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How Did Christopher Columbus Discovered America

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When most people think of who discovered America, they usually think of Columbus, right? Almost everyone has learned the rhyme “Columbus sailed the ocean blue in fourteen-hundred-ninety-two” in school. But was Columbus really the one that discovered America? Short answer: no, he wasn’t. The only thing he discovered was that he was a huge asshole. Long answer: Africans actually explored the Americas 170 years before Columbus did. That’s almost two centuries before. And this isn’t just some theory. There is irrefutable evidence that Africans were in the Americas long before Europeans. Which is exactly what Ivan Van Sertima explains in They Came Before Columbus: The African Presence in Ancient America. Van Sertima explains that not only did the …show more content…

He noted that these handkerchiefs were alike, both in function and style as Guinean almayzars. Van Sertima quotes Columbus’ journal in They Came Before Columbus: The African Presence in Ancient America. Columbus writes “...Handkerchiefs of cotton very symmetrically woven and worked in colors like those brought from Guinea, from the rivers of Sierra Leone and of no difference” This is Columbus noting the similarities between Native and African wares. This passage can also imply that there was no difference because the Native Americans received the handkerchiefs from Africans. Regardless, this is evidence that there was interaction between Natives and Africans before Columbus even stepped foot on American land. Van Sertima then goes on to write “Not only were they alike in style and color, but also in function. These handkerchiefs, he said, resembled almayzars - Guinea headdresses and loincloths” Van Sertima is saying that the Native and African handkerchiefs were the same. This is obviously implying that the Natives got the almayzars from African people. Meaning that African and Natives traded before Europeans were in the

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