BajaNomad

Mexico's African History

Cisco - 10-13-2014 at 12:42 PM

"On Monday, America’s government offices, businesses, and banks all grind to a halt in order to commemorate Columbus Day. In schools up and down the country, little children are taught that a heroic Italian explorer discovered America, and various events and parades are held to celebrate the occasion.

It has now become common knowledge amongst academics that Christopher Columbus clearly did not discover America, not least because is it impossible to discover a people and a continent that was already there and thriving with culture. One can only wonder how Columbus could have discovered America when people were watching him from America’s shores?

Contrary to popular belief, African American history did not start with slavery in the New World. An overwhelming body of new evidence is emerging which proves that Africans had frequently sailed across the Atlantic to the Americas, thousands of years before Columbus and indeed before Christ. The great ancient civilizations of Egypt and West Africa traveled to the Americas, contributing immensely to early American civilization by importing the art of pyramid building, political systems and religious practices as well as mathematics, writing and a sophisticated calendar.

The strongest evidence of African presence in America before Columbus comes from the pen of Columbus himself. In 1920, a renowned American historian and linguist, Leo Weiner of Harvard University, in his book, Africa and the discovery of America, explained how Columbus noted in his journal that Native Americans had confirmed that “black skinned people had come from the south-east in boats, trading in gold-tipped spears.”

One of the first documented instances of Africans sailing and settling in the Americas were black Egyptians led by King Ramses III, during the 19th dynasty in 1292 BC. In fact, in 445 BC, the Greek historian Herodotus wrote of the Ancient Egyptian pharaohs’ great seafaring and navigational skills. Further concrete evidence, noted by Dr. Imhotep and largely ignored by Euro-centric archaeologists, includes “Egyptian artifacts found across North America from the Algonquin writings on the East Coast to the artifacts and Egyptian place names in the Grand Canyon.”

In 1311 AD, another major wave of African exploration to the New World was led by King Abubakari II, the ruler of the fourteenth century Mali Empire, which was larger than the Holy Roman Empire. The king sent out 200 ships of men, and 200 ships of trade material, crops, animals, cloth and crucially African knowledge of astronomy, religion and the arts.

African explorers crossing the vast Atlantic waters in primitive boats may seem unlikely, or perhaps, far fetched to some. Such incredible nautical achievements are not as daunting as they seem, given that
numerous successful modern attempts have illustrated that without an oar, rudder or sail ancient African boats, including the “dug-out,” would certainly have been able to cross the vast ocean in a matter of weeks.

As time allows us to drift further and further away from the “European age of exploration” and we move beyond an age of racial intellectual prejudice, historians are beginning to recognize that Africans were skilled navigators long before Europeans, contrary to popular belief.

Of course, some Western historians continue to refute this fact because, consciously or unconsciously, they are still hanging on to the 19th-century notion that seafaring was a European monopoly.

After all, history will tell you that seafaring is the quintessential European achievement, the single endeavor of which Europeans are awfully proud. Seafaring allowed Europe to conquer the world. The notion that black Africans braved the roaring waters of the Atlantic Ocean and beat Europeans to the New World threatens a historically white sense of ownership over the seas.

When most people think about ancient Mexico, the first civilizations that come to mind are the Incas, Aztecs and the Maya. However, during the early 1940′s archeologists uncovered a civilization known as the Olmecs of 1200 BC, which pre-dated any other advanced civilization in the Americas.

The Olmec civilization, which was of African origin and dominated by Africans, was the first significant civilization in Mesoamerica and the Mother Culture of Mexico.

Olmecs are perhaps best known for the carved colossal heads found in Central Mexico, that exhibit an unmistakably African Negroid appearance. Ancient African historian Professor Van Sertima has illustrated how Olmecs were the first Mesoamerican civilization to use a written language, sophisticated astronomy, arts and mathematics and they built the first cities in Mexico, all of which greatly influenced the Mayans and subsequent civilizations in the Americas. “There is not the slightest doubt that all later civilizations in [Mexico and Central America], rest ultimately on an Olmec base,” once remarked Michael Coe, a leading historian on Mexico.

Africans clearly played an intricate role in the Olmec Empire’s rise and that African influence peaked during the same period that ancient Black Egyptian culture ascended in Africa.

A clear indicator of pre-Columbus African trans-Atlantic travel is the recent archeological findings of narcotics native to America in Ancient Egyptian mummies, which have astounded contemporary historians. German toxicologist, Svetla Balabanova, reported findings of cocaine and nicotine in ancient Egyptian mummies. These substances are known to only be derived from American plants. South American cocaine from Erythroxylon coca and nicotine from Nicotiana tabacum. Such compounds could only have been introduced to Ancient Egyptian culture through trade with Americans.

Similarities across early American and African religions also indicate significant cross-cultural contact. The Mayans, Aztecs and Incas all worshipped black gods and the surviving portraits of the black deities are revealing. For instance, ancient portraits of the Quetzalcoatl, a messiah serpent god, and Ek-ahua, the god of war, are unquestionably Negro with dark skin and wooly hair. Why would native Americans venerate images so unmistakably African if they had never seen them before? Numerous wall paintings in caves in Juxtlahuaca depict the famous ancient Egyptian “opening of the mouth” and cross libation rituals. All these religious similarities are too large and occur far too often to be mere coincidences.

Professor Everett Borders notes another very important indication of African presence, which is the nature of early American pyramids. Pyramid construction is highly specialized. Ancient Egypt progressed from the original stepped pyramid of Djosser, to the more sophisticated finished product at Giza. However, at La Venta in Mexico, the Olmecs made a fully finished pyramid, with no signs of progressive learning. Olmecian and Egyptian pyramids were both placed on the same north-south axis and had strikingly similar construction methods. Tellingly, all of these pyramids also served the same dual purpose, tomb and temple.

Ancient trans-Atlantic similarities in botany, religion and pyramid building constitute but a fraction of the signs of African influence in ancient America. Other indicators include, astronomy, art, writing systems, flora and fauna.

Historically, the African people have been exceptional explorers and purveyors of culture across the world. Throughout all of these travels, African explorers have not had a history of starting devastating wars on the people they met. The greatest threat towards Africa having a glorious future is her people’s ignorance of Africa’s glorious past.

Pre-Columbus civilization in the Americas had its foundation built by Africans and developed by the ingenuity of Native Americans. Sadly, America, in post-Columbus times, was founded on the genocide of the indigenous Americans, built on the backs of African slaves and continues to run on the exploitation of workers at home and abroad.

Clearly, Africans helped civilize America well before Europeans “discovered” America, and well before Europeans claim to have civilized Africa. The growing body of evidence is now becoming simply too loud to ignore. It’s about time education policy makers reexamine their school curriculum's to adjust for America’s long pre-Columbus history."

Garikai Chengu is a scholar at Harvard University. Contact him on garikai.chengu@gmail.com

David K - 10-13-2014 at 01:45 PM

Cool story! Maybe it will make an episode of America Unearthed!?

Columbus and other Europeans of the 1400's were quite unaware of the American continents. The native American people were even called Indians, as Columbus was thinking they were in the East Indies, south of China and Japan. So, the Americas were discovered (again) in 1492, and it was that discovery that had the dramatic, all changing effect on the entire world.

bajabuddha - 10-13-2014 at 02:54 PM

"All these.........similarities are too large and occur far too often to be mere coincidences.", and "All these religious similarities are too large and occur far too often to be mere coincidences."
All these "coincidences" unfortunately reek of Thor Heyerdahl, Cisco. Forensics will be the only thing to positively prove any of your quite lengthy story (remember Thor wrote an entire book that was believed for years and made a good living at it). It would be quite simple for a DNA analysis to be taken from any of the current indigenous tribal blood of central and southern Mexico and compare it with north and eastern African DNA, and then I'd believe all of it. Until then, it's a good tale, just like Columbus was.

The Ancestral Puebloans were thought to have indulged in cannibalism for years in the archeological world, but not actually proven to have done so until forensics positively proved it a little over 10 years ago when a coprolite (human feces) was discovered, DNA tested, and found to contain human flesh remains inside of it (found in a burned kiva cyst , P-II era 900-1100 A.D., southwest slope of Sleeping Ute Mountain, CO).

Have G. Chengu provide the forensics, and that would do the trick, methinks. Otherwise total conjecture. The test is totally and readily available to the public market (for a fee) today in the U.S., you can send in a sample of your own DNA and they can tell you what part of the world your ancestry originated from.

Cisco - 10-13-2014 at 03:25 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by bajabuddha
"All these.........similarities are too large and occur far too often to be mere coincidences.", and "All these religious similarities are too large and occur far too often to be mere coincidences."
All these "coincidences" unfortunately reek of Thor Heyerdahl, Cisco. Forensics will be the only thing to positively prove any of your quite lengthy story (remember Thor wrote an entire book that was believed for years and made a good living at it). It would be quite simple for a DNA analysis to be taken from any of the current indigenous tribal blood of central and southern Mexico and compare it with north and eastern African DNA, and then I'd believe all of it. Until then, it's a good tale, just like Columbus was.

The Ancestral Puebloans were thought to have indulged in cannibalism for years in the archeological world, but not actually proven to have done so until forensics positively proved it a little over 10 years ago when a coprolite (human feces) was discovered, DNA tested, and found to contain human flesh remains inside of it (found in a burned kiva cyst , P-II era 900-1100 A.D., southwest slope of Sleeping Ute Mountain, CO).

Have G. Chengu provide the forensics, and that would do the trick, methinks. Otherwise total conjecture. The test is totally and readily available to the public market (for a fee) today in the U.S., you can send in a sample of your own DNA and they can tell you what part of the world your ancestry originated from.


Yea, you really should make G. Chengu aware of the glaring omissions in his research.

His e-mail address is at the bottom of his article.

Which incidentally, I posted today for it's contemporary historical significance, in it's entirety, for those of the forum who had an interest. I had nothing to do with the research or editing of the article so you're talking to the wrong hombre.

woody with a view - 10-13-2014 at 03:32 PM

might or might not be related:

back in the mid-late 80's in Oaxaca we'd go surf a place called Chacahua an hour north of Pto Escondido. there were people living all in the mangroves and a couple of times they'd make their way to the point to hang out and watch us surf while rolling BIG spleefs with what looked like corn husks. these guys were of African descent. Tight curly (African) hair, flat noses etc..... the Mexican guide who took us out there said they were descended from slaves?

bajabuddha - 10-13-2014 at 03:39 PM

Pull back the fangs, cisco. You opened for discussion. I HAD an interest; now I really could give 2 chits. You're absolutely right, i'm wrong.

The Blacks of Mexico, a historic interest article. (re-post from 11-14-11)

David K - 10-13-2014 at 03:50 PM

A Baja Nomad posted this on Facebook, and it was worthy of sharing... (extra paragrah spacing added to make reading easier here):

==============================================

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2HzZDW/www.moreintelligentlife...


MEXICO'S HIDDEN BLACKS





The black descendants of slaves in Mexico struggle against entrenched racism. Alexis Okeowo explores the so-called first free slave town in the Americas ...

Special to MORE INTELLIGENT LIFE

The first time I felt deeply uncomfortable being black was when I was a kid. My family had just moved to Alabama, and I was in a car with my father and my brother. A white woman with a harshly lined face and brown frizzy hair yelled out a racial slur as we drove by. Dad immediately put the car in reverse and drove over to her as she pumped gas at a filling station. "What did you say?" he demanded. She glared at him and refused to respond. Shocked into silence, my brother and I didn't say anything for the rest of the drive home.

The second time was in a quaint town in Mexico. I am a journalist living in Mexico City and I had decided to take a trip to Veracruz, where hundreds of thousands of African slaves had been brought by Spanish colonialists five centuries prior. I wanted to visit Yanga, a place that called itself "the first free slave town in the Americas". The town was named for Gaspar Yanga, a slave who had led a successful rebellion against the Spanish in the 16th century.

I had only just learned about Afro-Mexicans, the isolated descendants of Mexico's original slaves, who reside on the country's rural Pacific and Gulf Coasts. After months of research and a visit to the remote Afro-Mexican community on the Pacific Coast, where most of them live, I felt compelled to visit the Afro-Mexicans in Veracruz on the Gulf Coast. I ended up spending most of my time trying to figure out Yanga. As I arrived in town, I peered out of my taxi window at the pastel-painted storefronts and the brown-skinned residents walking along the wide streets. "Where are the black Mexicans?" I wondered.

A central sign proclaimed Yanga's role as the first Mexican town to be free from slavery, yet the descendants of these former slaves were nowhere to be found. I would later learn that most live in dilapidated settlements outside of town.

The next morning, I walked the few yards from my hotel to the town's library, my shirt sticking to my back in the heat. I had been told that the librarian was the best source of information about Yanga's history. While walking, I raised my hand to shield my eyes from the blinding sun, and also from the gaze of people in the roadside shops and central square.

I had grown used to the attention in Mexico City, where blacks are a rarity, but this time it was different. The stares were cold and unfriendly, and especially unnerving in a town named for an African revolutionary. "Mira, una negra," I heard people whisper to one another. "Look, a black woman." "Negra! Negra!" taunted an old man with a shock of white hair under a tan sombrero.

Surrounded by a group of men, he gazed at me with a big, toothy grin. He seemed to be waiting for me to come over and talk to him. Shocked, and suddenly transported to that one afternoon in Alabama, I shot him a dirty look and headed into the library's courtyard.

The notion of race in Mexico is frustratingly complex. This is a country where many are proud to claim African blood, yet discriminate against their darker countrymen. Black Mexicans complain that such bigotry makes it especially hard for them to find work.

Still, I was surprised to feel like such an alien intruder in a town where I had hoped to feel something like familiarity. Afro-Mexicans are among the poorest in the nation. Many are shunted to remote shantytowns, well out of reach of basic public services, such as schools and hospitals. Activists for Afro-Mexicans face an uphill battle for government recognition and economic development.

They have long petitioned to be counted in Mexico's national census, alongside the country's 56 other official ethnic groups, but to little avail. Unofficial records put their number at 1m. In response to activist pressure, Mexico's government released a study at the end of 2008 that confirmed that Afro-Mexicans suffer from institutional racism.

Employers are less likely to employ blacks, and some schools prohibit access based on skin colour. But little has been done to change this. Afro-Mexicans lack a powerful spokesperson, so they continue to go unnoticed by the country's leadership. "What we want is recognition of our basic rights and respect of our dignity," Rodolfo Prudente Dominguez, a top Afro-Mexican activist, said to me. "There should be sanctions against security and immigration agents who detain us, because they deny our existence on our own land."

If you have not heard of Mexico's native blacks, you are not alone. The story that has been passed down through generations is that their ancestors arrived on a slave boat filled with Cubans and Haitians, which sank off Mexico's Pacific coast. The survivors hid away in fishing villages on the shore. The story is a myth: Spanish colonialists trafficked African slaves into ports on the opposite Gulf coast, and slaves were distributed further inland. The persistence of this story explains the reluctance of many black Mexicans to embrace the label "Afro", and why many Mexicans assume black nationals hail from the Caribbean.

Colonial records show that around 200,000 African slaves were imported into Mexico in the 16th and 17th centuries to work in silver mines, sugar plantations and cattle ranches. But after Mexico won its independence from Spain, the needs of these black Mexicans were ignored. Some Afro-Mexican activists identify themselves as part of the African diaspora. Given their rejection from Mexican culture, this offers a more empowering cultural reference. But with no collective memory of slavery (it was officially abolished in Mexico in 1822), or of any time in Africa before then, Afro-Mexicans are considerably removed from their African roots.

"Bienvenida, welcome!" called out Andres, the librarian, as he guided me into a chair. Andres is not black, but he was the first person to make me feel comfortable in Yanga. He acted as if my presence was perfectly ordinary, probably because he is accustomed to African-American visitors who are curious about his research into slavery in Mexico. During my visit, he was in the middle of teaching an art class to young children. He told me about the slave trade and African culture festivals in Veracruz while gluing together paper-maché masks.

The kids smiled shyly at me. "There's a lot of racism here against blacks, isn't there?" I asked him, still confused about the town's hostility. "No, not really, we're all poor, that's the problem," he answered, brushing back his brown curly hair and laughing. Before he finished his sentence, a black Mexican woman came up to us. She exchanged a few words with Andres, and then delicately took my hand in hers. "Bienvenida", she said, before leaving.

After leaving the library, I decided to explore. I stopped in an office to ask directions from a group of Mexican men, who flirted valiantly before wishing me well. I wandered aimlessly, nearly melting in the heat. I brooded over Mexico's contradictory feelings about race. In a place where everyone is considered "mixed race", owing to the country's long colonial history, skin colour is clearly a symbol of status.

Many Mexicans are generous and kind to me, viewing my otherness as interesting and lovely. Yet black Mexicans are often mistreated and ostracised. I think about this unsettling tension when I occasionally pass a black Mexican in Mexico City, and she gives me a slight, genuine smile.




Alexis Okeowo is a writer based in Mexico City.


Picture credit: Cornell University Library

chippy - 10-13-2014 at 05:07 PM

I´ve seen lots of African looking peeps around Punta Maldonado in Guerrero.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afro-Mexican

[Edited on 10-14-2014 by chippy]

woody with a view - 10-13-2014 at 05:19 PM

from chippy's link:

The Costa Chica (“small coast” in Spanish) extends from Acapulco to the town of Puerto Ángel in Oaxaca in Mexico’s Pacific coast. The Costa Chica is not well known to travelers, with few attractions, especially where Afro-Mexicans live. Exceptions to this are the beaches of Marquelia and Punta Maldonado in Guerrero and the wildlife reserve in Chacahua, Oaxaca .[12]

bajabuddha - 10-13-2014 at 05:29 PM

Y'all have to realize the first slaves were not brought to the U.S., they were brought to Central and South America as well as the Caribbean to work plantations there by the Spanish. I've seen a lot of 'black looking folks' a lot of places. Try Brazil.

DENNIS - 10-13-2014 at 06:33 PM

Mexico had slavery long before the US. The Henequen plantations of southern Mexico were manned by indigenous of the north as slaves. That's why the numbers of the local tribes, Pai Pai ,Kumiai and others are still sparse today.



.

[Edited on 10-14-2014 by DENNIS]

Ateo - 10-13-2014 at 06:50 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by DENNIS
Mexico had slavery long before the US. The Henequen plantations of southern Mexico were manned by indigenous of the north as slaves. That's why the numbers of the local tribes, Pai Pai ,Kumiai and others are still sparse today.



.

[Edited on 10-14-2014 by DENNIS]


Slavery runs throughout human history, and let's not forget the "good book" advocates slavery.

We all know, these days, that owning another human is wrong. We are morally superior to the people who wrote the bible. Sorry to go a tad off topic but I have a martini in me.

bajabuddha - 10-14-2014 at 09:28 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by DENNIS
Mexico had slavery long before the US. The Henequen plantations of southern Mexico were manned by indigenous of the north as slaves. That's why the numbers of the local tribes, Pai Pai ,Kumiai and others are still sparse today.

Exactly. That's why one cannot 'assume' there's African blood in the Americas simply on 'overwhelming coincidence', especially Egyptian. I'll believe it when solid forensics proves it, which any non-conspiracy-loving person would.

sargentodiaz - 10-14-2014 at 11:49 AM

Mulatos and Crusados were colonists in early Upper California, several of them pobladores of Los Angeles. They were treated no different than Mestizos.

DENNIS - 10-14-2014 at 12:46 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by sargentodiaz
Mulatos and Crusados were colonists in early Upper California, several of them pobladores of Los Angeles. They were treated no different than Mestizos.


Assuming your reference is to equality from a positive standpoint, is there a reference to this that you can show us? I'm just surprised you found anything mentioned in your research as most of these cultural nuances went unaddressed at that time.

elizabeth - 10-14-2014 at 04:08 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by Cisco

When most people think about ancient Mexico, the first civilizations that come to mind are the Incas, Aztecs and the Maya.


If most people think about Incas in ancient México, they're not only in the wrong country, but the wrong hemisphere!

mtgoat666 - 10-14-2014 at 04:27 PM

king tut was vacationing in cancun 3,000 years ago? nonsense!
where is the genetic evidence? you tell me that horny sailors of king tut's cruise ship were visiting cancun on shore leave and not leaving behind prego locals?

sargentodiaz - 10-16-2014 at 02:03 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by DENNIS
Quote:
Originally posted by sargentodiaz
Mulatos and Crusados were colonists in early Upper California, several of them pobladores of Los Angeles. They were treated no different than Mestizos.


Assuming your reference is to equality from a positive standpoint, is there a reference to this that you can show us? I'm just surprised you found anything mentioned in your research as most of these cultural nuances went unaddressed at that time.


It would take some time for me to find actual links but you might do a search for Pobladores de Los Angeles which will show that several of the founders of the pueblo were Mulatos. And they came from Sinaloa.

DENNIS - 10-16-2014 at 02:15 PM

OK...thanks for your reply.
Was there a state called Sinaloa when the L.A. founders took over the area in a somewhat Manifest Destiny manner? I had always thought to USA had a copyright on the scheme.

sargentodiaz - 10-17-2014 at 12:17 PM

At the time of the founding of Los Angeles, it was in what was then the Spanish territory of Upper California. The states of Sonora and Sinaloa were one until they were separated at about that same time. Nayarit was far more civilized.

As for Africans in Mexico, they probably arrived at Vera Cruz in the late 1600s, bought by Portuguese from African slavers. They then interbred with Indians and Mestizos.