Before the colonization of Africa, one of the earliest known Africans to travel to the Western world was Juan Garrido, a Black man of African origin born around 1480. He is believed to be the first African to reach North America voluntarily. Originally from West Africa, he was taken to Portugal as a child, where he converted to Christianity and later moved to Spain. From Spain, he joined Spanish explorers and conquistadors in their expeditions to the Americas in the early 1500s.

Garrido’s journey was not as a slave, but as a free man seeking opportunity, adventure, and religious missions. He accompanied Hernán Cortés during the conquest of Mexico and is credited as the first person to plant and harvest wheat in the New World. His migration to the Western world was driven by exploration, religion, and survival, unlike the millions of Africans who were forcefully taken through the transatlantic slave trade.

His story is often overlooked, but it reflects the long and complex history of African presence in the Western world before colonization truly began. Juan Garrido’s legacy reminds us that not all African movement to the West started with slavery—some came with vision, courage, and purpose.