Spanish scientists don dey claim say Christopher Columbus, di famous explorer wey discover America, na Sephardic Jew from Western Europe. Dis revelation come after dem use DNA analysis to solve di long-time mystery about Columbus’s origins.
For centuries, people dey debate about where Columbus come from. Some say he come from Genoa, Italy, while others say he come from Spain, Greece, Basque, Portugal, or Britain. But now, after 22 years of research led by forensic expert Miguel Lorente, dem don get di answer. Dem analyze small samples of remains wey dey buried in Seville Cathedral, which local authorities recognize as Columbus’s final resting place, despite other claims about his burial site.
Lorente and his team compare di DNA samples with those from known relatives and descendants of Columbus. Dem find out say both di Y chromosome and mitochondrial DNA of Hernando Colón, Columbus’s son, show characteristics of Jewish ancestry. Before di decree by Catholic monarchs Isabella and Ferdinand in 1492, about 300,000 Jews dey live in Spain. Many of dem leave or convert to Catholicism to avoid persecution.
Columbus die in Valladolid, Spain in 1506, but he want to be buried on di island of Hispaniola, which now be between Dominican Republic and Haiti. His remains move around several times before dem finally believe say dem reach Seville in 1898. Di study and its findings dey presented in a documentary titled “Columbus DNA: The True Origin” on Spain’s national broadcaster TVE.
Lorente say di outcome of di investigation nearly unequivocally reliable, even though di research complex due to plenty data. Di discovery challenge di traditional theory say Columbus come from Genoa, Italy, and instead suggest say he likely come from Spain and hide his Jewish identity due to anti-Semitism in Europe.
