Botany In Ivan Van Sertima's They Came Before Columbus

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Botany is important to both history and culture. Just like in They Came before Columbus by Ivan Van Sertima, when the discovery of African plants in the Americas showed that Africans had been coming to the Americas long before Columbus, botany can be used to discover new historical facts. Botany also has cultural importance. Plants are used in home remedies, in special ceremonies, to communicate feelings, and for therapeutic reasons. The reason why it is important to know the culture behind certain plants is because the people of that culture could have discovered things about that plant that we don’t know yet. These findings could aid us in finding new discoveries. Also, if the culture behind the plant can tell us something that we did not