By George Alexander

There are race men. And then there are race men. I’d like to think that a brother like Dr. Ivan Van Sertima, who passed away on May 25 at age 74, was the latter-the real deal.

He was the ultimate gentleman who stood up and proclaimed, until his death, the many untold stories of the contributions of people of African descent to the planet.  Dr. Van Sertima, who retired as a professor of African Studies at Rutgers University, was a true Renaissance man:  an anthropologist, linguist, poet, literary critic, and author.

I first heard of the Guyanese-born Van Sertima when a friend introduced me to his seminal 1977 book They Came Before Columbus. The title alone intrigued me. It was audacious, fascinating. “Who were they?” is what my young and curious, twenty-something mind asked back in the 1980s when, as a student at Morehouse College and shortly thereafter, I came in touch with books like those of Van Sertima as well as George G.M. James’s Stolen Legacy and Carter G. Woodson’s Mis-education of the Negro. That anyone had the nerve to question the very history, that in many ways most defined Western consciousness and thought, blew my mind.

With regard to Dr. Van Sertima’s work, specifically, the fact that any man could put forth a controversial work that confronted conventional wisdom about pre-Columbian America told me that this was a bold brother.

“He dared to challenge assumptions that people thought were unchallengeable,” says Farah Griffin, Ph.D. professor of English and comparative literature and African-American studies, and director of the Institute for Research in African-American Studies at Columbia University.

“Of course, Columbus discovered America,” Dr. Griffin explained. “Of course, Europe was always white, was the thought. [Ivan Van Sertima] dared to continue to challenge those assumptions. I think that continues to be very important for black studies — to always not take for granted the accepted truths but to question them.”

With a body of work that which included a reported 15 books on black culture, it goes without saying that Van Sertima had a significant influence in the field of black studies, arguably like few other scholars.  He particularly helped us reexamine Africa and its place in the world.  “I think he helped challenge the neglect that existed around Egypt and early African civilization,” says Wayne Glasker, Ph.D., associate professor and the director of the African-American studies program at Rutgers University-Camden. “For centuries people have thought of ancient Egypt as being a part of the continent of Europe. He helped reconnect Egypt to Africa and to black people. Egypt is not a part of Europe. It’s physically on the continent of Africa and the people of Egypt are African.”

Professor Glasker’s point is critical. How many people on the planet perhaps still believe ancient Egypt was a part of Europe or inhabited by people from out of space? After all, come on now, black folks couldn’t have built those pyramids, has been a prevailing idea. We’re not supposed to be good at mathematics, science, and elevated thought.

And thanks to Hollywood movies like 1934′s Cleopatra starring Claudette Colbert, followed by the outstanding yet still violet-eyed Elizabeth Taylor in the 1963 version, not to mention those Tarzan flicks, which famously presented the most heinous stereotypes of Africans, a distortion of history has been the name of the game. Add to that to our Eurocentric educational system and it’s not hard to see how many would easily embrace such misinformation. The Egyptians had to be white, right? No, they weren’t. A retelling of the African story was and still is in order.

So here’s to you, Dr. Van Sertima! Thank you for helping us see the light. You were truly a one-of-a-kind revolutionary. Refined, handsome, scholarly, and erudite, yes, but a true revolutionary nonetheless. A roaring lion of a thinker. May your words and thoughts live on for generations to come. And may we always remember that we did come before Columbus.  Aché! (And so it is).