QUEEN CALAFIA THE BLACK AMAZON QUEEN AFTER WHOM CALIFORNIA IS NAMED: BLACK CALIFORNIAN OF THE BLACK MOJAVE NATION WHO LIVED IN CALIFORNIA BEFORE THE SPANISH INVASION

The original peoples of California included two races. They were the descendants of prehistoric Negroid peoples like the picture on the right of a Black Mojave warrior. The other group were members of Mongoloid "Indian" peoples who also existed in the region along with people who migrated from the Canada/Alaska region.

HISTORY OF THE ORIGINAL BLACK CALIFORNIANS

The history of the original Black peoples of California is not mentioned in most American history books. The term "Indian" is used to classify all the peoples found in the Americas when Columbus arrived. Yet, Columbus and his men as well as people like Balboa and Peter Matyr do mention "Ethiopians" in the Caribbean, Darien region of Panama, the cost of South America, California and other areas. These Blacks were the "Descendants of Ham" specifically those with black skins and kinky/curly hair that the Spaniards and other Europeans were instructed to capture and enslave, then Christianize based on the edict of the mid 1400's, (see "A History of the African-Olmecs," published by 1stBooks Library, 1663 Liberty Drive Suite 200, Bloomington, Indiana 47404 USA www.1stbooks.com 1(800) 839-8640.

The Black Californians were not American Indians but people identical to Africans in race and features. In fact they looked like Africans and somewhat like Melanesians. The history of the Black Californians may appear to be shrowded in mystry, however that is merely due to the attempt to keep their history obscure by not mentioning that the original people of California included Blacks as well as American Indians who existed there for thousands of years before Columbus.

Yet, the Black Californians are not unknown to the Spanish invaders and colonialists whose descendants are part of the populations of Mexico, California and the South Western US and who are no different from the settlers and colonialists from England, France, Portugl and elsewhere. In fact, the Spaniard who mentions the legend of Queen Califia as being a Black Amazon Queen who ruled a land at the edge of the world, where the women were warriors and decked in gold, was Ordonez de Montalvo.

Montalvo is said to have gotten a book that mentions Queen Calafia and her Black Amazon warriors. Some historians have speculated that Queen Calafia was probably one of the female African Amazon Queens similar to those who ruled in Dahomey and parts of West Africa for some time, or perhaps the Nubian Queens of Nubia during the period of 100 BC to 200 AD or sometime during that period.

The Spanish explorers along the California Coast were among the first to see and enquire about the Black Californians. One source maintains that the Spaniards upon arriving along the California shores saw a number of Black people with ships. They asked the Indians who were they and the Indians replied that these "black, curlyhaired people," were of the land (California) and traded with people across the sea (the Pacific Ocean) by sailing back and forth.

Where were these Black Californians going to in the Pacific? It is most likely they were trading with people in Hawaii or as far as the South Pacific where the Black population has always been very large and very widespread. In fact when Magellan arrived in the Filipines, there were large numbers of Negritos who were well organized and according to some sources a strong population (African Presence in Early Asia, edt. by Ivan Van Sertima, Runoko Rashidi).

Black traders and Black Africoid peoples who had been in the Americas for thousands of years were also spread in the Mississippi Valley, the Eastern US, Mexico and the Caribbean. Among these groups were the Washitaw, the Yamassee, Guale, Califunami, Chuarras of Brazil, Afro-Dariente of Panama, Choco of Colombia, Olmec (Mende-Shi) of Mexico, Guanini of South America and others. I. Rafinesque mentions a number of Black groups in his work, "The Primitive Black Nations of America," (Fiends Society, Philadelphia, 1833). One things is certain, the Europeans, Americans, Spaniards never mistook American Indians for Negro Africans. They always referred the Blacks of the Negro African type as "Moors" "Blacks" or "Ethiopians." The Indians were sometimes mistaken for Asians or Indians from India.

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE BLACK CALIFORNIANS AND ORIGINAL BLACKS OF CALIFORNIA AND THE SOUTH WEST

The Blacks of California became victims of Spanish colonialism. Many were enslaved and worked on the ranches of the Californios. Others became part of the Black population of California, while some continued fighting untill the mid to late 1800's.

Like the California Indians of the Mongoloid Indian race who were hunted down in California at fifty dollars a head (the same genocidal practice was carried against Black Aboriginals in Australia) and who were made to reject their Indian culture to become 'Mexicans and accept European ways, the Black Californians suffered a similar fate.

One book shows a picture of Black Californians being marched into slavery by Spanish Californios on horsehack. There is no doubt that since California was basically like the rest of the United States and partially segregated up to 1965, the Black Californians who were found in the state when the Spanish arrived and who continued to survive did not disappear. As the picture above shows, these Blacks were similar in features to Blacks from Africa, therefore it would have been easy for them to have become part of the Black population of California at a time when the Black population was as high as forty percent in some areas. Hence, the Black Aboriginal population of California continued to exist and Blacks of California today are their descendants, including the descendants of Africans from Mexico and freed slaves and free Blacks from the Eastern and Southern US.