They Came Before Columbus - Dr. Van Sertima Passes

Dr. Ivan van Sertima (26 January 1935 - 25 May 2009 ) Cultural Soldier, historian, linguist and anthropologist at Rutgers University, NJ, USA. We will miss our brother in arms in the Cultural War as he transitions from this earthly plane and we thank him for his contributions.

I read and have most of his books from my first, They Came Before Columbus. I first heard him on Imhotep Gary Bird's radio show in New York City and went down to the Liberation book store in Harlem and got a copy the book about Blacks in America before Columbus, that nobody mentioned in school. Wow, I remember thinking the stone carvings he presented in his book looked just like any brother on 125th Street. For me, the African presence in America was established after reading this book.


The best tribute to the honorable Sesh (teacher in Metu Neter) Dr. V, is to listen to him and absorb his work on your Cultural Literacy journey.

Part 1 of 7 on YouTube


Go to YouTube and improve your Cultural Health with this great Sesh and his contributions. The good news is, that before the Internet, unless you lived in an African Cultural Center in America, it might be hard to be exposed to Dr. V's work. Now you have access to CyberSpace, use it, each one teach one.

I am looking at my bookshelf at the other books of his that are my favorites, Egypt Revisited, Great African Thinkers-Cheikh Anta Diop, Black Women in Antiquity and African Presence in Early Asia. Last but not least I am looking at some of the copies of the Cultural Soldier's professional journal, Dr. V's Journal of African Civilizations from which I learned much.

As I close, I am listening to my friend and neighbor Dr. Jeffries on Imhotep's radio show. He talking about the Great ancestors Dr. Clarke and Dr. Ben and reminding us that Dr. V was part of the next generation of scholars. He continued carrying forward the Cultural Literacy tradition of resurrecting and restoring Classical African Civilization, Kemet (Ancient Egypt) by alerting us to their contributions here in early America.

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