07 August 2015

[FERGUSON FORWARD]

Brittany and Alexis:

In Love and Struggle 
The co-founders of Millennial Activists United
on finding forever on West Florrisant Avenue,
and keeping the movement going

Photo courtesy of Geoffrey Black, EBONY Magazine

It takes little more than a cursory glance at St. Louis-natives Brittany Ferrell and Alexis Templeton to recognize that they may be one of the most head-over-heels-in-love couples you’ve ever seen. And you probably wouldn’t assume from that quick peek that the sweet faced young twenty-somethings have emerged as two of the baddest, boldest activists to emerge from the movement we call #Ferguson. The co-founders of Millennial Activists United (along with Ashley Yates, who has since left the group to organize in Oakland) were a critical part of the early protests and also made it very clear that women would not take a backseat or secondary role in this new movement.

Here, the newlyweds talk about what brought them to the streets when Mike Brown was killed and finding love in a hopeful place.

EBONY: So tell me how you two first met?

Brittany Ferrell: We met on West Florissant Avenue in August, when QuikTrip was still ‘Ground Zero.’ We met just as strangers that took to the streets. We were protestors that didn’t know one another. Our relationship cultivated from there.

AT: She couldn’t resist me! I was cool. She couldn’t resist. Had to stand next to me on the front lines, every day.

BF: That’s not how it happened!

AT: That is how it happened. It is! [Laughs]

EBONY: At what point did it become romantic?

BF: When she started following me around.

AT: [Laughs loudly]

BF: It was a group of us that just kept hanging around one another. It was like 9 of us. As people went back to their homes and tried to go back to their daily lives, there was a certain group of us that were inseparable.

AT: That’s how [Millennial Activists United] started.

BF: Yeah. That’s how MAU started. So we started MAU and AT and I just spent a lot of time…

AT: People started drifting off, right? So then it was just me, Brittany, and Ashley.

BF: And Larry [Fellows]

AT: Now, Larry got his job [with Amnesty International, in New York City] and he’s doing his thing…we started getting close right when Larry left. We started hanging out, kickin it. She would always wanna get in my car. I would wait for her to get out of class. We actually went to the same school. I would wait for her to get out of class. I would try to stay at work longer.

BF: We found out we went to the same school in Ferguson when we were on…

AT: On the PD Lot! She was like “Oh, you go to UMSL!”…She gave me a hug. And ever since then, we just got really close.

BF: It started off more so as a support system. Because she was still battling with the accident. And I saw her struggling with that. Being someone that’s in healthcare, you recognize that depression.

EBONY: What was the accident?

AT: On July 6^th 2013, I was in a car accident. I lost my dad. I lost my ex-fiancée. I lost my uncle. Everybody [in the car] died except me. I was the only one who made it. I went through a lot of depression. A lot of suicide attempts. A lot of suicidal tendencies. And then, one day I set foot in Ferguson and it gave me purpose to not kill myself. Literally an hour before I went out on the ground, I was about to kill myself. I went outside and then I came back in and I didn’t wanna die no more.

Then that started to fade. That passion started to fade. It was like a momentary Band-Aid.  The trauma and the teargas and the rubber bullets and all of that, and the protests and the chanting, it all became normal. So then I meet her, you know what I’m sayin’? She completely made my life go 360 [degrees.]  I woke up one morning and I just didn’t think about killing myself. I didn’t think about how I was gonna make it through the day.

That’s when I was like “I gotta marry this girl!”

EBONY: So once your story came out about you all meeting in the middle of the struggle and falling in love and getting married, did you find that the local LGBT community got a little bit more engaged in what was happening? 

BF: It varied. Because, I noticed from a lot a gay White men, we still don’t hear from them. We still don’t see them. But from a lot of other people of color who identify as LGBTQ, and a good amount of White women that identify as LGBTQ, that they have really supported us. They’ve supported us in a different way than they supported us before the engagement. But the LGBT community still has a lot of work to do, especially here.

AT: I think our engagement sparked a lot of conversation whether it was wanted or not. It definitely started a lot of conversation here and across the nation. But definitely here people had there comments and that led to commentary about intersectionality.

BF: People did not realize that in this Black liberation movement, it is about Black folks. When the engagement happened, you had folks that wanted to express their concerns about the gayness distracting from the movement. And it gave people the opportunity to lay their viewpoints on the table.  Do you really think it’s not about gay Black lives? …It created a lot of teachable moments for people. A lot of people were so stuck on the fact that this was a Black man issue. Few months later, nah, it’s all Black people. It’s Black women. You gotta show up for Black women. You gotta show up for Black LGBTQ folks. You have to do that.

AT: They used to call me “Hoops” and they’d be like “But Hoops been out there everyday!” (laughs) “You cant remove Hoops from this. Her life matters, too.” Those confrontations would happen and it would be like okay there’s queer folks fighting out here for us, too. This is about them too. Some people got that. It was great for people to have the growth and to see it’s not just about a straight Black man. It’s not just about me straight Black women. All of us are dying, regardless of how we identify. We’re all dying. We gotta lift their names up, too. So then when you go into certain spaces, people will lift up Mya Hall’s name. They’ll say Penny Proud, you know what I’m saying. Or the sister, Rakia Boyd. It changes. The names being lifted up has definitely changed from just men to inclusive of men, women, trans women, queers. Jessie Hernandez gets lifted up. I would say the engagement, not sparked it, but it helped just a little bit.

EBONY: Do you all want more children? [Brittany has a 7-year-old daughter from a previous relationship.]

BF: I do.

AT: We have a debate on who’s gonna carry it. Right? It’s on me right now. The ball is in my court and I’m just trying to give the ball back. (laughs). She ain’t having it! But we definitely want a kid…kids.

EBONY:  Will you stay in St. Louis for good?

AT: We out.

EBONY: Where do you wanna go?

AT: California. Atlanta. Out the country…

BF: I don’t know. It’s just a lot has happened. I love this city because, for me, I’m just so deeply attached to it. Good and bad. But this city is also, and I’m sure this is everywhere for some people but I’m just so drained just from the energy of giving so much of yourself, even prior to August…it’s just been hard for me here. It has really been hard. I used to live in Jackson, Miss and I lived up north in St. Paul Minnesota, so when I think about St. Louis, I identify it as a very southern place. It has a very Southern-type mentality. Everybody is pretty content and pretty slow with the things that they do. Missouri is slow as a state. They’re the last to do everything. So it’s like I don’t know if St. Louis would be best for my vision because I need support. I need people around that are willing to support things. I mean even if they don’t agree, just supporting the cause.

EBONY: So what is MAU doing now? What’s your long term vision for the organization?

BF: We were just talking about getting some 501-3C status.

AT: We have new members.

BF: We do have new members.

EBONY: How many new members?

BF: Two. We wanna be able to come back and start doing work, established to where we can raise our own funding to do the work in the way that we wanna do it and not from an organization that’s suffering from the non-profit industrialization complex. I don’t want people to dictate what we do for the dollar. I want to be able to do what we do passionately without having to request or seek some type of approval for things that we choose to do. I think as an organization that’s led by queer Black women that advocate very strongly for Black women and queer folks and young people and Black lives, in general, I think we should have the right to be able to make those type of decisions without having to consult with a predominantly White organization. I’m not comfortable with it. I never have been and moving forward, when we really start, like, when we get back into organizing and movement-building like we have been in the past, I want to be able to know that whatever we decide to do, we are in control of that.

AT: It’s also changed our lane. We had a lane, we just never really focused in on it. Our lane was women, Black women, queer folks, Black queer folks and Black young folks. We did not stay in that lane because there’s just so much going on to where it’s hard to not be reactionary here because there are people dying left and right…You had people who were like “Well, they focusing on women’s rights and they focusing on gay rights and we are focusing on police brutality and we all need to be focused on Black men because they the ones dying.” Like these are real conversations. Like why can’t we do all of that and work towards a center goal of Black liberation, because that’s what “Black Lives Matter” encompasses and what it should encompass.

I appreciate folks like DeRay [McKesson] who stays in his lane and does his thing online for wetheprotestors.org and collects all that data and people don’t know that when you’re having these arguments with whomever you’re using his statistics to help combat your argument. So that’s helping the movement. Shout out to Hands Up United. They started their tech program for the youth.

BF: That’s huge.

AT: That’s huge! And people see that as them not doing nothing. Man, that’s amazing to have that! That’s solidarity all day there. I love it. And you’re giving people computers and you’re helping people get jobs? That’s incredible.

BF: Shout out to the clergy doing “Truth and Reconciliation.” 

AT: Yes! Shout out to the clergy doing Truth and Reconciliation! Shout out to the Ferguson Commission, folks like Brittany Packnett, folks like Reverend Starksy Wilson, who are talking to the, if you will, “respectable Negroes,” who come to those meetings. You have people like them, who are there, and Tracy Blackmon, who are there, who are very woke and are very “non-respectable” or they can be respectable but they’ll take the respectable out real quick for you and get you together, you know what I’m sayin, in a very loving way. And we have got a lot of voices who will get out there and will take to the streets and…

BF: Turn up in the most uncouth way and don’t care.

AT: And it don’t matter. They’re unapologetically Black and they’re unapologetically them and we need all of that. It all works together. I think it’s dope and nobody sees how organized that looks on the inside because we’re all tryna keep it together, but on the outside it looks incredibly organized in St. Louis. We’re really doing the damn thing. I think a lot of people here, in the movement, have to take a step back and see that. I think it’s great what everybody is doing.

EBONY: If you could speak to Mike Brown right now, what would you tell him?

AT: I don’t know. It’s almost selfish to be face to face with dude and talk about yourself and be like “Thank you for all of this growth.” But I’d I probably wouldn’t even say anything. I ‘d just be like “Yo, let’s just ride out.” Just ride through time and show him days before August 9^th and how sleep as a Black community we were, how respectable and not radical at all and very apologetic. Now we’re just not. Just take him through that and show him the growth that he’s caused thousands and thousands and thousands of people across this country. They talk about this in Singapore. Just take him all across the world and show him and just not say anything. I’d let him take it all in for himself and let him do the talking. Just show him, “This is what you did. This is what you did in the last moments. This is exactly what you did.”

BF: I would affirm him. I would affirm his Blackness. I would affirm his existence. Not too many Black kids who were ever affirmed in life and it’s sad that it has to happen after such a tragedy like August 9^th. I would affirm him and I would tell him that he matters and I would tell him that I appreciate and thank him for becoming a martyr for the Black community, not by choice, not by expectation, but by circumstance. I would tell him that I’m sorry that you can’t smell the flowers until it’s too late.

>via: http://www.ebony.com/news-views/ferguson-forward-brittany-and-alexis-in-love-and-struggle-404#axzz3i9eMnO3E

August 6, 2015

A CONVERSATION

WITH

SAUL WILLIAMS

Saul Williams is a writer, a musician, a poet, a composer, a performer—an artist in the fullest sense of the word. While he says that most people’s attempts to label his work fall short, expressing himself has increased his ability to understand and exist in our world. If that’s too intense for you, go ahead and stop reading. New York photographer Onaje “Nashish” Scott sat down with Williams to talk writing, the influence of social media in the art world, and the inspiration for Williams’s work.

What first got you into writing music and poetry? 
Hip-hop and Shakespeare. I discovered both as a kid and loved the idea of punch lines and hidden meaning in language. The first play I did was Julius Caesar. I played Marc Antony. In breaking down those speeches he gave, subtly inciting the masses against the murderous traitors who let him speak, I understood something on a profound level. Simultaneously, I loved dancing. I loved the drum. I was a breakbeat scientist way before I was introduced to calculus or chemistry.

Can you briefly talk about your upcoming project Martyr Loser King—what inspired you in make this project? 
Everything. I wanted to find a creative way to talk about everything. I wanted a particular vantage point that was not my own to illuminate ideas and ideologies…realities. It’s a broad concept with a very focused departure point: a hacker living in Burundi.

If you search “Coltan as Cotton” on Google, it shows that you posted it back in 2013 on your Tumblr. Was it a one-time project that turned into a full album? When did it come into fruition? 
I’ve been working on this album since 2012. I take my time building, dreaming, composing, writing, reading…I believe in the marination process.

The first single in Martyr Loser King is “Burundi” and then is followed by the powerful video “Coltan as Cotton.” Will we be seeing a mix of spoken-word videos in your upcoming graphic novel album? 
I have no idea how to label what I do, but for those who have followed my work and growth as an artist, you will definitely see all of the elements that have come to define me.

What’s your take on the today’s ever-expanding social media platforms in conjunction to your poetry video “Coltan as Cotton?” 
I’m inspired by the connection. I see our ability to manifest changes using [social media] racing with the super powers’ goal to control and exploit it. We need to turn the parts of the system that don’t work on their heads. But we have to use our heads and escape The Matrix in order visualize and embody the integral outcomes. It’s like Thelonious Monk trying to poke his way around an impossible scale, finding new harmonies, setting new standards, all while keeping folks on the dance floor.

Poetry, music, visual performance, and so forth are all forms of art. With technology evolving and the internet becoming more accessible to everyone, do you think there is a direct link between art and the opportunity to express yourself through social media? How has artistic expression played a part in social media? 
Look at the way great performances circulate. Our ability to share experiences has increased exponentially. Our ability to create experiences through interface, design, and programming have also increased. We haven’t quite defeated the system through creativity, yet old systems have been forced to redefine themselves and align themselves with the new model…our new freedoms.

Who are your favorite artists right now? 
Yoko Ono. Haleek Maul. Arca. A Tribe Called Red. Conan Moccasin. Hank Willis Thomas. Sarah Kane. Anisia Uzeyman. Nicholas Jar. Alain Gomis. Maya Deren. Virginie Despentes. M.I A. Stromae. Warren Ellis. Leon Misael. Hilton Als. Kara Walker. Daedalus…

The presidential election is coming up soon, which candidate are you leaning towards? 
I can’t reconcile what I’ve learned about the Clintons’ behavior in Haiti, for one. And I find [Hillary’s] positioning difficult to trust as in many cases it has been more political than unwavering. I’d cite her position on gay vs. traditional marriage before the tides changed as an example. Sanders identifying as a socialist democrat is interesting. I’d say I’m leaning towards him for the moment. A dream team would be Sanders/Warren. But I don’t fool myself on the fight ahead regardless of who’s in office. The naysayers, the xenophobes, and the corporate interests have money and we’ve given much of our power by worshipping it. Religious zealots fuel their fire. Today, even much of what passes for entertainment fuels their fire. The work ahead of us is immense and I don’t doubt the positive effects of charismatic visionary leadership, but I also fear that we will have to pay for the short-sighted bullshit we’ve worshiped and celebrated. The hypocrisy, the stubborn ignorance, which equals stupidity—all of these things cost us time, hardship, troubleshooting, sometimes generations, before they are uprooted.

Lastly, is there anything you would like to say to fans out there? 
Stay tuned, #staywoke.

Photos by Onaje Scott

>via: http://www.frank151.com/news/a-conversation-with-saul-williams.html/

FRIDAY AUGUST 07, 2015

IN MEMORIAM:

PHOTOGRAPHER

KIRIPI KATEMBO SIKU

(DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO)

Photographer Kiripi Katembo Siku at work.

The sad news of Kiripi Katembo Siku’s passing crossed my Twitter feed today via OkayAfrica. A master of both the moving and still image, Siku was a Founding Director of Mutotu film production company and Executive Director of the Yango Biennale based in Kinshasa, Congo. He also founded the Kinshasa-based collective Yebela for photographers and video artists.

A 2009 CNN article on contemporary African filmmakers featured a young Siku and his genius 7-minute film, Voiture en Carton (Cardboard Car). To avoid DRC government censorship laws, Siku made his short film by attaching his cell phone to a child’s toy car which he then had a young girl pull behind her as she walked the streets of Kinshasa.

Yet it was Siku’s 2009 series Un regard that made waves in the art photography world. Currently on view through November 15, 2015 in the Beauté Congo – 1926-2015 – Congo Kitoko group exhibition at Foundation Cartier in Paris, below are a selection of images from Un regard. Shot through the reflection of pools of water, these multi-layered images present color, street photography like we’ve never seen it before. 

Here’s a bit about the series in the photographer’s own words:

This project simply takes a look at a very visible fact of life in the city I live in: the pollution of the urban environment. With pollution comes sickness: malaria and typhoid fever. I hold in my hands a tool capable of showing what some refuse to consider as the appalling management of the urban environment. Photography also provides a way of seeing beyond reflection as it opens up a poetic window on another world, the world in which I live. I want each image to tell of the children born here who have to grow up surrounded by pools of water, and of the families who survive while others leave to live in exile. To me, this is one way of campaigning for a healthier environment and to denounce through images what Kinshasa’s inhabitants see as fate.  

You can also watch an interview with Siku via Foundation Cartier, in which he describes the challenges of photographing in such a dense, urban environment. Leaving this world at such a young age (he was only 36), we can only hope that Siku’s life/work will be immortalized in monograph form and within the annals of African photography history. 

Rest in Peace, Kiripi Katembo Siku.

From the series, Un regard, 2009.Copyright Kiripi Katembo Siku

>via: http://dodgeburn.blogspot.com/2015/08/in-memoriam-photographer-kiripi-katembo.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+DodgeBurnPhotographyBlog-AfricanAmericanLatinoAsianInternationalIndigenous+%28Dodge+%26+Burn+Photography+Blog%3A+Diversity+in+Photography%29

CFP: 42nd Annual Conference of the

African Literature Association

(April 6-9, 2016)

>via: http://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/node/63012

>via: http://dogwoodliterary.com/submissions/contest/

Gloria Naylor’s *Mama Day*:

Contemporary Explorations of

Class and Capitalism 

>via: http://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/node/63026

Terence Blanchard

& E-Collective Visits

NPR’s Tiny Desk

BY DAN MICHAEL

Trumpeter, bandleader and composer Terence Blanchard took his E-Collective band to give a live performance in front of NPR’s Tiny Desk cameras. The video features Blanchard, Fabian Almazan (piano), Charles Altura, Donald Ramsey (bass) and Oscar Seaton (drums) performing songs from their latest Breathless album. A few of ya’ll might recall our interview with Blanchard himself a few months ago when he explained the meaning of his latest album’s title:

The whole idea behind the music is to hopefully change the hearts and minds about what’s going on with African American as well as Latino youth and the how they’re treated by law enforcement in this country.

People have been asking me whether it will create a dialogue, but I don’t want it to create a dialogue. We’ve talked too much about this. It’s time for laws and policy to change. It’s time for people to go jail for wrongdoing. It’s time for people who know what’s right to stand up for what’s right and stand against what’s wrong. It’s just that simple.

The general public is not stupid. There’s too many people and instances where people have lost their lives and law enforcement has sat down and tried to justify it all. Well, that has to stop. If it doesn’t stop, something dangerous and something catastrophic can happen.

Scroll down to watch Terence Blanchard and E-Collective’s Tiny Desk performance below. Purchase Breathless via iTunes. 

>via: http://revive-music.com/2015/08/07/terence-blanchard-e-collective-visits-nprs-tiny-desk/#.VcWe5yQmH8t

DIANNE REEVES

Lotos Jazz Festival 2014

● Tracklist:
– Tango
– I’m In Love Again
– Triste
– Waiting In Vain
– You Taught My Heart
– Satiated

● Personnel:
Dianne Reeves – vocals
Peter Martin – piano
Peter Sprague – guitar
James Genus – bass
Terreon Gully – drums

● Dianne Reeves: 16 Lotos Jazz Festival, Bielska Zadymka Jazzowa
Live at Klub Klimat, Poland, 19.02.2014

photo by Alex Lear

Sometimes when i hear

 thunder, i think of you 

your shuddering

intensity

shaking me

like embracing

rumbling

summer thunder

          the lightening

          of your spent smile

          tenderly tattooed

          into the hollow

          of my neck

the feel of you

beneath the pulsing

rain of my rhythms —

          rocking

          like waves

          wetter

          than water

—kalamu ya salaam

Friday, August 7th, 2015

 
10 Pieces of Evidence

That Prove

Black People Sailed

to the Americas

Long Before

Columbus

Posted by Taylor Gordon 

Columbus Himself

According to renowned American historian and linguist Leo Weiner of Harvard University, one of the strongest pieces of evidence to support the fact that Black people sailed to America before Christopher Columbus was a journal entry from Columbus himself. In Weiner’s book, “Africa and the Discovery of America,” he explains that Columbus noted in his journal that the Native Americans confirmed “black skinned people had come from the south-east in boats, trading in gold-tipped spears.”

American Narcotics Discovered

in Egyptian Mummies

The discovery of American narcotics in Egyptian mummies has left some historians amazed. Recently, archaeologists discovered the presence of narcotics only known to be derived from American plants in ancient Egyptian mummies. These substances included South American cocaine from Erythroxylon and nicotine from Nicotiana tabacum. German toxicologist Svetla Balabanova reported the findings, which suggest that such compounds made their way to Africa through trans-Atlantic trade that would predate Columbus’ arrival by thousands of years.

Egyptian Artifacts in North America

For years, Eurocentric archaeologists have largely turned the other cheek when it came to the discovery of artifacts from ancient Egypt being discovered in the Americas. According to Dr. David Imhotep, the author behind the book “The First Americans Were Africans: Documented Evidence,” “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” are all signs of an early arrival in the Americas by Africans. This is also paired with a much earlier account of Black people with incredible skills at sea. Back in 445 B.C., the Greek historian Herodotus wrote of King Ramses III leading a team of Africans at sea with astounding seafaring and navigational skills. Together, both accounts would point to Africans sailing over to the New World before Columbus.

Ancient Pyramids

Constructing pyramids was a highly specialized and complicated task that took the ancient Egyptians a lot of time to master. In ancient Egypt, there are signs of progression from the original stepped pyramid of Djoser to the more sophisticated pyramids that now stand at Giza. According to historians, it would be impossible for any group of people to have built those same complex pyramids without going through the same progression. Professor Everett Borders noted the presence of completed pyramids in La Venta in Mexico but the unusual absence of any earlier forms of the pyramids. According to Borders, it’s a sign that Africans, having already mastered the construction of pyramids in Egypt, sailed over to the New World and constructed these dual-purpose tombs and temples in the Americas.

Ancient African Skeletons

Discovered in the New World

There have been many instances of archaeologists discovering skulls and skeletons that they believed clearly belonged to people of African descent. Polish professor Andrzej Wiercinski revealed the discovery of African skulls at Olmec sites in Tlatilco, Cerro de las Mesas and Monte Alban. Even more ancient African skeletons that would clearly predate Columbus’ arrival in the Americas were discovered throughout Central America and South America with some even being unearthed in what is now California.

A Clear Link in Religion

The similarities in Native American and African religions also suggest that Africans had to have had early contact with the Native Americans by sailing to the New World. Before Columbus stumbled upon the Native Americans’ land, there were prominent figures of deities with dark skin and coarse hair throughout their religion. Today, many surviving portraits reveal these deities who were clearly crafted in the likeness of Africans. Historians also point to wall paintings in caves in South America that depict the ancient Egyptian “opening of the mouth” and cross libation rituals.

The Accounts of Other European Explorers

Christopher Columbus wasn’t the only European explorer who made note of an African presence in the Americas upon his arrival. Historians revealed that at least a dozen other explorers, including Vasco Nunez de Balboa, also made record of seeing “Negroes” when they reached the New World. The accounts match up with the reports from the natives in Mexico. Nicholas Leon, an eminent Mexican authority, recorded the oral traditions of his people and ultimately kept track of a key piece of evidence that Black people made it to the New World far before their European counterparts. His reports revealed accounts from natives saying “the oldest inhabitants of Mexico were blacks. [T]he existence of blacks and giants is commonly believed by nearly all the races of our sail and in their various language they had words to designate them.”

Africans Were Master Shipbuilders

Some people insist that Africans couldn’t have made it to the New World first simply because they didn’t have the skill and resources to sail across the Atlantic. As it turns out, that’s completely false. Historians have discovered evidence that suggests Africans were masters at building ships and that it was actually a part of their tradition. Shipbuilding and sailing are over 20,000 years old in the Sahara, and cave wall paintings of ancient ships were displayed in National Geographic magazine years ago. With those shipbuilding skills and the navigation skills that were noted by other historians of the time, the myth that Africans wouldn’t have been able to sail to the New World becomes officially debunked. As Dr. Julian Whitewright, a maritime archaeologist at the University of Southampton, explained, the voyage from Africa on ancient ships was “quite a plausible undertaking, based on the capabilities of the vessel of the period and historical material stating it took place.”

Gigantic Stone Heads in Central Mexico

The Olmec civilization was the first significant civilization in Mesoamerica and deemed “Mother Culture of Mexico” by some historians. This civilization dominated by Africans is best known for the colossal carved heads in Central Mexico that serve as even more evidence that Africans sailed to the New World before Columbus. The heads are clearly crafted in the likeness of Africans. The same civilization that created these giant heads was also responsible for introducing written language, arts, sophisticated astronomy and mathematics to Mesoamerican civilization, ancient African historian Professor Van Sertima explained.

A Long History of Trade by Sea

According to Paul Alfred Barton, the author of “A History of the African-Olmecs: Black Civilizations of America from Prehistoric Times to the Present Era,” ancient kingdoms in West Africa have a long history of trade by sail, which made it all the more likely that they eventually expanded their trade to the Americas. While the Sahara is a dry desert today, its past as a lake-filled, wet and fertile place has been well-documented. African ships often crossed these large lakes to get from place to place and traded with other African civilizations along the way. After expanding their trade to the Americas, they certainly made their mark as things like African native cotton were soon being discovered all across North America.

>via: http://atlantablackstar.com/2015/01/23/10-pieces-of-evidence-that-prove-black-people-sailed-to-the-americas-long-before-columbus/