Other indications of their presence were remnants they left behind from the items they brought to the Americas with them from Africa. From civilizations like Mali, Song hay, and Egypt, came the principal American food plants, the Mayan Calendar, linguistic evidence, and the art of pyramid building. The first indications were the plants that were transplanted from Africa to the Americas. The cotton seeds, banana plants, bottle gourd, jack bean and the West African yam all have African origin, and they suddenly appeared in the Americas without and explanation. They do not appear to have followed any natural course of migration. It is believed that these plants were transferred, which would require effective contact between the two civilizations. The next indication was the calendar the Mayan people used based on the lunar and solar calendar. This calendar was quite accurate and very similar to the egyptian calendar. Professor Wiener believe Mayan mathematics corresponded with the number system of the Bambaras of Guinea. Another indication was a writing system used in the Americas called Micmac Hieroglyphs. When comparing this style of writing to the simpler cursive form of Egyptian hieroglyphic, called heiratic, over half were found to be similar. Closer examination revealed the meanings assigned to these signs matched. It is evident that the West African languages and South American languages are similar. These similarities can be traced to common root words. These differences are too close and occur too frequently to be a coincidence.
A very important indication is the knowledge of pyramid building. Pyramid building is a specialized form of construction. In Egypt they progressed from the stepped pyramid of Djosser, to the finished product at Giza. At La Venta, which was the location of the first pyramid in the Americas, was a fully finished pyramid. There was no sign of progressive learning. The base of these pyramids are the same measurement as in Egypt and they are placed on a north-south axis. These pyramids also served the same dual purpose, tomb and temple. The four indications of outside influence, American food plants, Mayan calendar, linguistic evidence, and pyramid building are just a few. There are more, such as religion, tobacco, astronomy, and African animals that appeared in the Americas.
These outside influences controlled the development of civilizations in the New World. The Olmec civilization was the first of these civilizations flourishing between 1200 and 400 BC. The first great Olmec Civil-Ceremonial Center was developed at San Lorenzo by 1200 BC. About 900 BC, Olmec and the Mayan civilization set the foundation for other civilizations, to include the Aztecs and the Incas. These civilizations received sufficient transmission to enable them to rise to greatness. The African people have been great travelers, culture carriers, and culture collectors among the people of the world. During all this traveling the African explores never launched a destructive war on the people they met. The two people joined and created a separate culture with its own distinctness, the Olmec civilization. Some of these supporting facts were recent discoveries. All of them are accurate, although some are hard to prove, because of the destruction of documents by European explores. I have presented you with the facts. Now it is up to you to decide. Was there African presence in the Americas before the arrival of Columbus? If you answered yes then it is obvious to you that Africans played an intricate part in the development of the Olmec Empire, the first civilization in the Americas.
Thoughts yes this article is long but its worth reading
