Ivan Van Sertima born on January 26, 1935 was a Guyanese-born British associate professor of Africana Studies at Rutgers University in the United States. He was best known for his pre-Columbian contact theory, in which his extensive research into African explorers that pre-dated Christopher Columbus’ arrival to the Western Hemisphere.

Ivan Van Sertima born on January 26, 1935 was a Guyanese-born British associate professor of Africana Studies at Rutgers University in the United States. He was best known for his pre-Columbian contact theory, in which his extensive research into African explorers that pre-dated Christopher Columbus’ arrival to the Western Hemisphere.

In his book They Came Before Columbus (1976) which was mostly ignored by European scholars was a best-seller and achieved widespread attention within the Black communities of the world for it's claims of prehistoric African contact. In the book, Ivan Van Sertima explores his theory that Africans made landfall and had significant influence on the native peoples of Mesoamerica, primarily the Olmec civilizations.

In 1981, They Came Before Columbus received the "Clarence L. Holte Literary Prize". Sertima was inducted into the "Rutgers African-American Alumni Hall of Fame" in 2004. Sertima was the writer and or editor of several other books including, ”The Lost Science of Africa: An Overview”, “African Presence in Early Europe” and “Caribbean Writers: Critical Essays, London & Port of Spain:” Van Sertima retired in 2006 and died on May 25, 2009 aged 74.