HARUN KOFI WANGARA AND THE VOYAGES OF THE MANDINGA

BY RUNOKO RASHIDI

The GLOBAL AFRICAN PRESENCE - Articles by Runoko Rashidi


DEDICATED TO DR. ALFRED AND BEATRICE LIGON (ANCESTORS)

Harun Kofi Wangara, formerly know as Harold Glyn Lawrence, was born 4 December 1920 in Detroit, Michigan. He is a little known champion of African studies. He is probably best known as the author of a pioneering article "African Explorers of the New World," published under the name Harold G. Lawrence in the NAACP's The Crisis magazine in 1962. The Aquarian Spiritual Center of Los Angeles, California, under the auspices of Dr. Alfred Ligon, published the article in the same year.

Lawrence developed an interest in continental African migrations to the Western Hemisphere while selling the books of historian and journalist Joel Augustus Rogers as a student at Wayne State University in Detroit. At the time of the article's publication Lawrence was chairman of the research and education committee of the Detroit, Michigan branch of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History.

In "African Explorers of the New World" Lawrence noted that:

"We can now positively state that the Mandingoes of the Mali and Songhay Empires, and possibly other Africans, crossed the Atlantic to carry on trade with the Western Hemisphere Indians and further succeeded in establishing colonies throughout the Americas."

After receiving his B.A. in Linguistics and a Master's degree in Education, Lawrence departed for Ghana in 1964. This was two years after the publication of his initial article and eleven years before the publication of Ivan Van Sertima's much more famous hallmark work They Came Before Columbus: The African Presence in Ancient America.

Lawrence received the African name Kofi Wangara from the students of the Institute of African Studies in Legon, Ghana. He received a Master's degree from the Institute and left Ghana for Nigeria.

In 1965, Professor Wangara returned to the United States. From 1969 to 1983 he made a number of extended study and research trips to Senegal, Gambia, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Mali, Ivory Coast, Dahomey, and Togo. In 1973, Wangara interviewed Dr. Cheikh Anta Diop in Dakar, Senegal.

In 1986, Ivan Van Sertima produced and edited the African Presence in Early America--a major anthology featuring the works of such distinguished scholars as Alexander Von Wuthenau, Rafique Ali Jairazbhoy, Legrand H. Clegg II, as well as the young writers Wayne B. Chandler and Runoko Rashidi, in addition to Kofi Wangara himself, among others. Wangara's detailed and comprehensive essay was entitled "Mandinga Voyages Across the Atlantic."

At the time of Professor Wangara's death on 14 December 1989 he was working on a comprehensive text entitled Mandinga Voyages to the Americas.



Wangara was an accomplished pianist and a dedicated school teacher in the Detroit public schools. He was survived by two children and remains a little known champion of African studies. We salute him here today.

In love of Africa!