Columbus was informed by some men, when he stopped at one of the Cape Verde Islands off the coast of Africa, that Negroes had been known to set out into the Atlantic from the Guineas coast in canoes loaded with merchandise and steering towards the West. Columbus was further informed by the Indians of Hispaniola when he arrived in the West Indies that they had been able to obtain gold from black men who had come from across the sea from the south and south east. Some historians have stated that Pedro Nino, one of the pilots of the command ship of Columbus was an African. Columbus and other early European's arrivals in the Americas came back with quite a bit of evidence, that black peoples from Africa had already reached these shores. Various writers have pointed, from time to time, over many years, to the likely West African origins of black explorers, notable of that tribe of Almamys, who were said to have settled in Honduras.
Many people are under the impression that the root cause of colonialism was economics.
Nothing further could be from the truth. The truth is that colonialism was yet another crusade against Islam. Indeed, the concept of secularism is approximately 200 hundred years old. Thus, all historical events should be interpreted using a religious reference frame, and not the secular, economic or political reference frame because secularism as a concept and a way of life did not exist when the voyages of discovery were taking place. Using the correct reference frame, that is, the religious one, a totally different picture emerges as to what the voyages of discovery, slavery and colonialism were all about.