They Came Before Columbus

They Came Before Columbus is a captivating, dramatic, and
well documented account of Africans’ presence and legacy
in ancient America. Ivan Van Sertima builds a pyramid of
evidence to support his claim of an African presence in the
New World centuries before Columbus by looking at
navigation and shipbuilding, cultural analogies between
Native Americans and Africans, the transportation of plants,
animals, and textiles between the continents, and the
explorers’ diaries, journals, and oral accounts. Van Sertima
re-creates some of the most powerful scenes in human
history, combining impressive scholarship with a novelist’s
gift for storytelling: the launching of the great ships of
Mali in 1310 (two hundred master boats and two hundred
supply boats), the sea expedition of the Mandingo king in
1311.