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graves there, most notably a pipe with a Negro face.

      It is even possible that Columbus had heard of the New World from Africans who had been brought to Spain and Portugal in his time. Furthermore, Columbus spent some time in West Africa just before he left Spain for America. The south-south-west direction he took might be a proof of this.

      In the fifteenth century we find other of those periodic influxes of Africans into Europe which began under the Pharaohs. They came this time not as conquerors, like the Moors, but as slaves, principally in Portugal and Spain and as far north as England. The year is 1440 or 1442, fifty years before the discovery of the New World. Having proved so useful, it was inevitable that the Spaniards would bring them to the New World. In 1502 they are in the Caribbean. Their exportation continued until 1865 or later. In those three hundred and sixty-three years an estimated fifty millions were brought. Even a half of that would constitute a very substantial contribution. They were first brought to what is now the United States in 1512, and continued to arrive until 1861. In those three hundred and forty-nine years an estimated fifteen millions came. According to the testimony we shall present from many of the most prominent whites over those centuries the United States could not possibly have been the nation it became without them.

      Elizabeth Lawson in her “Study Outline” of some of the early accomplishments of the African peoples names the following

      Rock painting (still preserved); rhythmic music; imaginative and poetic folklore. By the Bushmen of South Africa.

      Domestication of animals by the Hottentots of South Africa.

      Agriculture, and a system of exchange using cattle, sheep, or goats as the medium of circulation. By the Bantu of South Africa.

      Gold and silver mining; trade in precious stones; building construction (houses and fortifications); pottery; metal work. By the peoples in the region of the Great Lakes.

      Agricultural system, law, literature, music, natural sciences, medicine, and schooling system. In the kingdom of Songhay.

      Cotton weaving in the Sudan (as early as the eleventh century).

      Leaving consideration of separate portions of the continent and considering Africa as a whole, we may say that the Africans were at one time the greatest metal workers of the world they were the first to smelt iron and use the forge. They were masters of the art of basketry, pottery, and cutlery. They made many contributions to dancing, music, and sculpture. According to some authorities, the stimulus to Greek art came from Africa.

      The Negroes brought art and sculpture to prehistoric Europe. They invented many musical instruments, and created sculpture in brass, bronze, ivory, quartz, and granite. They also had a glass factory.

      Writing was known in Egypt and Ethiopia and to some extent elsewhere in Africa Over one hundred manuscripts of Ethiopian and Ethiopian-Arabic literature now exist. The Epic of the Sudan is considered by scholars as one of the world’s greatest classics. The Africans also had a rich folklore and store of proverbs, and such tales as the Uncle Remus stories have grown out of this folklore..

      First known picture of Timbuctoo, capital of the mighty Songhay Empire of Africa founded 1490 A.D. Southern portion of the City. (Drawn by Rene Caille, French explorer in 1828).

      Probably the most lasting and most important of the discoveries of ancient Africa was the smelting of iron, which Africa taught the rest of the world. Franz Boas says:

      “It seems likely that at a time when the European was still satisfied with rude stone tools, the African had invented and adopted the art of smelting iron. Consider for a moment what this has meant for the advance of the human race. As long as the hammer, knife, the saw, drill, spade, and hoe had to be chipped out of stone or had to be made of shell or hard wood, effective industry and work was not impossible, but difficult. A great progress was made when copper found in large nuggets was hammered out into tools and later on shaped by smelting, and when bronze was introduced; but the true advancement of industrial life did not begin until the hard iron was discovered. It seems not unlikely that the people who made the marvelous discovery of reducing iron ore by smelting were the African Negroes. Neither ancient Europe nor western Asia nor ancient China knew iron, and everything points to its introduction from Africa.”

      The great Mosque of Timbuctoo as it appeared in 1828.

      Left: Southern part of the Great Wall of Zymbabwe, Rhodesia, South Africa. Built about 2000 B.C. Right: passage to the temple.

      Upper parallel passage of Temple, Zymbabwe.

      A chamber of the mighty Sun Temple of Amon at Meroe, ancient Ethiopia.

      Pyramids of Meroe, Ethiopian civilization of about 3000 B.C. They are the tombs of kings. This region is now Sudan.

      Lower left: Ruins of Dhlo Dhlo, one of 150 ancient buried cities of South Africa. Built about 500 B.C.

      Loanga, capital of the Kingdom of Loanga, in the region of the Congo, West Africa, from I drawing made about 1650. This City was built before the coming of the white man.

      Ruins of Southern Sudan (From Architeichlur der Stadte des Sudan, Tafel 98). (About 400 years old.)

      Translation of the above in part: “The Great King, Monomotapa. Very powerful and rich in gold. Several kings are tributary to him. His territory comprises lower Ethiopia. … His empire is very large and has a circuit of 2,400 miles. His court is at Zimboae (Zymbabwe). There are women in his guard. … He has a great number of them in his army which give great help to the men. He also has a great number of elephants. His subjects are black, brave and swift runners, and he has very fast horses. Idolaters, sorcerers, adulterers, and thieves are severely punished.”

      Massive head of Negro god from Mexico. Carved about 500 A.D.

      Another of the five gigantic heads of Olmec deities. Weight about five tons. From full-size reproduction in the American Museum of Natural History, New York.

      Negroes in America before Columbus: Upper left: Head of god from Tenochtitlan, Mexico. Right: Figure found in ancient Indian grave in Connecticut.

      Lower left: Massive head from Yucatan (National gallery, Washington). Right: California Native before Columbus.

THE AFRICANS IN THE MAKING OF AMERICA THE FIRST EUROPEANS

       “What would have been the fate of the New World had there been no Africa?” — Jose

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