'Christopher Columbus is a damn, blasted liad'
- Burning Spear in his song Christopher Columbus
In 1492 Columbus finally got support for his expedition from the
King and Queen of Spain after being rejected by Italy, France and
Portugal. How valid is his claim of 'discovery' of the 'West
Indies' when over 500 years later we in ignorance still praise him
for finding a place where people were already living? Why is there
not so much pomp and hype for the Amerindians who Columbus came
and saw here? Columbus stole land for power, killed people for
land, enslaved people for money and now he is one of the world's
greatest heroes. It evades me why he is not recognised as the
world's biggest thief and murderer.
Here in the Caribbean more than 500 years ago, Africans had
already been here as visitors; Indian tribes, like the Kalinago (Caribs),
the Maya, the Olmec had established stable societies throughout
these lands. The Taino Aka Arawaks - inhabited the land they
called Xaymaca (Jamaica). Christofo Colombo, the Italian boy, by
now 41, stumbled onto these lands in the late 15th century. He was
stumped as to where he was and who these people were. Columbus,
who was in a race with the rest of Europe, theorised that he could
reach East by sailing West. He was searching for India and it
wasn't until 10 years later that he realised where he was. (Hence,
the Caribbean region being incorrectly referred to as the West
Indies).
Right off the Senegambian coast of Africa, the North Equatorial
current easily directs ships towards South and Central America,
but Europe only learnt about it by accidentally in 1500. Many of
the explorers of the time were extremely superstitious, not
wanting to travel too far as they thought they would reach the
limits of the ocean, where the sea began to boil and men's skin
turned black. Africans were well aware of this current and had in
fact been utilising it to develop their interaction with the
Caribbean peoples (eg; trading, religious). Abubakari II, King of
Mali, in 1310 sent a fleet of 400 ships across the Atlantic and
another in 1311, which he himself commanded. Striking similarities
have been found in Malian and Mexican societies, strongly
suggesting that the Malians came to the Americas in ancient times.
There are similarities in language and religion, for example, the
Amanteca tribe of Mexico and the Amentigi of the Mandigo from West
Africa. Skeletons of two Negroid males found in the Virgin Islands
in 1975 date back to 1250 AD.
Metal was scarce in Peru until the suspected date of African entry
there. After this they began using the low-wax technique, used in
Egypt, Nubia and West Africa. The most startling evidence found
are the stone heads depicting characters with unarguably African
features. These were used in religious ceremonies and Amerindian
tribes like the Mixtec and Olmec could not have reproduced these
extraordinary depictions without first seeing the Africans who
they seem to represent.
The widespread fallacy that Columbus is a 'discoverer' has plagued
our lives, causing the basis of our knowledge of the history of
African people in the Caribbean to be untrue. We know ourselves
only as slaves and concubines. Look, last year we honoured and
gave his heir the key to Spanish Town. Unfortunately, at this
point the world may not be ready for the large scale mental
revolution that would occur with the re-teaching of history.
