Remembering our Scholarly Ancestors

On May 25, as the nation celebrated veterans who died while in military service, the world mourned the loss of a veteran in the war against academic terrorism with the passing of Dr. Ivan Van Sertima. Dr. Van Sertima was the author of the 1977 publication, They Came Before Columbus: The African Presence in America, in which he presented historical, linguistic and botanical data to show that Africans made multiple journeys to the Americas between 1200 and 600 B.C.E — 2500 hundred years before Columbus.

Van Sertima was not the first historian to make such an assertion, but his book was the most popular because it identified the Olmec civilization of ancient Mexico as having originated in the Nile Valley of East Africa. Ancient Egyptians were known to have produced ships capable of trans-Atlantic voyages and Van Sertima proved that these Africans brought to the Americas knowledge of pyramid and temple building along with agricultural and calendrical systems that gave rise to the earliest civilizations in the New World.

In 1987 Van Sertima was invited to share his research before a Congressional committee, and in 2004 Senator Daniel Inouye acknowledged the influence of Olmec (African) culture on Native American culture at the opening of the National Museum of the American Indian. The United Nations acknowledged Van Sertima’s talents by inviting him to join UNESCO’s International Commission for Rewriting the Scientific and Cultural History of Mankind.

Dr. Van Sertima was also the founder and editor of the Journal of African Civilizations, which produced a dozen issues, that explored the ancient African presence in Asia, Europe; Great Black Thinkers; and other topics of significance, which never made their way into standard history books. Of course Van Sertima was not without his detractors, but his research has withstood all credible inquiries.

To some Van Sertima was a revisionist, but to many of his admirers around the globe, he was the Godfather of an African Centered Education Movement that helped place African history at the forefront of world history. Ivan introduced many of us to Drs. Charles Finch, Theophile Obenga and the great Cheik Anta Diop. He was a co-convener of the1984 Nile Valley Conference and a featured speaker at multiple IKG forums between 1987 and 1993. On a personal note, Ivan was the first scholar to introduce me to alternative interpretations of American, world and African histories, and put me on the path that I have been traveling for over three decades.

On June 12, IKG sponsored a Memorial and Tribute to Dr. Van Sertima. Ours was one of many national and international tributes to honor Van Sertima’s memory and insure that his legacy will be preserved for future generations. In the past months IKG has introduced initiatives to honor two other ancestral scholars, John Henrik Clarke and Asa G. Hilliard, III, who like Dr. Van Sertima, have made invaluable contributions in the fields of African and African American history and culture. We invite you to consider these initiatives and help in any way you can.

The Dr. John Henrik Clarke Commemorative Stamp Project was begun to initiate a letter writing campaign to the U.S. Postal Service urging them to commission a stamp to honor of Dr. Clarke. The USPS receives thousands of commemorative requests every year and gives consideration to persons who receive over 150,000 nominations. We are asking persons to commit to writing one letter a month for a year in support of a stamp to honor Dr. Clarke. We have posted a sample letter on our website (under Events), you are encouraged to copy it, sign your name and address and drop in the mailbox. You may also distribute copies to your friends, family and co-workers. With your help we hope to see a commemorative stamp honoring Dr. Clarke within the next five years.

The ASA Restoration Project is an initiative created to honor the legacy of Dr. Asa G. Hilliard who was responsible for taking thousands to Egypt on his annual study tours. In 2008 IKG was invited to participate in the excavation of three tombs located on the west bank of Luxor, Egypt. The ASA Restoration Project is currently recruiting participants for the excavation—a project that will take approximately 5-10 years to complete— and we are seeking tax-deductible contributions to fund the excavations. Details on how you can participate in this project may also be found on our website under the Events heading.

The first group of ASA Restoration Project members will be in Egypt July 1-17, 2009. Upon our return we will provide details of our work and introduce the third phase of the project, the establishment of action-oriented study groups to disseminate our findings. These action-oriented study groups will be named in honor of Dr. Van Sertima and will be called the Van Sertima Cultural Circles.

One of the primary goals of the Van Sertima Cultural Circles is to teach the history of the “Four Golden Ages” of ancient Egypt (which lasted from the 3rd thru 25th Dynasties) and produce a team of experts to share this knowledge with schools and organizations throughout their communities. Our goal is to take full advantage in the interest generated in ancient Egypt when Will Smith releases the film, The Last Pharaoh, in which he will play Taharqa-the last king of the 25th dynasty. The film should be released by 2011 and will provide excellent opportunities to present accurate interpretations of Nile Valley civilization, and honor the scholars who have helped preserve that history.

These are exciting times. Providence has provided us with an opportunity to do more than just talk about ancient history. We have an opportunity to excavate history, finance the excavation and record our findings for posterity. Opportunities such as these do not come around very often and we can not afford to let them slip through our fingers. We invite you to join us and be a part of history in the making.

Tony Browder