Christopher Columbus: The Discovery Of West Africa

The Italian explorer Christopher Columbus is commonly credited for the discovery of the new world. The story of him discovering the new world is taught and accepted by the new generation of the population at an early age. However there is significant evidence that suggest that other groups arrived before Columbus such as the West Africans, Chinese and the Vikings .However the physical evidence of the presence of the West Africans before Columbus prior to 1462 will be discussed.

One of the strongest pieces of evidence of the presence of the Africans came from the European explorers themselves. Firstly via Christopher Columbus himself in his journal. According to the renowned American historian and linguist Leo Weiner of Howard University 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.”Thus this entry into Columbus’s journal showed that he was fully aware that people had discovered the Americas before him. Columbus was not the only explorer to make note of the presence of the Africa upon their arrival into the new world explorers such as Vasco Nunez de Balboa, also made record of seeing “Negroes” when they reached the New World. The most prominent evidence of the presence of West African would be the presence of the pyramids in Central America mainly in Mexico .when we speak about pyramids we