Dr. Ivan Van Sertima Interview

Ivan Gladstone Van Sertima (26 January 1935 - 25 May 2009) was a historian, linguist and anthropologist at Rutgers University in the United States. He was noted for his controversial theory of pre-Columbian contact between Africa and the Americas.

Dr. Van Sertima was born in Kitty Village, Guyana, when Guyana was still a British colony; he remained a British citizen. He completed primary and secondary school in Guyana, and started writing poetry. He attended the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London from 1959. In addition to producing an array of creative writing, Van Sertima completed his undergraduate studies in African languages and literature at SOAS in 1969, where he graduated with honors. During his studies he learned Swahili and Hungarian.

He worked for several years in Great Britain as a journalist, doing weekly broadcasts to the Caribbean and Africa. In doing field work in Africa, he compiled a dictionary of Swahili legal terms. In 1970 Van Sertima immigrated to the United States, where he entered Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey for graduate work.

He began his teaching career at Rutgers University as an instructor in 1972. In 1977 he completed his master's degree. He was Associate Professor of African Studies in the Department of Africana Studies. As editor of the Journal of African Civilizations and author of numerous books, he has addressed topics in literature, linguistics, anthropology and history. He wrote several books in which he argued that the kings of the 25th Dynasty of Egypt were Nubians.

His 1976 book, They Came Before Columbus, was a bestseller and achieved widespread fame for his claims of prehistoric African influences in Central and South America. It was criticized by academic specialists.

Dr. Van Sertima also treated the topic of African scientific contributions in his essay for the volume African Renaissance, published in 1999. This was a record of the conference held in Johannesburg, South Africa in September 1998 on the theme of the African Renaissance. His article was entitled The Lost Sciences of Africa: An Overview. In it he presents early African advances in metallurgy, astronomy, mathematics, architecture, engineering, agriculture, navigation, medicine and writing. He claimed that higher learning, in Africa as elsewhere, was the preserve of elites in the centres of civilizations, rendering them very vulnerable in the event (as happened in Africa) of the destruction of those centers.

On July 7, 1987 Van Sertima appeared before a United States Congressional committee in opposition to describing Christopher Columbus's initial contact with America as a discovery, saying "You cannot really conceive of how insulting it is to Native Americans . . . to be told they were discovered".
Criticisms

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Dr Ivan van Sertima
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https://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AYnu4MJUTqKkZGM5dHBoNTRfODZneG5iMnYzYg&...

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[jayteetv74]

Columbus Day should be dropped from the American Calender as a Holiday.

[Tiebashi]

Thank you Dr. Setima for your body of work!

[MattatYah1]

We have a mandate to taught our children the true so that they will have the same veal that great historians like Dr. Ivan Van Sertima to continue these great works. If no one studies to continue the legacy our culture will die. Let us as a black people despite our personal convictions and faith practices fill our homes with the work of these great men and save our people from dying.

[maxree10]

Dr Sertima.thank you for all the hard work you have done in bringing the truth to so many people.We are all in your debt.

I for one.never knew about all of the things you spoke about in my lifetime and i am 42.

RIP.i will always remember you.

peace,