. Plus the proposed
maize in question is actually post Columbian as no corn, either in plant remains
or depictions in ceramics have never been found in the old world.
“Van Sertima relies extensively on Jeffreys (1953, 1963, 1961), who claims that
the Arabs had made a round tribe to the New World and introduced maize to
Africa prior to A.D 1492. Jeffreys arguments are primarily linguistic and
mythological with little archeological support and have been severely criticized
because of this (Willet 1962 and 9 of 11 commentators on Jeffreys 1971)
“Mangelsdorf (1974:205) points out that the proposed Andean maize in fact
post Columbian and is not found in plant remains in archaeological sites or
depicted in prehistoric ceramics.”
“Although corn…has been founding abundance throughout its range in the
New World including the wet tropics “not a single corncob, unmistakably pre-
Columbian, has yet been found in any part of the Old World” (Manglesdorf
1974:206)”
Pyramid
FOR
“The type found in America – the step pyramid – may be traced to ancient
Babylon and Egypt.”
“There were no pyramids in America before the “contact period (800-680
B.C.)”
“The very first American pyramid, or stepped temple, appears at La Venta, the
very site of the colossal Negroid heads…”
“Suddenly, in the “contact” period the ziggurat or stepped temple begins to
appear in America, and not only is the design identical but, like its presumed
prototype, it is sun – star orientation and encircled by a precinct.”
“Not only are the shape and religious function the same but also the
astronomical and spatial relationships.”

Although he does mention that they hay day of building was over, he says
“Over in Egypt, yes, but not in Nubia.”
“The black kings of Nubia built the last of the Egyptian-type pyramids above
their tombs small but elegant copies.”
“They also rebuilt and restored a large number of temples which had fallen into
disrepair”
“Nostalgia for the religious and architectural past of Egypt was strong in
Piankhy and Taharka. Piankhy rebuit the great templt of Amon.”

AGAINST
So, van Sertima basically went on a tangent about the supposed similarities in
structure and uses of the things of the pyramids but the main point that is used
to refute this is that at the time of the proposed contact the Egyptian and Nubian
people had not built those famous pyramids in hundreds to thousands of years
and that they instead were burying their dead in secret and in some small ass
tombs. So, they had no reason to go and teach them some ‘out dated’ structure.
And even if the burial style of building pyramids was still in fashion in the time
of the proposed contact, they were very different to the “pyramids” of the
Olmecs. He presented similarities in structure between the Olmec “pyramids”
and the Egyptian pyramids however most, if not all of these comparisons are
more or less incoherent and doh make no kinda sense.
“In addition to seeing “Negroid” traits in the Olmec stone heads, Van Sertima
tries to establish parallels between the pyramid complexes of the Nile Valley
and the mounds or platform structures at La Venta. References are made to the
1. Step pyramids
2. “North-south” orientation
3. Astronomical alignment
4. System of drains, moats, and sacred pools
5. Complex walls which surround the ceremonial precincts

6. Dual function of pyramids as both tomb and temple

7. Fact that Olmec “pyramid” complexes appear for the first time during
the alleged contact

“…Van Sertima is suggesting that the Olmecs were influenced by Egyptian and
Nubian architecture, but the evidence from the archeological sites themselves
fail to support this assertion in several important ways.”
The reasons why the pyramids are not similar
1. “Large pyramids were not being built in Egypt or in Nubia at the end of
the 13th century B.C.; the great age of pyramid building had ended much
earlier. The last step pyramid was built in 2680 B.C, and the last large
regular pyramid was Khenjefer’s (ca.1777 B.C)
“in 1200 B.C the Egyptians buried their dead in secret…or constructed
small tombs that might incorporate small, pointed pyramids into their
overall design.”
2. In the late 8th and early 7th century (which is Van Sertima’s other
presumed contact period). “the Egyptians continued to bury their dead in
secret or constructed the same kinds of diminutive tombs with small
pointed pyramids that they had built in the 13th century B.C.”

3. “In Nubia, pyramids were built for the first time at El Kurru in 751 B.C
(Fakhry 1961:25-33) but these structures were also quite small and bore
no resemblance to the rectangular, oval, or conical mounds or platform
structures built by the Olmecs.”

4. “The nubian pyramids were also connected to small Egyptian-style

mortuary temples, which faced southeast, in contradiction to Van
Sertima’s claim that all such structures had a “north-south” orientation.

5. “The Nubian pyramids were also built with “gravel,” “sandstone,” and
“solid stone masonry” and contained burial chambers in which were
found figurines, painted mortuary scenes, written texts, and other artifacts
in the Egyptian and Egypto-Nubian style (Edwards 1985:235, 236-39;
Adams 1984: 256-7, 266-67, 278-85; Dunham 1950)

“In contrast, the Olmec structures were built of different layers of

carefully selected earth and clay in various colors and were apparently
 used primarily for ceremonial and religious rituals rather than for burial
of the dead”

6. “they also lack any evidence of figurines, painted mortuary scenes,

written texts, or any other artifacts in the Egyptian or Egypto-Nubian
style”

7. “the Olmec mounds or platform structures of the middle formative were

relatively large compared with the Nubian pyramids of the same period.”

“At La Venta, they were mostly 200-400 sw. ft. rectangular structures
with sloping sides and flat tops, which apparently served as platforms for
temples and other structures made of that or some other perishable
material. There were also courtyards, plazas with palisades, and circular,
oval, or pentagonal mounds, but none of these structures resembled the
Nubian pyramids and their afore affiliated buildings.”

OTHER QUERRIES
(Van setima does not explain why Egyptian visitors to the new world
would have taught the natives to build pyramids that had not been built in
Egypt for hundreds if not thousands of years.)

(“Van Sertima continues to use an old photograph of an outdates

reconstructions of this edifice to insist that it was a four sided pyramid
comparable to those built by the ancient Egyptians and Nubians”)
 5. Mummification
FOR
“One of the best examples is the mummified figure in the sarcophagus at
Palenque.”
“Three features of this Palenque burial indicate an Egyptian influence: the Jade
mask on the face of the dead, the fact of mummification itself and the flared
base of the sarcophagus”
“…Egyptians made sarcophagi with a flared base to enable them to stand them
up because their burials were vertical.”
“…the ‘flared base’ feature afforded them stability in the standing position.”
“The Mexicans, like the Nubians, buried in a horizontal position, yet at
Palenque the flared base is retained although it serves no function.”
“the retention of such a nonfunctional element…is among the clearest
indications of an influence.”
“A borrowed artifact often goes through an intial period of “slavish imitation”
before it is restructured to suit local needs.”
“…Egyptian and Native Nubian burial customs co existed for a while then
fused.”
“Egyptian mummification techniques…are most evident in Peru.”
Referring to the fact the Egyptian princess Mene was preserved in an
impeccable state so much so that in 1963 biologist at the University of
Oklahoma confirmed that the skin cells were capable of living and that arriving
at this chemical formula would have taken thousands of years “Yet were found
in Peru not only the same manner of swaddling the corpse in ritual bandages
but, according to Professor L. Ruetter, who has made an analysis of embalming
mixtures in Peru “the antiseptic substances…are identical with those used in
ancient Egypt…”
“The ingredients are common enough. The formula is very exclusive.”

Against
So my mans basically said that the sarcophagus’ contained mummies, had flared
base which was an imitation of the Egyptian prototype but every Mayan text
said that the sarcophagus’ contain a skeleton and not a mummy and that the
flared base is a widening of the open interior slab and the use of jaded death
masks were never used by the Egyptians and the fact that the oldest mummies
founding the world are found in Chile and have been dated to have been 2,000
to 3,000 years before the Egyptians. not to mention that all of the authors that he
uses are hyperdiffusionist and whose worked have been discredited significantly
“His only sources for this claim are the discredited hyperdiffusionist authors of
the early 20th century, whom he quotes from Mackenzie (1923).”
“All of his citations…ultimately derive from Graton Elliot Smith, a prolific
hyperdiffusionist who believed that all civilization derived from Egypt or his
disciple W. J. Perry”
“The diffusion of mummification from Egypt to the rest of the world was central
to his (Elliot Smith) thesis.” “This thesis was thoroughly demolished in 1928 by
Roland B. Dixon’s The Building of Cultures (Wuachipe 1962:21-25; Davies
1979:159-60) – a problem that Van Sertima ignores.”

…based on some information he said about sarcophagus containing mummies

“Every basic text on the Maya states that the sarcophagus contained a skeleton
not a mummy (Benson 1967:92; Thompson 1954:77-80).”
“Any interested party can verify this by looking at the photograph of Pascal’s 33
skeleton in the sarcophagus (Morley, Brainerd, and Sharer 1983:125, fig. 4.22;
the photograph has been published in this text since 1956)
“…one can also verify the “flared base is, in fact, a widening of the open
interior of the slab, not the bottom of the sarcophagus or a “slavish imitation”
of an Egyptian prototype.”
“For Van Sertima’s claim to be true, it would have required the Mesoamerican
to imitate the Egyptians from 800 B.C until A.D. 683 (almost 1,500 years…”
“It should also be noted that the Jaded death masks were never used by the
ancient Egyptians”
“the oldest mummies in the world are those associated with the Chinchorra
culture of Chile (Arriaza 1995a). The oldest mummy there is dated 5050 ± 134
B.C (Arriaza 1995b:42, 57). This is 2,000 to 3,000 years earlier than in Egypt,
where arifical preservation of corpses began in the Old Kingdom (ca.268-
2181 .C.) (Davis 1993)
 6. Calendar technology
Van Sertima

7. Original migration into the Americas did not come from Asia but
from Africa
“…she believed that humans…might have come not overland from Asia but
by boat from Africa”, with the journey taking place 100,000 years ago, well
be the accepted dates for the earliest human migrations that led to the
prehistoric settlement of the Americas.
Michael R. Waters, who is a geoarcheologist at Texas A&M university noted
the absence of genetic evidence in modern population to support Guidon’s
claim Romero, Simon (March 27, 2014). "Discoveries Challenge Beliefs on Humans' Arrival in the
Americas". The New York Times. Retrieved December 4, 2014

8. Columbus diaries: said he saw black people

Columbus was a slave trader to west Africa and was able to see black people,
how the Taino’s told him that spears were given to them by black people.
Columbus wrote “There had come to Hispaniola people who have the tops of
their spears made of metal, which they call guanine, of which he had sent
samples to the Sovereigns (their Kings and Queens) to have them assayed, when
it was found that 32 parts, 18 were gold, six of silver and eight of copper”
The samples that were sent to Spain were identical to the ones being forged in
African Guiana
Colombu’s son also said that his dad saw black people in the Americas when he
arrived.
So King John ii of Portugal said that “canoes had be found which set out from
the coast of Guinea (west Africa) and sailed to the West with merchandise. And
according to Columbus’ log made by Bartolome de las Casas, the purpose of
Columbus’ third voyage was to test that theory
The claim that native in habitants of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola that
“from the south and southeast had come black people whose spears were made
of a metal called guanin…from which it was found that of 32 parts: 16 were
gold, 6 were silver, and 8 copper.”
Morison, Samuel Eliot (1963). Journals & Other Documents on the Life & Voyages of Christopher
Columbus. New York: The Heritage Press. pp. 262, 263.

^ Thacher, John Boyd (1903). Christopher Columbus: his life, his work, his remains, as revealed
by original printed and manuscript records, together with an essay on Peter Martyr of Anghera and
Bartolomé De Las Casas, the first Historians of America. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons.
pp. 379, 380.

^ Olson, Julius E.; Bourne, Edward Gaylord, eds. (1906). The Northmen, Columbus and Cabot,
985-1503. New York City: Charles Scribner's Sons – via Project Gutenberg.

9. Skeletons
 Smithsonian Institution 1975 found two negroid male skeletons
 They were found in the U.S Virgin Islands, the soil was dated to be
1250 A.D.
 Teeth showed “Dental mutilation characteristics of early African
cultures
 Rossum 1996 can’t be concluded that skeletons are African
because studies done compares the skeleton to modern day people
 -SOME HISTORIAN- say that indigenous came from Asia and
that Indians could have been among them

10.Similarities in language and religious symbols

Similarities between Mandinka and native Mesoamerican religious symbols
like the winged serpent and the sun disk. Words that have mande roots and
share similar meaning across both cultures, such as “kore”, “gadwall”, and
“quilba” Leo Wiener, Africa and the Discovery of America (Philadelphia: Inness and Sons, 1922),
Vol. 3, p. 259. ^ Leo Wiener, "Africa and the Discovery of America", American Anthropologist, New
Series, Vol. 23, No. 1 (Jan.–Mar. 1921), pp. 83–94

11.Trade winds

Continuous trade winds throughout the year which is difficult to navigate

Ivan van Sertima
12.Oral history
Visits to the new world by a fleet from the Mali empire lead y Abu Bakr
11
Joan Baxter (December 13, 2000). "Africa's 'greatest explorer'". BBC News. Retrieved February
12, 2008
13.Olmec Culture
van Sertima
14.Pyramids
van Sertima
Conclusion
“Hardly a claim in any of Van Sertima’s writings that can be supported by the
evidence found in the archeological, botanical, linguistic, or historical record.”
“He employs a number of tactics commonly used by pseudoscientists ( Cole
1980, Radner and Radner 1982: 27-52; Ortiz de montellano 195; Williams
1988) including an almost exclusive use of outdated secondary sources and a
reliance on the pseudoscientific writing of others”
“they (Afrocentrists) seem to be more concerned with the need to raise the
“self-esteem” of African-American, regardless of the imipact on other groups”
“By endorsing Van Sertima’s writings, the Afrocentrists and cultural
nationalists have accepted a hegemonic and racialists view of pre-Columbian
America that is completely lacking in historical accuracy”

“if, perchance, some Africans had landed in the New World, rather than being
regarded as gods they would probably have been sacrificed and eaten.”
“all but the first viking expeditions were planned, but they were repelled and
driven off by the natives. The fate of unplanned expeditions would have been
even wors. Davies (1971:248) points to a known instance in which “a Spanish
boat with sixteen men and two women on board was wrecked on the coast of
Yucatan six years before Cortes arrived; the crew were all sacrificed and ritually
eaten, with the exception of Gonzalo Guerero and Jeronimo de Aguilar who
were instead enslaved by two local chieftains. Of these survivors, Guerrero had
gone so far native that he adorned himself with the accountrements of hid
adopted tribe including elaborate nose plugse and earrings, and reused on any
account to abadon his new life to join Cortes; even Aguilar, when first found by
the Spaniards, had become indistinguishable from and Indian. Survivors of
accidental landings are much more likely to adopt local culture than to spread
their own.”
CA Forum on Anthropology in Public: Robbing Native American Cultures: Van
Sertima’s Afrocentricity and Olmecs

Gabriel Halsip-Viera; Bernard Ortiz de Montellano; Warren Barbour

Current Anthropology, Vol. 38, No. 3 (June., 1997), 419-441

They refute:
1. Olmec heads
2. Archeological evidence
3. Botanical evidence
4. Mummification
 1. Olmec heads

Looks like the Africans

So the first big issue is that van Sertima uses is the heads to show that the
presence of Africans is confirmed because the heads look like black (African)
people. However, not all Africans look the same. If the heads were to resemble
a particular set of black people it could be guessed that it’d be the West
Africans (because of the broad nose and thick lips) BUT the African people
who van Sertima claims reached the Americas were in fact not the west
Africans but instead the Northern and Eastern Africans who look more
Arabic/Caucasian….so then…who do the stone heads depict? Clearly not the
African people in question but rather indigenous Indians of which people who
still live in the lowlands of Mexico resemble.

Nose
The biggest difference between the Nubians and Egyptians and the west
Africans is the nose. It is said that because the former inhabited drier regions, a
longer and narrower nose evolved to be able to have a greater surface area for
the moisturization of air in the mucus membrane. However because west
Africans inhabited wet, tropical climates it therefore resulting in them having a
shorter and flatter noses.

“Black looking heads, with their thick lips and flate noses, must be images of
Africans…this is a fundamental error. The people claimed by Van Sertima and
other afrocentrists to have influenced the Olmecs (and to be the mdels for the
heads) are Nubians and Egyptians, that is, North and East Africans, wherease
the slave ancestors of Afrian-Americans came primarily from tropical West
Africa. These groups are very different and do not look alike.”
“Flat noses are particularly innapropriate as racial markers, ecause the shape of
the nose is primarily a function of climatic factors such as the ambient
temperatures and the moisture content of the air.”
“in areas where the air is very dry, such as deserts, a larger mucous area is
required to moisten inspired air, and this necessitates a longer and narrower
nose (Molnar 1983:71-73)”)
“Both the Olmecs and the West African ancestors of African Americans have
short, flat noses because they lived in wet, tropical cliamtes; Nubians and
Egyptians have longer, thinner noeses because they have lived in a desert.”

Dolichocephalic and Prognathous

Another aspect is the fact the Nubians, Egyptians and Nubians were
dolichocephalic (big forehead) and prognathous (projecting jawlines). But 13 of
the 16 of the olmec heads found had neither of those features, the 3 that are
excluded is because they show a degree of prognathism. The features that the
Olmec heads did have though were
- Broad noses
- Thick lips
- Epicanthic folded eye
- Short and round face (small forhead, no projecting jawling therefore
creating a round face)
the Nubians had none of these features, and the west africans did not have the
last 3 of these features
“the people represented in the Olmec sculptures had short, round, flat faces with
thick lips, flate noses, and epicanthic folds; that is, they resembled people who
still live in the tropical lowlands of Mexico.”

Braids
The other claim to blacks was the braids hanging on the back of one of the
second head foundin Tres Zapotes, who he claimed were Ethiopian in heritage.
The problem is that to support his claim he sites a wonderful lady who although
at first said something along the lines of believing in negroes in the Americas,
she then continued to explicitly say that they do not represent anyone of the
negro or Ethiopian race as Jose Melgar (who was the first person to see the
heads way back in the 1800’s and also recorded the ethnic characteristics of the
ancient inhabitants) supposed.
“…because it has seven braids dangling from the back, which he claims
(19922c:57; 1994:296, fig. ic) citating no supporting evidence, to be a
characteristically Ethiopian hairstyle.”
“…he quotes the Mexican Olmec scholar Beatriz de la Fuente, who states, “if at
any time one could imagine that there were negroes in Mesoamerica, it would
be after seeing Head 2 of Trez Zapotes, the one that is most removed from the
physiognomy of our indiand ancestors” (de la Fuente 1971:58)”
“however, he overlooks her comment on the next page that “certainly the
colossal heads do not represent individuals of the negro or ethippian race as
Jose Melgar, the frist Westener to see one more than a hundred years ago,
supposed. We have to agree that in them are recorded, on a heroic scale, the
ethnic characteristics of the ancient inhabitants of Mesoamerica, characteristics
that are still preserved in some contemporaneous natives.”

(Is he arguing that an Ethiopian was included in the ship that reached America
and provided a model for the Olmec head? Why would the Olmecs not have
used and Egyptian hairstyle? Frank Yurco (personal communication, 1995) )
(the Olmec braids do not look like either Egyptian or Nubian ones. What
evidence is there that a seven braided hairdo was characteristic of Ethiopia in
the period 1200-700 B.C.? If Van Sertima’s evidence comes from colonial or
modern Ethiopia, why should we believe that this hairstyle has prevailed
unchanged for thousands of years? Extraordinary claims require extraordinary
evidence. (an Egyptologist at the Field Museum in Chicago) )
 2. Archeological evidence
So the archeological evidence is broken up into the olmec heads, some sailt and
pyramids

Olmec heads
The whole point here is that they had been made and buried way before the
proposed African contact
“Some olmec heads are dark not because they represent black people but
because they were made of dark stone. Luckert (1976:41-49, 70-76, 90-107)
“To date, 17 heads have been found, 10 in San Lorenzo, 4 in La Venta, 2 in tres
zapotes and 1 in Cobata (Cyphers 1995:16)
“However, Cypher’s (Cypher 1996:16) definitive dating of San Lorenzo head 7
proves that “Negroid-looking” heads were being carved, mutilated, and buried
between 1428 and 1011 B.C., that is, prior to 1200 B.C., and centuries before
the alleged arrival of Van Sertimas Nubian voyagers”

Phoenician Sailor
The carving on which this proposed sailors image was made was actually made
hundreds of years after the olemc heads
“Van Sertima postulated crew included Phoenicians because of their sailing
expertise and because he had identified a carved portrait of a “Phoenician
merchant Captain” on a stela at La Venta (Van Setima 1976: pl22)”
Unfortuntately, this “Phoneician” could not have been a shipmate of the
Nubians (in 1200 or 700 B.C.), because sculpted stela were produced during the
Middle Formative period, several hundred years later than the colossal heads
(Low 1989:63-67)”

Pyramid
So van Sertima basically went on a tangent about the supposed similarities in
structure and uses of the things of the pyramids but the main point that is used
to refute this is that at the time of the proposed contact the Egyptian and Nubian
people had not built those famous pyramids in hundreds to thousands of years
and that they instead were burying their dead in secret and in some small ass
tombs. So they had no reason to go and teach them some ‘out dated’ structure.
And even if the burial style of building pyramids was still in fashion in the time
of the proposed contact, they were very different to the “pyramids” of the
Olmecs.
“In addition to seeing “Negroid” traits in the Olmec stone heads, Van Sertima
tries to establish parallels between the pyramid complexes of the Nile Valley
and the mounds or platform mstructures at La Venta. Reerences are made to the
8. “north-south” orientation
9. Step pyramids
10.Astronomical alignment
11.Dual function of pyramids as both tomb and temple
12.System of drains, moats, and sacred pools
13.Complex walls which surround the ceremonial precincts
14.Fact that Olmec “pyramid” complexes appear for the first time during the
alleged contact
“…Van Sertima is suggesting that the Olmecs were influenced by Egyptian and
Nubian architecture, but the evidence from the archeological sites themselves
fail to support this assertion in several important ways.”
8. “Large pyramidswere not being built in Egypt or in Nubia at the end of
the 13th century B.C.; the great age of pyramid building had ended much
earlier. The last step pyramid was built in 2680 B.C, and the lastlarge
regulat pyramid was Khenjefer’s (ca.1777 B.C)
“in 1200 B.C the Egyptians buried their dead in secret…or constructed
small tombs that might incorporate small, pointed pyramids into their
overall design.”
9. In the late 8th and early 7th century (which is Van Sertimas other presumed
conact period). “the Egyptians continued to bury their dead in secret or
constructed the same kinds of diminutive tombs with small pointed
pyramids that they had built in the 13th century B.C.”
10.“In Nubia, pyramids were built for the first time at El Kurru in 751 B.C
(Fakhry 1961:25-33) but these structures were also quite small and bore
no resemblance to the rectangular, oval, or conical mounds or platform
structures built by the Olmecs.”
11.“The numbian pyramids were also connected to small Egyptian-style
mortuary temples, which faced southeast, in contradiction to Van
Sertima’s claim that all such structures had a “north-south” orientation.
12.“The Nubian pyramids were also built with “gravel,” “sandstone,” and
“solid stone masonry” and contained burial chambers in which were
found figurines, painted mortuary scenes, written texts, and other artifacts
in the Eyptian and Egypto-Nubian style (Edwards 1985:235, 236-39;
Adams 1984: 256-7, 266-67, 278-85; Dunham 1950)

“In contrast, the Olmec structures were built of different layers of

carefullt selected earth and clay in various colors and were apparently
used primarily for ceremonial and religious rituals rather than for burial
of the dead”
“they also lack any evidence of figurines, painted mortuary scenes,
written texts, or any other artifacts in the Egyptian or Egypto-Nubian
style”

13.“the olemc mounds or platfrom strcutres of the middle formative were

relatively large compared with the Nubian pyramids of the same period.”

“At La Venta, they were mostly 200-400 sw. ft. rectangular strcutres with
sloping sides and flat tops, which apparently served as platforms for
temples and other strcutures made of that or some other perishable
material. There were also courtyards, plazas with palisades, and circular,
oval, or pentagonal mounds, but none of these strctures resembled the
Nubian pyramids and their afore affiliated buildings.”

Van setima does not explain why Egyptian visitors to the new world
would have taught the natives to build pyramids that had not been built in
Eypt for hundreds if not thousands of years.

“Van Sertima continues to use an old photgraph of an outdates

reconstructions of this edifice to inssit that it was a four sided pyramid
comparable to those built by the ancient Egyptians and Nubians”
 3. Botanical Evidence

“the plants in question must be shown to have been used or domesticated earlier
in the proposed place of origin than in the proposed destination”
Baker (1979:62) summarizes his discussion of possible contacts thus: “On the
present evidence it can hardly be said that cultivated plants of the New World
provide a foundation for the belief that there were important cultural exchanges
between the Americas and the Old Word in pre-Columbian days.”
“The conesus of botanical evidence given in the symposium seems to be that
there is no hard and fast evidence for any pre Columbian introduction of any
single plant of animal across the ocean from the Old World to the New World
or vice versa. This is emphatically not to say that it could not have occurred”
(Riley et al. 1971:452-53)
Burenhlt p.46 “Whenever various plants were domesticated, plant cultivation
was largely, if not entirely restricted to the northwestern and southeastern parts
of sub-Saharan Africa until between 500 B.C. and 300 B.C.:
“Since plant domestication in the New World began in 7000 B.C, it is clear only
Egypt and Sahel are areas in which domestication preceded or was
contemporaneous with that in the New World and tha sub-Saharan African
agriculture is too recent to have been a source of domesticated plants in the New
World.”
Bottle gourd, cotton, and maize
Bottle Gourde
“…Gourds were cultivated in the New World much earlier tha in Egypt.”
“…cultivated bottle gourds earlier than 7000 B.C.were recovered in the
Ocampo caves in Mexico (Whitaker, Cutler, and MacNeish 1957, Whitaker and
Bemis 1976)
“…the oldest cultivated forms in South America date to about 3000 B.C”
(Whitaker 1971)
“Remains of L. siceraria were found in Egyptian tombs dated about 3300-3500
B.C” (Whitaker and Bemis 1976)
“The presence of the gourd in the New World predates any domestication in
West Africa”
“There is no need to posit human transport to the New World for this plant”
“Whitaker and Carter (1954, 1961) have shown that gourds can float for as long
as a year without the seeds’ losing the capacity to germinate.”
“if a gourd on its arrival in the New World was tossed up on the beach by a
storm and broke so that the seeds could escape by a storm and broken so that the
seeds could escape…and transported inland, the gourd could spread.”
“…makes little sense for a persons accidentally making a sea voyage to load up
the boat with these bulky, nearly inedible fruits.” (Baker 1970:49-50)

Cotton
(me) the whole thing with the cotton is that old world cotton has 13 large
chromosomes and new world cotton has 26 chromosomes 13 which are large
and 13 small (AADD). Now in the new world, there isn’t a cotton with just 13
chromosomes, and in the old world there isn’t any cotton with only 13 small
chromosomes. Therefore, the cotton in the new world must have come from
hybridizaition
Old world (13)
3. African cotton – Gossypium Herbarium
4. Asian cotton – Gossypium Arboreum
New world (26)
4. Central America – Gossypium hirsutum
5. South America - Gossypium barbadense

“Since no cotton with 13 large chromosomes is found in the New World and no
cotton with only 13 small chormosomes if native to the Old World, the New
world tetraploid cottons must have arisen from a hybridsation of a New World
species (DD) with an Old world species (AA) leading to a doubling of the
chromosome number (Baker 1970:57-61).”
So if that was the cotton type that was found in the new world, then the
questions is, when did this occur, so like when did this foreign gene get
introduced and how
Van Sertima basically says that they couldn’t float and retain their viability long
enough to cross the Atlantic or pacific, and that they could not do so by
themselves, so African men brought it over in the fourth millennium B.C
“Seeds of the African diploid cotton could not have drifted by themselves across
the ocean but had to come to the New World in the hands of African men…
African men, bearing cottons, made the drift journey to the Americas in the
fourth millennium B.C.” (Van Sertima 1976:191)
The main argument that im going to point out is that this hybridized form of
cotton was in use, cultivated, and spread throughout many islands at a very
close time after van Sertima proposed it was there. So like, the difference is
about 500 years and these people are saying it would have taken thousands of
years for the hybridized cotton to have spread, been domesticated and then
subsequently used afterwards. 500 years is too little of a time
“Junius Bird found evidence for the long use of cotton textiles (G.barbadense)
at Huaca Prieta, Peru, dated at 2500 B.C (Hutchison 1962, Phillips 1976). The
oldest archeological remains containing cotton cloth fibers and boll framents of
G. hirsutum come from the Tehuacan Mexico, dated about 3500 B.C (Smith
1968)”
“Phillips (1976) and Wendel, Brubaker, and percival (1992) point out that this
cotton was fully domesticated and does not represent the earliest domestication
of G. hirsutum.”
“Baker (1970:61) point out that wild G. hirsutum has been found on islands in
the Caribbean and in the Yucatan and that G. barbadense is found on the coasts
of Ecuador and Peru and the wild form on the Galapagos Islands.”
“Baker concludes that “All of this evidence suggests that man had nothin to do
with the origins of tetraploid cotton, but that he domesticated hirsutum and
barbadensis separately in the New World”
“The time involved in forming hybrids and subsequently diffusing hese
tetraploid species as widely as they are found means that the time of initial
hybridization was thousands of years prior to Van Sertima’s postulated 4th
millennium – B.C. deift voyage Phillips (1976)”

Another point that basically disproves van sertimas claim is the fact that a wild
cotton species from Mexico made its way to Hawaii which is a much longer
distance between Africa and the America, this was said by the person who van
Sertima relies on for much of his information. This person also said that the
cotton seed would have been transported by a natural raft
“even stephens (1971:406-7), upon whom Van Sertima relies, argued that ctoon
seed would have been transported y some form of natural raft and points out
that an exclusively wild tetraploid species G. tomentosum, probably derived
from an ancestor in Mexcio, had somehow become established in Hawaii (a
much longer distance than the one involved in a trans Atlantic crossing)”
Stephens conclusion (1971:407) “Because of the possibilities of the natural and
accidental dispersal, one is forced to the conclusion that the geographical
distributions of the ‘wild’ forms of cotton per se cannot be used critically as
supporting evidence for early transoeceanic cultural contacts. Archeological
evidence of spindle whorld, cordage fabrics, or any other artificat indicating the
use would be for more satisfactory”

Maize
The whole point here is that van Sertima says that the arabs not only made
round trips to the new wolrd but also introduced maize to Africa before 1492,
however the basis of his arguments have been critisieced as being primarlily
linguistic and mythological with little archeological support
“Van Sertima relies extensively on Jeffreys (1953, 1963, 1961), who claims that
the Arabs had made a round trib to the New World and introduced maize to
Africa prior to A.D 1492. Jeffreys arguments are primarily linguistic and
mythological with little archeoligcal support and have been severly criticized
because of this (Willet 1962 and 9 of 11 commentators on Jeffreys 1971)
Another point was that the maize in question is actually post Columbian as no
corn, either in plant remains or depictions in cermaics have never been found in
the old world.
“Manglesdorf (1974:205) points out that the proposed Andean maize in fact
post Columbian and is not found in plant remains in archaeological sites or
depticted in prehistoric cermais.”
“although corn…has been foundin abudncance throuhouts its range in the New
World including the wet tropics “not a single corncob, unmistakably pre-
Columbian, has yet been found in any part of the Old World” (Manglesdorf
1974:206)”
 4. Mummification
“His only sources for this claim are the discredited hyperdiffusionist authors of
the early 20th century, whome he quotes from Mackenzie (1923).”
“All of his citations…ultimately derive from Graton Elliot Smith, a prolific
hyperdiffusionist who believed that all civilization derived from egypt or his
disciple W. J. Perry”
“The diffusion of mummification from Egypt to the rest of the world was
central to his (Elliot Smith) thesis.” “This thesis was thoroughly demolished in
1928 by Roland B. Dixon’s The Building of Cultures (Wuachipe 1962:21-25;
Davies 1979:159-60) – a problem that Van Sertima ignores.”

…based on some information he said about sarcophagus containing mummies

“Every basic text on the Maya states that the sarcophagus contained a skeleton
not a mummy (Benson 1967:92; Thompson 1954:77-80).”
“Any interested party can verify this by looking at the photograph of Pascal’s33
skeleton in the sarcophagus (Morley, Brainerd, and Sharer 1983:125, fig. 4.22;
the photograph has been published in this text since 1956)
“…one can also verify the the “flared base is, infact, a widening of the open
interior of the slab, not the bottom of the sarcophagus or a “slavish imitation” of
an Egyptian prototype.”
“For Van Sertima’s claim to be true,it would have required the Mesoamerican
to imitate the Egyptians from 800 B.C until A.D. 683 (almost 1,500 year)…”
“It should also be noted that the Jaded death masks were never used by the
ancient Egyptians”
“the oldest mummies in the world are those associated with the Chinchorra
culture of Chile (Arriaza 1995a). The oldest mummy there is dated 5050 ± 134
B.C (Arriaza 1995b:42, 57). This is 2,000 to 3,000 years earlier than in Egypt,
where arifical preservation of corpses began in the Old Kingdom (ca.268-
2181 .C.) (Davis 1993)