African presence in America: Pre-columbus

The first civilization of ancient America is called the Olmec.  It was located along the Mexican Gulf Coast and began more than three thousand years ago.  The most significant and widely acknowledged sculptural representations of African people in the Western Hemisphere (the "New World") were sculpted by the Olmecs.  The Olmec developed the first civilization of the Americas.  At least seventeen monumental basalt stone heads, each weighing ten to forty tons, have been unearthed in Olmec sites along the Mexican Gulf Coast.  One of the first European-American scientists to comment on the Olmec heads, archaeologist Mathew Stirling, described their facial features as "amazingly Negroid."

Although major aspects of Olmec culture and history remain vague, enough has been recovered to demonstrate a significant African presence in the Americas many centuries before the advent of the trans-Atlantic slave trade.  Some scientists have even concluded that the Olmecs may have originally been an African settler-colony.  Others are convinced that the African presence among the Olmecs was confined to a small and highly-influential elite community.

Native legends of the Americas abound with the exploits of early Black people.  In the Southwest Indian story of the Emergence, a story that is as important in the region as the Book of Genesis is to Christians, the First World is called the Black World! 

During his third voyage, Columbus recorded that when he reached Haiti the resident population informed him that Black men from the south and southeast had preceded him to the island.  In 1513, Balboa found a colony of Black men on his arrival in Darien, Panama.  All of these facts, buttressed by skeletons and sculptures, make it clear that African people had a profound presence and influence in pre-Columbian America.

Surmount, your post has no mistakes except that it doesn't agree with pinguins narrow views of pre columbian history.  It especially puts Africans on the same level with Amerindians, which is beyond pinguins ability to accept.

So if Nubian art styles are very similar to Mesoamerican painting (head in profile, body facing forward, word glyphs surrounding), perhaps ancient Mesoamericans sailed across the Atlantic, around Africa, walked across Ethiopia, and then started building steep-angled pyramids along the upper Nile?  Or perhaps it's more likely the Nubians built those pyramids all by themselves?

I'm not a historian, but I am an artist. If I had to carve a face out of a giant boulder I'm pretty sure I would make it square-jawed and flat-nosed just so I could finish the darn thing faster. How African do the Olmec heads appear if you look at them in a side view?

Originally posted by pinguin Mesomericans didn't reach Africa.

I know, I was kidding.

Unlike Pinguin I'm inclined to believe that there may have been all sorts of unrecorded pre-colonial ocean crossings. I think Zhenghe's fleet probably went to the Caribbean, that the Inca and Easter Islanders probably met, that Marco Polo actually did get to China (some people say now that he didn't), and that the Phonecians circumnavigated Africa. So maybe a few West Africans did make it to Mexico, I don't know. But there's all sorts of evidence that this sort of thing didn't happen very often if indeed it happened at all. Certainly none of these events had a great impact on the cultures involved or they would be easier to prove- like the Gypsies showing up in Europe or the Vikings in Newfoundland.

I'm convinced that the Upper Nile Pyramids were built by Nubians, Great Zimbabwe was built by the Shona, Benin City was built by West Africans, and the Olmec heads were carved by and of Mesoamericans. Nothing else makes sense.


Edited by jdalton - 16-Aug-2007 at 00:53

while i welcome the movement that doesn't underestimate the abilities of the ancients, it's a little presumptuous to come to radically novel conclusions on circumstantial evidence.

it's one thing to notice the circumstantial evidence, and wonder; it's another thing to assert that it means something.

Olmec Helmets are very similar to those worn by the Nubians and West Africans of ancient times. Both are made of a combination of Leather and metal.

This topic has already been discussed fully in here. Please, don't repeat the same absurd ideas like a parrot... I beg you.

This is actually a very realistic portrait of real Olmecs. They were Amerindians, and you can find the obvious similarities with the stone heads looking at it.

Penguin i see what your trying to say with one statue, but nobody is saying that they were originally African or all African. The article is just saying Africans were there. Which some ancients scripts even say.

What!

Are you serious!

your offended just by the fact that Africans were there.

Why are you making such a big deal about Africans being in the Americas before Columbus.

Its not that big of a deal.

Even some hispanics and caucasians believe that there were africans in that region. It has nothing the do with Afrocentrism.