Ivan Van Sertima delights audiences on Black Heritage
by Festus L. Brotherson, Jr.
"There are hundreds of black scientists at NASA doing fantastic things but we do not hear anything about them," thundered Dr. Ivan Van Sertima. NASA is the acronym for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in the USA; the agency which put man on the moon in 1969 and, among other things, launches explorations to more distant planets. "The person who invented the vehicle driven by astronauts on the moon is black," he continued. The famous Guyanese scholar made the remarks during guest lectures at the African-American Museum and the Ashe Culture Center in Cleveland, Ohio, on Friday, July 30 and Saturday, July 31, 1999. Yours truly had the honour of introducing him at both events which were attended by African-American, Guyanese, other well-wishers and interested persons. Dr. Van Sertima was on a national tour to promote his latest book, `Early America Revisited'. This new work has been described as "a vigorous defence and amplification of the author's highly acclaimed `They Came Before Columbus: The African Presence in Early America', which was first published in 1977. It is now in its 21st reprinting. That work had sparked tremendous debate providing, as it did back then, carefully chronicled facts - especially language continuities - that proved substantial links existed between Africa and America long before Columbus was supposed to have `discovered' the territory. As Van Sertima put it, Africans were in America not only Before Columbus (B.C.), but also way Before Christ (B.C.) as well. His work demonstrated significant human interactions between the two continents close to the Bronze Age circa 948-680 B.C. and the Mandingo-Songhay trading voyages from early 14th century to late 15th century A.D. The new book, `Early America Revisited', in addition to being a defence of the earlier text `They Came Before Columbus', also picks up where that one left off. The author is careful to point out to his listeners and readers that his new text "is in no way a denial of the importance of the Columbus voyages for opening up the New World to Europe, and hence changing the economic and political map of the world for all time." Instead, a common theme in both lectures by Van Sertima is the still ongoing regrettable tendency to downplay and often disparage the very significant contributions that peoples of African origin have contributed to the evolution and continued excellence of humanity. His observation about world class scientists at NASA was in support of that contention. `Early America Revisited' has the author emphasising an "anthropological and ethnographic dimension to the process of discovery." It is in that process that black people have played a central role and the author provides more literary and pictorial evidence to highlight the authenticity of this finding. The question that obviously arises is one of the most maddening in all of the arts and social sciences: "So what?" Amplified, "So what if Africans and other peoples of such descent have made contributions which have been denied or unacknowledged previously?" The answer is a simple but forceful one. This sort of information provides dignity to present-day blacks who carry the burden of ugly negative stereotypes that have diminished their worth, assaulted their self-esteem and programmed whole generations of others - especially whites - and blacks themselves to believe that black people are inferior beings; that their major accomplishments do not go much beyond loin cloth and bow and arrow prances in the jungles. No people can survive and/or continue to excel without knowledge of their true history; without acknowledgment of their cultural heritage and heroes; without respect being shown for their achievements and contributions to human development. Van Sertima's continued discoveries fills those gaps in big ways. He too makes clear that if an environment asserts and continuously re-affirms the inferiority of black people and tramples upon their sense of self-worth, not much positive results can emerge from such negativity anchored in falsehoods. Literature promoting Dr. Van Sertima's new book makes the same point in a different way. It says that "Early America Revisited' is more than a stack of evidence about the physical presence of Africans in pre-Columbian America. It is the study of how two peoples and cultures can lead to cross fertilisation. "It also indicates that the borrowing of artifacts and ideas does not constitute a claim that the outsider is superior to the native, or that indigenous cultures are insignificant. It does contend that such relationships can be unpleasant as well as pleasant, conflictual as well as consensual. But whatever the character of the interaction, its very existence merits awareness." Dr. Van Sertima's works have usually accomplished what good scholarship strives to do. They raise provocative questions out of new findings from painstaking research and elevate debate of them to new levels of deeper, more informed thinking. This holds true for the author's lectures as well. The two lectures last weekend demonstrated that this African son of Guyana has a relentless passion for his work as a celebrated linguist and literary critic as well as a world-renowned author. He also walked the audiences through a series of his own unpleasant experiences with the politics of higher education in England and the USA through which there were many failed attempts to marginalise his works. The Guyana native is currently Professor of African Studies at Rutgers University in the USA. He received his higher education in African Studies and Anthropology at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London, England, and Rutgers Graduate School. Before leaving Guyana, he was a Press and Broadcasting Officer of the Guyana Information Services from 1957-1959. Professor Van Sertima gave invited testimony before a USA Congressional Committee in 1987. That testimony resulted in official US documents no longer stating that Columbus `discovered' America. He was also asked to join UNESCO's International Commission for Rewriting the Scientific and Cultural History of Mankind and to work with the Nobel Prize committee from 1976-1980. He is also the founder-editor of the Journal of African Civilisations. Inquiries and orders for his books and audio tapes should be sent to: Dr. Ivan Van Sertima, Africana Studies Department, Beck Hall, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08903, USA. 
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