“According to 14th Century Syrian historian, Shibab al-Umari, Abu-Bakr was obsessed with knowing what lay beyond the Atlantic Ocean. He sailed off on an expedition with a fleet of 2,000 ships and thousands of men, women, and slaves. They never returned.

“Some historians, such as late Ivan Van Sertima, entertain the idea that Abu-Bakr reached South America, but there is no evidence to back up such an claim.”

Amazing.

Although you reference Van Sertima, you apparently have not read his signature and most famous tome published in 1978: “They Came Before Columbus.” There, Van Sertima provides whole shiploads of “evidence” of not just Abubakari’s arrival and presence in South America, but the profound influence he and his followers had upon the “natives,” including linguistically, culturally, politically, economically, and socially.

That book is recognized by virtually all non-Eurocentric scholars and researchers as the go-to reference as to the African presence in the Americas hundreds, even perhaps thousands, of years before Columbus was born, and, yes, even before the Vikings were blown off course and finally landed in “Vinland,” aka, Newfoundland and Labrador in the 10th Century.