Colombia’s President tells the World from the U.N. Black People are the True Indigenous of the Americas
- Ishmael Bey
- 4 days ago
- 5 min read
Updated: 3 days ago
In 2025, this suppressed history was unexpectedly echoed on the world stage not by an activist or academic, but by a sitting head of state addressing the United Nations.
Colombia Challenges Columbus Myth : The Untold History of the Black Indigenous Americas
By Ishmael A. Bey — Urban Indian Heritage Society / First Tribe
Abstract
This article examines a constellation of historical claims from Latin-American ethnologists, early Spanish explorers, and diffusionist scholars asserting that Black or “Negroid” peoples existed in the Americas prior to the trans-Atlantic slave trade. These claims, resurfacing in the New Pittsburgh Courier (1945), originate in sources ranging from Peter Martyr (1511) to Riva Palacio (1880s) to Braghine (1940). This blog synthesizes these observations while connecting them to a remarkable 2025 statement made by Colombian President Gustavo Petro at the United Nations, affirming that Black-skinned, ancestral populations have lived in the Americas for thousands of years. This intersection of historical documentation and contemporary international acknowledgment exposes a suppressed truth about Indigenous identity in the Americas.
I. Introduction: Why These Sources Still Matter
Across the Americas, racial classification systems intentionally collapsed Indigenous identities into the categories “Negro,” “Colored,” and “Black.” As U.S. federal and state governments enforced reclassification, evidence of Indigenous peoples with African-featured phenotypes became politically inconvenient, leading to denial, suppression, or academic silence.
Yet long before slavery, before Columbus, and before racial science hardened into rigid categories, explorers, ethnologists, and historians recorded the existence of Black-skinned and woolly-haired peoples throughout the Western Hemisphere.
In 2025, this suppressed history was unexpectedly echoed on the world stage not by an activist or academic, but by a sitting head of state addressing the United Nations.
🇨🇴 Colombia - President Addresses United Nations General Debate, 80th Session
“Only the Black-skinned people here, those who are ancestral here for thousands of years, have been here.” 10:30 minute
United Nations Link :
1. J. A. Villacorta (Guatemala)
Primary Works:
Historia de la Civilización de Guatemala (1927)
La Civilización Maya (1930s ethnological essays)
Claims: Villacorta noted the presence of non-Mongoloid physiognomies in early Maya iconography and architecture, including sculptures with “African-like” or “Negroid” features. His work reflected a period when Latin-American anthropologists openly acknowledged phenotypic diversity in Indigenous antiquity.
Scholarly Significance:
He raised the possibility that ancient Mesoamerica was multi-ethnic, challenging the simplistic idea that all Indigenous Americans descended solely from a single Siberian migration wave.
2. Alfonso Toro (Mexico)
Primary Works:
La Venida de los Españoles a México (1930)
Archival bulletins from Mexican historical societies (1920s–30s)
Claims: Toro commented on Gulf-Coast and Central Mexican artifacts that portrayed broad-nosed, full-lipped figures, which he believed represented a population type not typically associated with modern Indigenous groups. He did not argue for trans-Atlantic Africans but acknowledged Negroid physiognomy in ancient art.
Scholarly Significance:
Toro belonged to a tradition of Mexican anthropologists who believed early American populations included multiple racial types, including some with Black features.
3. C. C. Márquez and N. León (Mexico)
Primary Works: Ethnological bulletins and museum studies from early 1900s.
Claims: Both scholars argued that certain archaic Mexican sculptures—especially those unearthed in Veracruz and Tabasco—displayed African-like characteristics, echoing the views later popularized in the discussion of the Olmec heads.
Scholarly Significance:
Their work demonstrates that the recognition of “Negroid” features in ancient American art is not a 20th-century invention but part of a longstanding documentation tradition.
III. Vicente Riva Palacio — Historia de México, Vol. I
Riva Palacio (1832–1896), a Mexican historian and statesman, wrote one of the earliest comprehensive histories of Mexico.
Key Claims in His Work:
He discusses prehistoric gods of Mesoamerica and mentions at least one “Negro god,” likely referencing a dark-complexioned deity figure later associated with Ek’ Chuah among the Maya.
He notes Black or dark-skinned imagery in early religious iconography.
Why This Matters:
Riva Palacio represents mainstream Mexican scholarship, not fringe theory. His acknowledgement of dark, possibly African-looking figures within pre-Columbian religion shows that earlier scholars did not erase phenotypic diversity the way 20th-century American anthropology did.
1. Ignatius Donnelly — Atlantis (1882)
Claims: Donnelly argued that:
Ancient America was culturally influenced by an earlier civilization (Atlantis).
Some American artifacts and idols show Negroid features, indicating migration or ancient trans-oceanic contact.
Citations within Atlantis: Chapters 5, 6, 8, and 11 discuss:
Thick lips
Broad noses
Facial proportions resembling African physiognomy
Possible cultural parallels between Old World Africans and ancient Americans
Why Donnelly Is Important:
Although not accepted by academia today, Donnelly preserved earlier European and American observations that had been suppressed or deemed “inconvenient” as anthropology professionalized.
2. Colonel A. Braghine — The Shadow of Atlantis (1940)
Braghine compiled centuries of explorer accounts to argue for global pre-historic contact.
Claims:
Many ancient American monuments present clear depictions of Negroes.
He cited early Spanish chroniclers who saw Black tribes along the Pacific and Atlantic coasts.
Sources Braghine Drew From:
Sahagún
Torquemada
Peter Martyr
Pigafetta
Other 16th-century chroniclers
Braghine is valuable not because all diffusionist claims are correct, but because he preserves historical testimony later ignored by American anthropology.
V. Early Spanish Explorers Cited in the Article
The newspaper references discoveries described by Balboa, Pigafetta, Peter Martyr, and Magellan. These are primary sources.
1. Vasco Núñez de Balboa — Panama (1513)
Primary Sources:
Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo, Historia General y Natural de las Indias
Peter Martyr, De Orbe Novo (1511–1526)
Claims Recorded by Balboa’s Companions:
Balboa’s men encountered a Black tribe in the Isthmus of Panama described as:
Dark-skinned
Curly-haired
Culturally distinct from neighboring Indigenous groups
Some chroniclers called them “Ethiopians.”
2. Antonio Pigafetta — Magellan Expedition (1519–1522)
Primary Source:
Pigafetta, Primo Viaggio Intorno al Globo Terracqueo (1524)
Pigafetta described “negroes” with woolly hair living along the Brazilian coast, well before the trans-Atlantic slave trade reached that region.
3. Peter Martyr d’Anghiera — Decades of the New World (1511–1526)
Peter Martyr recorded Spanish reports of:
Black peoples in Florida (Yamassee region)
Dark-skinned Californians
Black tribes in Panama
Blackamoors encountered by early Spanish sailors
These are some of the earliest written descriptions of the Americas and remained unchallenged until modern racial doctrines hardened in the 19th century.
VI. Why These Claims Were Later Rejected or Suppressed
From the 19th to mid-20th century, American anthropology adopted racial uniformity as dogma. This created several pressures:
1. To deny phenotypic diversity in the Americas
Black-featured Indigenous groups conflicted with the “all Natives are Mongoloid” model taught in U.S. universities.
2. To protect the myth of the isolated continent
Acknowledging Black presence before Columbus suggested trans-oceanic travel, cultural exchange, or multiple migration waves—ideas professional anthropologists rejected for ideological reasons.
3. To maintain racial classification systems in the U.S.
If Indigenous peoples with dark skin existed before slavery, then the foundation of “Negro = African” collapses, undermining segregation and misclassification laws.
4. To silence evidence supporting Black Indigenous identity
Admitting ancient Black presence validated communities whose ancestors had been racially reclassified by federal and state institutions.
VII. Conclusion: The 1945 Article Was Not Outlier Journalism—It Summarized a Suppressed Archive
The New Pittsburgh Courier article was not inventing anything. It was summarizing what centuries of explorers, historians, and ethnologists had already documented, namely:
Dark-skinned, woolly-haired peoples living in Florida, Panama, and Brazil
“Negroid” features in Mesoamerican sculpture and religious iconography
Pre-Columbian depictions of Black gods or deities
Testimony from recognized Latin-American scholars acknowledging African-like features in ancient American populations
These sources provide a documented record challenging the idea that the Americas were racially homogenous or isolated before European contact.
The deeper implication is this:
If Black-featured peoples were Indigenous to the Americas prior to 1492, then the categories “Indian” and “Negro” as enforced by U.S. policy were constructed, not historical.
MODERN REFERENCE
Gustavo Petro’s UN General Assembly Speech (2025)
UN Official Website (video & transcript) 🔗 https://media.un.org/en/webtv Search: “Gustavo Petro UN General Debate 80th Session”
Also available via the Colombian Government Press Office: 🔗 https://www.presidencia.gov.co Search: “Discurso ONU 2025 Gustavo Petro”
His statement:
“Only the Black-skinned people here, those who are ancestral here for thousands of years, have been here.” 10:30 minute
FIRST TRIBE
