![]() ![]() In a New York Times 1977 review of Van Sertima works, British scholar Glyn Daniel called Van Sertima’s work “ignorant rubbish”, concluding that the writings of Van Sertima“give us badly argued theories based on fantasies.” The book has nonetheless gone through more than twenty printings. In 1976, van Sertima published his controversial They Came before Columbus, a popular bestseller that claimed prehistoric African influences on the new world but which has been widely attacked by academics. He worked for several years in Great Britain as a journalist, doing weekly broadcasts to the Caribbean and Africa, before migrating to the United States, where he entered Rutgers University for graduate work, and where he began his teaching career in 1972. Van Sertima was born in Kitty Village, Guyana, on 26 January 1935 and completed undergraduate studies in African languages and literature at the School of Oriental and African Studies of the University of London in 1969, graduating with honors. He was 74 and is believed to have been suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. Ivan Van Sertima, the Guyanese historian whose theories of an African presence in the Americas before Columbus’ arrival drew its share of controversy, died on May 25 in New Jersey, where worked for more than thirty years as associate professor of history in the Department of Africana Studies at Rutgers University. ![]()
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