Who Invited These Black People To Columbus’ “Discovery” Party?
Imagine a stranger walking into your home, glancing around, and claiming they “discovered” it. That’s how I view Christopher Columbus’s “discovery” of America. You can’t discover a place already inhabited by thriving communities with a history spreading thousands of years. This narrative perpetuates Eurocentric ideas of conquest and paints the conquered societies as uncivilized. Columbus did not discover the Americas; the continent was already home to diverse cultures and civilizations. While what is now known as England was filled with disease, marauding tribes and invading Vikings, the Inca Empire in South America was exploring astronomy and mathematics and building extensive networks of roads and bridges, including the famous Inca Trail. Their cities, such as Cusco and Machu Picchu, featured finely crafted stone buildings. The Aztec and Mayan empires were just as incredible.
While Columbus’s voyage from Europe to the Americas was a significant achievement, he was not the first to cross the Atlantic. Growing evidence supports Norse Vikings, led by Leif Erikson, established a short-lived settlement in North America around the 11th century, approximately 500 years before Columbus. Admiral Zheng He of the Ming Dynasty’s court is known for his impressive voyages throughout the Indian Ocean and the western Pacific between 1405 and 1433. Some researchers speculate that his fleets landed on the American Pacific coast in 1421, 70 years before Columbus. However, few researchers outside scholars of African and Arab descent discuss the African voyage to the Americas.
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