Moor,Colored,Negro,black,Indian and African American. All labels used in/at some point to describe any non-white or asian group of people in America or quite frankly, me. Now although i have been addressed in such ways, i can't say that i am at all clear of the intent of each label or even if they remotely describe my true heritage. I stumbled across a book by Author Ivan Van Sertima,"They came before Columbus", and i was shocked to discover(at least by his account) that many so called black people were already in america. I was completely shocked and somewhat un-nerved for this totally contradicted what i had learned in the public school system.
It did, however, put me on an amazing journey of
research of new ideas and historical points of view. While researching my ancestory (which i can tell you isn't easy when you all you know and have been taught is that your black) i found that most of my blood is that of a band of a native american nation called the nantequak lenape "indians". This group of "river dwellers"
inhabited areas in Maryland, Delaware, and New Jersey. They were akin to the algonquin peoples
whose name meant original peoples or men-of-men.
Here is where Author Ivan Van Sertima came in. He offers that many "black-indians" had lived up and down the east coast and that is was they who welcomed the "settlers" onto the mainland. He also asserted that there was a connection between the coastal "indians" and those of the African coast and that they shared common words, culture, and spiritual worship. I also couldn't help but to recognize that the "aboriginal" peoples of Australia and the surroundings islands, or as they like to be called "Uli Uli, are also referred to as "original people" and "mem-of-men" and are black in color. Is there a direct connection ? I think so. i also
notice that the carribean is full of dark-skinned
peoples(Negros/Moros/Blacks). Did they come from Africa too? Or what about the negritos of Mendinao(Phillipines). The Bahia peoples of Brazil? The Negritos of Boivia? I don't have the answers but i have a strongfeeling in my gut that these people were there before anyone else and that the clock of history has been turned backwards. History for the most part has been told by he who had the "smokin gun" and unfortunately that history has been outrageously biased.Slavery may have happened but the amount of "so-called" slave descendants that can prove their shackeled ancestory is slim and probably none. This isn't to descredit or disrespect any of you who do know of your African past and struggle, but instead to shine a light on a subject that has been concealed far too long.