In these series of essays titled Connecting The Dots, this poster will delve into the tenuous world of modern archeology and history, as it relates to peoples of Africa. For the most part, peoples of African descent are consciously and/or subconsciously aware, that somehow, they are not afforded their right place in history. Often their histories are pursued only as far back as the transatlantic slave trade and/or the era of colonialism. Any history of these people past those relatively recent milestones is considered highly controversial and only relegated to the strong willed, those who are willing to risk most everything they have worked for, if their intentions are to go against the status quo.

Martin Bernal is one of the few such strong willed persons who risked much by writing a series of hard hitting books titled Black Athena. Before Black Athena, Bernal was a well respected British orientalist who was influential in shaping the British diplomatic relationship with China. After the publication of the first volume of Black Athena in 1987, subtitled The Fabrication of Ancient Greece 1785-1985, his stock fell severely. He quickly brought upon himself the wrath of the classical history establishment, where he was severely criticized for pandering to the Afrocentric niche and delving into an area of classical history which he doesn’t have much knowledge about.  For those interested more in Bernal’s work, you can find adequate defense of his position in his books.

Classical historians are the vanguards in interpreting, establishing and documenting ancient and pre-modern history. They generally belong to one of two groups; diffusionist or isolationist. The diffusionist are adherents of the idea that all cultures and civilizations around the world are related at the core, because they have influenced each other throughout time. On the other hand, isolationists believe cultures and civilizations sprang up and evolved in isolation, spontaneous generation of civilization, if you will. Bernal is of the diffusionist camp. His primary argument in the Black Athena series is based on the diffusion idea where culture and civilization sprung up in the Nile Valley (current day Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia and Sudan) and propagated into the rest of the world. To that end, he pieces together the archaeological finds, belief systems, languages and historical records of the people of the Nile Valley and links them to Athenian civilization in a manner that has not been done before by a person of Bernal’s stature. Essentially, Bernal changes the roles of Athenians and people of the Nile Valley they came in contact within the period of classical history. The prevailing belief in current scholarship is that the Athenians were the teachers and the people of Nile Valley, the students. One can imagine how the inversion of such idea can cause a firestorm in academic circle, because so much hangs on the belief that Athens was the birthplace of philosophy, critical thinking, mathematics and science itself.

This brings us to the Olmec. The Olmec are people of Central America, primarily of current day Mexico. They are still in existence in Mexico. They are believed to have been the progenitors of the Mesoamerican civilization dating back to 3113 BC. Based on archaeological, cultural and linguistic finds, they seem to have followed similar paths as other Mesoamerican civilizations, such as the Mayans, Incas, Aztecs, etc. Problem solved, right? We have stumbled upon another highly civilized ancient Central American culture and time to move on. Well, no so fast. Not until we find out what all those colossal heads are all about.

The colossal heads, as they are commonly known, came to western historians’ knowledge in the late 19th century, and to date remain highly controversial figures. At first, they were believed to have been in the likeness of ballplayers. When it was determined that none of the modus operandi of the Olmec fit putting up colossal heads in recognition of ballplayers, it was changed to rulers and possibly worship figures. Once this critical juncture was established, the next question was regarding their appearance, where a certain archaeologist described them to be in the likeness of Nigerian rugby player. Unfortunately this question has proven to be a very difficult one to answer within the classical historian circles. Many ideas are put forward as to how these heads cannot be in the likeness of persons of African descent. They range from the ridiculous to the incredible. Some have suggested that the heads are of children, which explains the broad nose and full lips, as most children of any racial background start out their lives with such physical features. They cite as support to their arguments many evidence showing that children were held in very high esteem in the Olmec culture, both ancient and modern. Others have suggested that the carvers of the heads only had blunt tools, thus could not carve the facial features precisely. Yet others have appealed to our sense of political correctness to not speculate on the likeness of these heads, because it is insulting to the native peoples of Mexico. Of course there is the more academic explanation that the heads cannot be depictions of peoples of African descent, because ancient Africans did not have the means nor technology necessary to make the transatlantic trip to Central America, thus any resemblance of African features with the colossal heads is as a result of race mixing before the continental drift. The last argument has been debunked using many archaeological, linguistic and cultural evidence that closely tie peoples of both continents in more recent times than the times of continental drift.

The other arguments lead straight back to the heads themselves. Do these appear to be heads of children? Physical appearances in humans of various races or their young have not changed much in the last 10,000 years, a very conservative approach. As such, how could the carvers of these heads have so grossly mistaken a child or a person of different physical appearance to that of a negroid adult, while carving such intricate and detailed head coverings? Furthermore, the idea that the carvers were not so precise has been negated by other carvings found in the region. Mainstream scientific consensus currently agrees that the Olmec were a multiracial society, based on archaeological and DNA evidence. As shown in their various carvings, the Olmec precisely intended to communicate certain appearances of the faces they were carving. The people who put the heads in place also seem to have intended for these monuments to last a long time and resist most attempts of sabotage. As the pyramid builders in Giza, the Olmec moved significantly large pieces of stone and placed them on geologically sound foundations to make sure they did not sink in to the ground due to their sheer weight, as time passes. Some of the colossal heads are measured to be as high as nine feet tall and estimated to weigh up to thirty tons.  Assuming people of such capabilities could not produce something better than a blunt tool is not congruent with the rest of the evidence.

The linguistic evidence of the Olmec’s relationship to the people of Africa is perhaps the strongest one, and the most controversial. For one, mainstream scientific consensus has it that the ancient language of the Olmec is undecodable using the current knowledge science has regarding ancient languages. As such, mainstream science has refused to accept any decoding of the ancient Olmec language, often accusing the decoders of bias. A few linguists have decoded the ancient Olmec language and have found stark similarities with the living language of the Mande people of West Africa, current day Ghana and Mali. One of such linguists who was hastily labeled as biased is Ivan van Sertima. Sartima has contributed tremendously to the knowledge base we have today regarding world languages, including other African languages. He was the premiere western scholar who documented the Swahili language.  He is, for what it’s worth, a respected scholar in his field when it comes to other studies he has done. However, when it comes to the Olmec, he is quickly relegated to the title of fringe and disposed as Afrocentric.

The story of the Olmec is just one such story this poster will dwell on within the Connecting The Dots series. It is often argued about the need to dwell on such events of the past when it comes to Africans, when we have the monumental present and future with which to contend. Regardless of how one argues this point, history does matter. History is the very gate to the present and the future. History is fiercely guarded, because it is the very mirror in which we all view others and most importantly ourselves.