West Africa in America?
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Welcome to African Connections Level 1, Lesson 2: West Africa in America?
In this lesson, you will learn about:
African ships journeying to the Americas
Artwork and ornament connections between Africa and America
Spirituality connections between Africa and America
Objectives
By the end of this lesson, you will understand:
The significance of Ile-Ife’s pavements
Which West African empire sent ships to the Americas
Who Europeans claimed they saw when they first got to the Americas
When Oni Oluwo, the ruler of the city-state of Ile-Ife, ordered the construction of pavements in her city, the civil engineers got to work. They used corn cobs to decorate the pavements, giving the city an artistic style. These pavements were estimated to have been completed by 1000 AD. However, prior to 1492 corn only grew across the Americas. How did this crop find itself in West Africa nearly 500 years before this?
Ile-Ife’s pavements are one of several pieces of evidence that show a connection between West Africa and the Americas. Manuscripts from West and North Africa speak of the Mali Empire sending ships to Central America in the 13th century. Artwork throughout this region of America depicts Black people in many forms, from sculptures to paintings. Instruments and tools from the two cultures have been found to be almost identical. Smoking pipes from Mali and the Yoruba Civilisation have great similarities with the pipes from Central and South America. Spiritual beliefs also seem to have had many parallels that perhaps were not present before the 13th century, and the Indigenous Americans of Central America appear to have adopted Black gods into their belief system. Crops from the Americas such as the continent’s particular species of cotton were also apparently grown in West Africa prior to 1492.
When Europeans first arrived in the Caribbean, many stated they had seen “Mandingos”, another name for the people of Mali. They also exchanged spears with the Indigenous Americans, some of which the Indigenous revealed they had traded with the Malians. Upon sending these spears back to Europe, the Europeans found that these were the same spears they themselves had received on the West African coast.
More recently, skeletons were found on the Virgin Islands, estimated to be from the year 1250. Anthropological examinations concluded that these skeletons were African in origin. On these same islands, African writing script was also found. All of this evidence suggests that the idea of Europeans being the first to encounter Indigenous Americans is completely wrong. Africans were journeying across the Atlantic hundreds of years before this and appeared to have a relationship with the people of Central America.