“So soon as a people or nation lose their original identity, just so soon must that nation or people become extinct.”
- Martin Delany, 1854
Currently, there is a movement underway in which some “black” people in America are saying that they were in America before Columbus. While it is true that some black people were in the Americas before Columbus, it is also true that some black people came after Columbus, especially as a result of the trans-Atlantic trafficking and enslavement of people with African lineage and heritage from the African continent. Unfortunately, because of state-sanctioned ETHNOCIDE committed by the United States, most “black” people don’t really know their ancestral lineage and whether or not their direct maternal and paternal ancestors descended from the “black” people that were in the Americas before Columbus or came after. More unfortunate, however, is the disunity and animosity that has been escalating between “aboriginal/indigenous” black people who seem to be claiming that ALL or MOST black people today are descended from the black people who were here before Columbus. That claim - the idea that ALL or MOST black people today are descended from those black people who were in the Americas before Columbus - is simply a claim that is not a known fact, but merely speculation. Again, most people don’t actually know their lineage ancestry, where their direct maternal and maternal ancestors lived before 1492 or what language they spoke. However, this can be determined now through DNA testing.
Worse, some of these “black” aboriginal/indigenous people are denigrating other “black” people who are claiming that they are descended from the people who came in the slave ships. They say that we have been lied to and that we are stupid because we believe the lie.
NOW, WE REMIND THE BLACK PEOPLE IN AMERICA WHO ARE TRYING TO DISTANCE THEMSELVES FROM IDENTIFYING AS AFRICANS IN FAVOR OF SOME OTHER IDENTITY OF THE WORDS OF MARTIN DELANY ON THE QUESTION OF NATIONAL IDENTITY IN “Political Destiny of the Colored Race, on the American Continent”-
Delaney, like everyone else of his time AND BEFORE, knew that there were black people already here when Europeans discovered America and started trafficking prisoners of war taken from Africa. This is not knew knowledge as suggested by some people who are just now themselves becoming acquainted with scholarship on the AFRICAN presence in the Americas before Columbus. It was common knowledge that some Africans were in the Americas before the slave ship, and some were arriving because of the slave ships. As Delany points out, it is the ORIGINAL IDENTITY that is the key to our liberation. And now there is technology (genetic testing through African Ancestry) that can determine each individual's ORIGINAL IDENTITY. This is what will unite us - ORIGINAL IDENTITY. If your ORIGINAL IDENTITY comes from the continent of Africa, we have a basis for uniting whether you are one of the Africans that was here before Columbus, or whether you are on of the Africans that came after Columbus.
In his keynote Address to the National Emigration Convention for Colored Men - 24-26 August 1854, “Political Destiny of the Colored Race, on the American Continent”, Delaney stated,
"A people, to be free, must necessarily be their own rulers: that is, each individual must, in himself, embody the essential ingredient—so to speak—of the sovereign principle which composes the true basis of his liberty. . . .
Then, to be successful, our attention must be turned in a direction towards those places where the black and colored man comprise, by population, and constitute by necessity of numbers, the ruling element of the body politic. And where, when occasion shall require it, the issue can be made and maintained on this basis. Where our political enclosure and national edifice can be reared, established, walled, and proudly defended on this great elementary principle of original identity. Upon this solid foundation rests the fabric of every substantial political structure in the world, which cannot exist without it; and so soon as a people or nation lose their original identity, just so soon must that nation or people become extinct.—Powerful though they may have been, they must fall. Because the nucleus which heretofore held them together, becoming extinct, there being no longer a center of attraction, or basis for a union of the parts, a dissolution must as naturally ensue, as the result of the neutrality of the basis of adhesion among the particles of matter. . .
This is the secret of the eventful downfall of Egypt, Carthage, Rome, and the former Grecian States, once so powerful—a loss of original identity; and with it, a loss of interest in maintaining their fundamental principles of nationality. . . .
And doubtless the downfall of Hungary, brave and noble as may be her people, is mainly to be attributed to the want of identity of origin, and consequently, a union of interests and purpose. . . . Hungary consisted of three distinct "races"—as they call themselves—of people, all priding in and claiming rights based on their originality—the Magyars, Celts, and Sclaves. On the encroachment of Austria, each one of these races—declaring for nationality—rose up against the House of Hapsburg, claiming the right of self-government, premised on their origin. Between the three a compromise was effected—the Magyars, being the majority, claimed the precedence. They made an effort, but for the want of a unity of interests—an identity of origin, the noble Hungarians failed.—All know the result. . . .
Our friends in this and other countries, anxious for our elevation, have for years been erroneously urging us to lose our identity as a distinct race, declaring that we were the same as other people; . . . The truth is, we are not identical with the Anglo-Saxon or any other race of the Caucasian or pure white type of the human family, and the sooner we know and acknowledge this truth, the better for ourselves and posterity. . . . We are not willing, therefore, at all times and under all circumstances to be moulded into various shapes of eccentricity, to suit the caprices and conveniences or every kind of people. We are not more suitable to everybody than everybody is suitable to us; therefore, no more like other people than others are like us. . . .
We have then inherent traits, attributes—so to speak—and native characteristics, peculiar to our race—whether pure or mixed blood—and all that is required of us is to cultivate these and develope them in their purity, to make them desirable and emulated by the rest of the world. . . .
From the earliest period after the discovery, various nations sent a representative here, either as adventurers and speculators, or employed laborers, seamen, or soldiers, hired to work for their employers. And among the earliest and most numerous class who found their way to the new world, were those of the AFRICAN race. And it has been ascertained to our minds beyond a doubt, that when the Continent was discovered, there were found in the West Indies and Central America, tribes of the black race, fine looking people, having the usual characteristics of color and hair, IDENTIFYING THEM AS BEING ORIGINALLY OF THE AFRICAN RACE; no doubt, being a remnant of the Africans who, with the Carthagenian expedition, were adventitiously cast upon this continent, in their memorable adventure to the "Great Island," after sailing many miles distant to the West of the "Pillars of Hercules"—the present Straits of Gibralter. . . .
Our policy must be—and I hazard nothing in promulgating it; nay, without this design and feeling, there would be a great deficiency of self-respect, pride of race, and love of country, and we might never expect to challenge the respect of nations—Africa for the African race, and black men to rule them. By black men I mean, men of African descent who claim an identity with the race. . . . We must make an issue, create an event, and establish for ourselves a position. This is essentially necessary for our effective elevation as a people, in shaping our national developement, directing our destiny, and redeeming ourselves as a race. . . .
As the first great national step in political economy, the selection and security of a location to direct and command commerce legitimately carried on, as an export and import metropolis, is essentially necessary. . . . The basis of great nationality depends upon three elementary principles: first, territory; second, population; third, a great staple production either natural or artificial, or both, as a permanent source of wealth; and Africa comprises these to an almost unlimited extent. . . .
‘Self-preservation is the first law of nature,’ and we go to Africa to be self-sustaining . . . "
This was 120 years before Alex Haley’s roots. It was only 46 years after the United States passed The Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves of 1807 (2 Stat. 426, enacted March 2, 1807) which took effect in 1808. I think Martin Delany and those of his generation knew quite well that people from African were arriving in the Americas, a fact which some “black” are, incredibly, trying to deny and minimize.
The point is, if you are “black”, you are African and if you are African, there is the basis for a unity which can develop enough COMPELLING FORCE to change the current world order. Instead of arguing with each other, all black people should be advocating, as part of reparations, LINEAGE RESTORATION - the establishing of each individuals ACTUAL direct maternal and paternal ancestry that goes back at least as far as 2000 years. Once that is established, genealogy work can done to determine everyone’s true ancestral identity. Only in this way, can we know who was here before, and who came after….
