THIS BOOK IS AMAZING IT PROVIDES INFORMATION THAT IS BOTH TRUE AND OF EXTREME VALUE. THE AFRICAN PRESENCE IN EARLY ASIA COVERS MIGRATION FROM AFRICA TO ASIA DATING BACK FROM OVER 100,000 YEARS AGO. IT ALSO COVERS THE REVOLT OF THE ZANJ, WERE EAST AFRICAN SLAVES REVOLTED IN IRAQ AND IRAN. CAUSING NUMEROUS DEFEATS UPON THEIR OPPRESSORS AND SERIOUS ECONOMIC DAMAGE TO THE EMPIRE OF THEIR OPPESSORS. IT ALSO COVERS NUMEROUS AMOUNTS OF AFRICAN PERSONALITIES AND PEOPLE IN ASIA. SUCH AS UTHMAN IBN BAHR AL-JAHIZ, MALIK AMBAR, LOKMAN, BILAL, ANTARA: THE LION AND MANY OTHERS. THE AFRICAN DIASPORA IN ASIA WAS MAINLY BY MIGRATION, BUT SLAVERY WAS ALSO AN EXAMPLE OF THESE MASSIVE AFRICAN POPULATIONS THROUGHOUT SOUTHERN ARABIA, YEMEN, SOUTHERN IRAQ, KUWATI, SOUTHERN IRAN, AND SOME PARTS OF INDIA. HISTORICAL MIGRATIONS INCLUDED SAUDI ARABIA AND YEMEN ALSO. AS WELL AS INDIA HAS AN EXTREMLY LARGE AFRICOID POPULATION KNOWN AS THE "THE BLACK UNTOUCHABLES OF INDIA" WHO ARE THE INDIGENOUS INHABITERS OF INDIA AND THE CREATORS OF THE INDUS RIVER VALLEY CIVILIZATION. THERE ARE ALSO AFRICAN POPULATIONS IN MALAYSIA, SOUTHERN CHINA, ANDAMEN ISLANDS, SRI LANKA AND THE SOUTH PACIFIC ISLANDS. THIS BOOK IS OF GREAT SIGNIFIGANCE ON THE UNEXPLORED HISTORY OF AFRICAN PEOPLE IN ASIA. OTHER BOOKS RECOMENDED IS AFRICANS AT THE CROSSROAD: NOTES ON AN AFRICAN WORLD REVOLUTION, INTRODUCTION TO AFRICAN CIVILIZATIONS, THE DESTRUCTION OF A BLACK CIVILIZATION, AND THE AFRICAN ORIGIN OF CIVILIZATION

This book has made it clear that the inhabitant of this earth is GOD in all forms. There is nothing else to be said on this subject. This book and others like it, has opened the door for many to become what they truly are...GOD.

This is best book for true information of early "African Presence" Lots of reserches and essays are included.

THIS IS A WELL RESEARCHED AND VERY SCHOLARLY BOOK. IVAN VAN SERTIMA AS WELL AS THE CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS WORK HAVE PRODUCED MUCH INSIGHT ON AFRICAN WOMEN IN WORLD HITORY LIKE QUEEN NZINGA, THE CANDACE QUEENS, MAKEDA (QUEEN SHEBA, HATSHEPSUT AND MANY OTHERS. I FEEL THAT THIS WORK IS OF GREAT SIGNIFIGANCE AND SHOULD BE READ BY ALL WHO ARE INTERESTED IN THE ROLE OF AFRICAN WOMEN IN WORLD HISTORY.

Without being too lengthy, this book thoroughly covers the real and mythical images of the Black woman. It is a wonderful collection of essays from various authors such as the late, great John Henrik Clarke. Historical without afrocentricism. Balanced yet interesting. Do yourself a favor. Purchase the book and order tapes from the back of the book. Another fearless accomplishment by Van Sertima.

Ivan Van sertima may at time jump overboard,but He is often misunderstood by the people who try to label him a Afronazi. Van Sertima sets straight with actual proof Africans did excel in Science before the conquest of the Europeans. What the Europeans thought of as withdoctors were actually people that had great knowleadge of herbal medicine. The recent find in South Africa is that African bush willow has been shown to help with the treatment of cancer. What westerners don't tell you that there is plenty of herbs in African that has been dhown to fight such dieases as Aids. The problem is drug companies exploit cheifs and priest for their knowleadge of herbal medicine. The drug companies don't want common people to know about these herbs because it will make them go bankrupt.I recommend anyone reaching and exploring to shatter the myths of primitive Africans to read this book. Another thing this book explores is the evidence they found in kenya of an astronomical observatory. The book does show the lack of study in the scientific nature of indigenous African people. The book does not mention that bantus of Southern Africa have the ability of accupunture,and this ability according to records has been with man since he first evovled. I wish Sertima would have explored the indigenous calender system. I am glad however that he showed that secret socities in Africa comunicated with symbols andf sighns, and had a form of written language.

Another excellent work by Van Sertima! He investigates information from several disciplines to examine Pre-Columbian America. His notes/references are extensive as usual. Early America Revisited should be in every library, if not in every High School history classroom, right beside They Came Before Columbus....

Funny as it sounds, I had no idea of a "Moor" until I saw "Black Knight" with Martin Lawrence. I was wondering why they constantly kept calling him "Moor", was this the equivalent of "Nigger"???

So naturally I went to my Encylopedia (sooo dated by the way) and looked up the term "Moor". Some truth was in their descriptions of Moorish Spain but of course there were lies. One of the most shocking was "Moors were NOT black. Moors come from a European stock".

tsk tsk

Wouldn't you say that's a tad bit misleading? Well I used common sense and didn't take this seriously, and started looking elsewhere. Eslewhere you also hear "Moors were not Black, they were Arab" or "Moors were of a mixed Arab & European race"...pretty much anything besides Black.

I'm guessing if you perpetuate such nonsense it WILL stick.

Dr Ivan Sertima is trully a force in Academia. This book is a perfect example of that authority. This is my 2nd book by the world reknowned scholar & I must say he's outdone himself again. Since a Historian like Dr. Ivan van Sertima is practically forced to emphasize skin color in his work, a Historian with such drive shall prevail.

I'm very tempted to long hand certain commentary from this book but that wouldn't be fair to the Doctor or future readers.

What we call Eurocentric Academia, I feel, has left a gigantic void in World History. This allows Historians like Ivan van Sertima to easily destroy accepted rhetoric in Academia. With the help of Runoko Rashidi, James E. Brunson, Scobie & others, they cover every angle from language to Shakespeare to Spanish Music. Along with convicing photos & credible sources, Arab/African/European, I would say Moors shouldn't be a mystery to anybody, especially what race they were in this time period.

Anybody trully interested in History should own this book, as well as any Ivan van Sertima book you could get your hands on.

To the usa reader who made the poor comment about the moroccans not identifying with sub sahara descent, yes this would be true of the berbers (the mulattos) who were a mixed breed of caucazoid nomadics and black africans (moors), who were the original indigineous ppl of north africa and through out the continent. The berbers and other caucazoid mixed ppl do not identify with their so called negroid roots because they were trained to be bigots about what they stole and took from the original ppl of the land. It is physically impossible for the caucazoids to have develop in north africa with the type of physical features and skin texture that is designed as it devlops in a cold icy region such as europe which is were these ppl came from as invaders ( the lost mutated black ppl). It would help in the future that when one who disagrees with ones views of historical events, provide something other than emotional baggage, evidence would be nice which is what Mr. Sertima presented and so should not be overlooked or taken out of context because you cannot handle the truth. For more evidence study the correlation between anthropology and physics and be forever humbled disturbed one, the oldest anthropological finding of human remains possessed 99.9 percent melanin in the recovered minute tissue remains and they also found tools which showed that these early humans were civilized beings, being that they had agricultural understanding. Show me what caucazoid has 99.9 percent melanin pigmentation, such a person does not exist and so this can only be what is described about black ppl(african moors) of our so called negroid features inwhich white scientist did admit to this( see discover magazine or the site )................... So please no more out crys from charlatans who cannot give evidence for evidence, hmmmmm very dishonest and immature. Also stop using the lame excuse of afrocentricity being some restoration of black pride, no pride was ever lost, for the blacks had no reason to iniate invasion upon others like the caucasions( the transformed blacks), so how is that for pride?! On your part, foolish pride for overlooking and trying to find a way around the laws of physical science especially in the area of how melinin develops on the pigmentation level, tsk tsk to your foolish pride! The original humans went through three physiological changes as it pertains to nature/nurture 1. development duration 2. climatical influence 3. human nurture influence. But anyway i give The Golden age of the Moors 5 stars for what it supports ( EVIDENCE ) not empty speculation which is what the cowardly usa reader cryed about with no detailed reference of his or her supposably more inclined authors.

I own this book and it is one of the greatest pieces of literature that I have read. Ivan van Sertima tells it like it is. The Moors were African people who hailed from the northwestern part of Africa. No other people would come out of that continent but BLACK people. They were many, many years ahead of their time and everybody else's time, too. An advanced, superior civilization of Africans that was the center of culture, education, and arts/crafts to the entire world made their presence felt. And when it came to war with France and England, even the greatest of warriors from those places couldn't stand up to the powerful onslaught of these people. Many intelligent African/Arabic/Ethiopic men were a huge part of this era (i.e. Abd-er-Rahman II-III, Ibn-Aby-Amir). These rulers were very powerful and not even the biggest of Christian rebellions led by extreme, hypocritical bigots could put a dent in Morrocan rule. From the Abbisade to the Ummeyyad, Almoravide, and Almohade dynasties everything is covered from the Moors superior knowledge of irrigation and astrology to their lavish lifestyles. The Europeans sat at the feet of African Moorish scientists and teachers (both men and women) and learned everything there was to learn. That's why I look at the Renaissance Period as a time frame when Europeans finally learned to think and do for themselves. Something that African-Morrocan descendents like myself have been doing for eons. This information is the last thing America wants its black citizens to know about as a whole. It's the reason why big, strong, and intelligent black men like me are easily intimidating to whites. This book is a must for all African-Americans nationwide. Pick up this book and KNOW THYSELF. Peace.

I would recommend this book primarily because it has even more pictures besides the Olmec heads, of other stone and terra cotta heads that are very African looking found in Latin America. These pictures alone will make you think that Van Sertima is on to something with this subject.

They Came Before Columbus, is a well researched, well thought out treatise that makes a compelling argument for a Black African presence in ancient America. Dr. Sertima comes to these conclusions without having to fabricate a convoluted construct such as the ones that many popular Eurocentric scholars have used in an attempt to continue to distort the history and the legacy of Black Africans and their descendants.

The broad noses, wooly hair (plate 31 b), and the full lips of the Olmec Negroid stone heads speak volumes about who was depicted in these artifacts. A simple process of elimination rules out any assumption that these heads are anything but depictions of Black Africans. For many, Dr. Sertima's theories are seen as a threat to mainstream history and anthropology. In time, many of the 18th and 19th century racist assumptions that persist to this day regarding Black Africans and their descendants will be relegated to the junk heap of history as scientific methodologies improve. --Kenneth B. Hollman

They Came Before Columbus, is a well researched, well thought out treatise that makes a compelling argument for a Black African presence in ancient America. Dr. Sertima comes to this conclusions without having to fabricate a convoluted construct such as the ones that many popular Eurocentric scholars have used in an attempt to continue to distort the history and the legacy of Black Africans and their descendants.

The broad noses, wooly hair (plate 31 b), and the full lips of the Olmec Negroid stone heads speak volumes about who was depicted in these artifacts. A simple process of elimination rules out any assumption that these heads are anything but depictions of Black Africans. For many, Dr. Sertima's theories are seen as a threat to mainstream history and anthropology. In time, many of the 18th and 19th century racist assumptions that persist to this day regarding Black Africans and their descendants will be relegated to the junk heap of history as scientific methodologies improve...

This is a great book that needed to be written. If you pay close attention you will notice alot of thease bad reviews are from the same person.

Like "Christian Identity" authors who seek to prove that "the Israelites" were "Aryans", the "Afrocentric" authors such as Ivan Van Sertima use a poor understanding and at-best tenuous grasp of historical fact to promote a distorted, racially-biased ahistorical narrative.

Unable to take pride in the actual social structures and culture of sub-Saharan Africa, a great deal of hollow effort is expended to manipulate data in such a manner as to promote a racial agenda.

Like those who applaud "Christian Identity" works, those who find this and other "Afro-centric" books praiseworthy have generally very little familiarity with historical sources, and/or a racially-oriented perception of their world which clouds their ability to process that information in a realistic way.

One need merely ask how it is, if Africa was so culturally advanced and at the root of European civilization, why it was, when the cultures again met as European explorers worked their way along the west African coast, that African culture was primitive in every respect, with absolutely no remnants technologically, architecturally, philosophically, etc. of an advanced culture (and this in spite of continued exchanges with Islam)?

I'd recommend by-passing racist claptrap altogether, regardless of which race is being presented as the superior, and to seek out actual historical sources.

"Snowden approached...all of the writings of the 'classical writers' of Greece and Rome for the actual references made to Africa and Africans...Ethiopians were the yardstick by which blackness was measured...European family crests showing black faces and coarse hair are accompanied frequently by such African derivatives as Mawr, Moore, Moorehead, Morris, Morrison, Mora, Maurice, Mareau, Moretti, Muir, Mohr, meaning a person from Mauritania [the Moors]. Sometimes the label is more indirect with names such as Schwartz, Schwartzkopf, and Schwartzmann, which are German for Black, Blackhead and Blackman...

...the physical evidence for a [black African] presence in Greece and Rome is compelling and extensive...including photographs of carvings, pottery, paintings and coins...it is only because the racism of the present is projected by today's authors into an ancient world that did not know racism as we do, that we have become so misinformed about Africans, and therefore misinformed about history."

from AFRICAN PRESENCE IN EARLY EUROPE
"Blacks in Antiquity: Ethiopians in the Greco-Roman Experience"
A review by Asa G. Hilliard

And now it's time for a really good book.

Ivan Van Sertima, genius anthropologist and author of numerous critically acclaimed books including the international best- seller THEY CAME BEFORE COLUMBUS, is the mastermind behind this collection of essays. These essays on the largely untold history of people of African descent and their influence on Western Civilization are from authors who have been all but ignored or maligned by much of the scholarly classical intelligentsia for decades (and in some cases centuries). However, thanks to the changing times, their work and historical perspectives--made practically impregnable with mountains of corroborative archealogical, literary and anthropological evidence--are coming closer to becoming the new standard with each passing generation. If you're a person who has a passing interest in this thing that people have been labelling "Afrocentric" scholarship for generations now, even from a modern sociological perspective as opposed to historical, this book, in its quilt of various writers, disciplines, perspectives, styles and subjects looped together with the thematic umbrella of Africa's cultural centrality and preeminence in the ancient world and its influence on every Western world in history thereafter, is a great place to start. Just the same, I would say this is more a book for anyone who, instead of being merely turned on by the intellectual side of the politics of Multiculturalism and Identity in modern times (which, unfortunately, is just another subtle form of applied racism), has found a spark go off in their minds about the subject matter in particular and what it means to the modern human's soul.

With Nelson Mandela, Oprah Winfrey, Colin Powell and countless other figures of African descent in late 20th Century culture--not to mention Technology and Globilization's obliterating of the old plantation economic rules--America and Europe has had no need to hold so tightly onto the old rules of racist perspectives on other cultures to maintain a sense of intellectual order or economic/social supremacy. This has been evidenced by many aspects of today's world. Yet it is precisely this visible progress that makes such books as this, returning to a sober, balanced perspective on our actual past--our world history--MORE important, as opposed to not. There was a time--in fact, when most of the authors listed began writing--when such scholarship was taken as seriously as Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy and Chris Rock on stage. Now times have changed such that the Aryan intellectual paradigms that still govern so much of the unconscious of Western scholarship (wihtout the majority of us even realizing to what degree it has shaped our perspective on society and ourselves) have lost their hold on the world enough to let the light of truth shine in.

There is so much information about the African contribution to world civilization that merely contemplating it and its spiritual/cultural implications will create a transformative hunger in you for knowledge that otherwise would have never materialized. This book is a great appetizer in that context--and a great introduction to more than two centuries of wonderful full course meals.

As is usually the case with these kinds of books, they need an editor to fix several typographical errors that are pretty unnecessary. That and some of the writings that come off a little bit too much like sermons as opposed to lessons keep this from being a five star book for me. But none of that will stop you from from being fed by it; the bibliographies of each writer's essay alone make the book worth its weight in gold.

With works as varied, provocative and mind-blowing as Martin Bernal's lecture on the actual evidence of Ancient pre-Hellenic Greece's colonization by ancient Egypt, English author/professor Edward Scobie's revealing of the history of Black African Popes in the early Catholic church, and many others, this will easily become an important book in the library of anyone who owns it, regardless of ethnic background. Enjoy.

No book can have such an impact as this one. The truth about ancient civilizations wgo entered the inferior areas of western-europe

I found this book to have a wealth of valuable information about the lives of many black leaders. I for one have come to associate scholarly integrity with Ivan Van Sertima's name, which contributed heavily to buying this book. However I found that impression tarnished by the obvious ommission of Elijah Muhammad from this book. I am continually seeing authors make a concerted attempt at writing him out of history, when the Nation of Islam under his charge, is on the history books having impacted Black people around the world very significantly. I could see if Malcolm X, who was included, was responsible for a significant portion of the Nation of Islam's affect on Blacks in America as has been incorrectly perpetuated for the last 15 years or so, but that is not accurate. If Van Sertima is going to group "Black Leaders" together who have impacted blacks, I am baffled as to why he would put leaders such as Hannibal, Shaka Zulu and Kwame Nkrumah and then put a student of a true leader, who, according to the same criteria the above men were chosen, is actually greater in stature. It is equal to omitting Martin Luther King in an effort to over-exaggerate the accomplishments of Jesse Jackson (MLK's student). Many other "so-called scholars" have made their efforts suspect with the same overt attempts. Perhaps if they would leave their emotions and political correctness out of their scholarship, the rest of us would take them seriously.

The topic of the book is extremely interesting. The authors write about African roots of Ancient Egyptean civilization and its influence on that of Ancient Greece.

The quality of articles varies. "Ancient Egyptians: The Dark Red Race Myth" by James Brunson and "Black Rulers of the Golden Age" by Legrand Clegg II, for example, are well researched and presented. Some other authors, like Cheikh Anta Diop and Wayne Chandler, provide scant evidence to support their ideas and make sweeping generalizations. Theophile Obengs seems to care less about describing African philosophy of the Pharaonic period than to asserting supremacy of Egyptian cosmogony over that of all other peoples.

Illustrations are black and white and of low quality. Brunson's article references figures, but the figures appear not to be numbered. Diop's notes are hard to interpret, maybe because the bibliography list is missing. Hierogliphs are so small that they are almost unreadable. It may be solely the editor's fault, though.

Overall, the book doesn't do justice to the topic. If you are interested in the subject, borrow it from a library, but dont' waste your money buying it.