Poetry | What Columbus Saw

David’s poem is evocative of the words Columbus wrote in his journal, and Chris lauds the exploratory nature of humans and the progress it has brought. What is missing here is the reality of what Columbus’s “discovery” led to. He planted his flag, loudly claiming all lands he encountered. This was incomprehensible to the indigenous peoples, who didn’t believe in owning land. Then he demanded that the locals find him gold, and when they didn’t bring enough, anyone over the age of 14 had their hands cut off, and they bled to death. Eventually the foreigners either killed off or infected with smallpox and other diseases at least 90% of the indigenous people. Thus began the European colonization of the Americas. Native peoples were forced into slavery to work for the Spaniards, but unfortunately they died, often in as little as two years from working in mines in places like Bolivia.

So Europeans turned to another group of people to enslave: Africans. And so began the trans-Atlantic slave trade, taking the strongest people from Western Africa. Surprisingly to some, there were three great kingdoms in Western Africa, one after the other: Ghana, Mali, and then Songhai. Each became a strong power, and at one point, one of the kings went on a hajj or holy journey to Mecca. These kingdoms developed universities and hospitals, they welcomed scholars from all over the world, and they were just as advanced as European civilizations except for one thing: they didn’t have guns, and this is what led to the Europeans’ ability to capture slaves (and purchase other slaves, as African kingdoms did have slaves, though they weren’t necessarily slaves for life; they were often war captives or lawbreakers). These were not people taken from some backward society but civilized people, many of whom died on the horrible passage to America and the rest becoming traumatized. They were separated from their families, their communities, and their language.

While some Europeans might feel they have something to celebrate with Columbus, indigenous and African-American people do not. We can appreciate that Columbus was a crafty explorer, but he was a cruel, greedy man, as were most of the European explorers who followed him. Many of our cities have accepted this reality and no longer celebrate Columbus Day. Instead they have come to celebrate Indigenous People’s Day, lauding the people who originally populated the western hemisphere and who endured so much once Europeans arrived.

David is right of course but i caution against the practice of using today’s standards and eyes to judge the distant past given such different contexts, challenges, ignorance, and commonly practiced traditions in that century.

Should we equally judge Pre-Columbian indigenous, inter-tribal slavery, —slavery among indigenous peoples throughout North and South America was common practice. Since slavery was a common institution among various Pre-Columbian indigenous peoples of the Americas should we now shun the celebration of Indigenous peoples day as we do Columbus day?

What about the mass genocides of children by Aztecs, the young skills of whom continue to be unearthed below Mexico City even today—(Pre-European arrival).

Even more shocking, should we condemn Native Americans for joining Europeans in holding African Slaves once contact with the West was established and after they learned of our immoral practice of African slavery?— (see McLoughlin, William G. (1974-01-01). “Red Indians, Black Slavery and White Racism: America’s Slaveholding Indians”. American Quarterly. 26 (4): 367–385)

My point is judging the distant past with present eyes fails the test of contextual honesty and reveals the difficulty of revisionist redux history re-writes.

Seeing the bigger occidental human development picture, being honest in reviewing the pre-european Americas (which was never a shangri-la), and understanding that indigenous peoples are themselves Americas’ first Asian immigrants raises complications when interpreting the past from the vantage point of the present where agendas might be present.

The accomplishments of Discovery and Exploration by the Occidental world accounts for the lion-share of all human progress even after allowing for the truism that we stand on the shoulders of those who precede us —including the great ancient Middle Kingdom of China (1000 BCE), the Arabian peninsula, Greater Assyria, and Persia.

A more complete and accurate review would certainly place the Occidental world as the largest cumulative amassing of human information and discovery since Homo Erectus left Africa close to 2 million years ago.

Hence my focus on perspective instead of attempting to compare or justify atrocities from all sides, which seems futile and overlooks the much larger human progress made.

Likewise, Eleanor. In the end, as I’m fond of saying, we’re all cut from the same cloth and need to see ourselves in each other as we make our way through these unchartered waters.

The point of recognizing what actually happened is not so much to judge (though I find atrocities throughout history to be hideous) as to understand what really happened, because that has an impact on today, which affects our decisions for tomorrow. This is what I used to teach my students. That is why it is written that whoever controls history actually controls the future.