[Shadow_Group] WHEN WE 'CELEBRATE' COLUMBUS DAY by Mumia Abu-Jamal

[shadowgroup-l at lists.resist.ca]

WHEN WE 'CELEBRATE' COLUMBUS DAY
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[Col. Writ. 10/10/04] Copyright 2004 Mumia Abu-Jamal

    For millions of Americans, Columbus Day is a day of
parades, nice dinners, and thankfully, a paid vacation day
from work.

    (For Canadians, this is Thanksgiving Day.)

    But, I've always wondered -- what do the survivors
of this 500 years of genocide, slaughter, and land-theft
-- the so-called Native Americans -- think of
Columbus Day?  Undoubtedly some (those culturally
conditioned to follow American ways) *do* celebrate
it, as do many Americans.  Yet, one still wonders.

    When I think of Columbus Day, I don't think of the
present; nor of celebrations.  I think of the time, 500
years ago, when 3 Spanish ships darkened the horizons
of the Caribbean Sea.  When the man then known as
Cristobal Colon came to land, and met the people he
mistakenly called 'Indians', the world was forever
changed.  I think of those people -- those people
whom Columbus described as "well-formed",
"handsome", and with "good faces."

    Thankfully, the journal of a Spanish priest tells
us exactly what was happening in Oct. 1492: On
Thursday, October 11th, Fray Bartolome De Las
Casas wrote, Columbus marveled at their beauty
and their kindness; but he noticed something else:

       They do not carry arms nor are they
    acquainted with them, because I showed
    them swords and took them by the edge
    and through ignorance cut themselves. [p. 67]

    Admiral Columbus noticed something else; that
this "gentle", "handsome", and "good face[d]"
people could be easily enslaved.  De Las Casas
records the Admiral's thoughts:

       ...[W]henever Your Highnesses may
    command, all of them can be taken to
    Castile or held captive in this same island;
    because with 50 men all of them could be
    held in subjection and *can be made to do
    whatever one might wish*. [pp. 75-77]

    This, from the first day's entry after landfall!
Day One -- and slavery is the first thought!

    What followed, of course, was 500 years of
hell for millions of Native peoples -- and a hell
to come for millions of African people.

    It really makes one feel like celebrating
Columbus Day.

[Source: De Las Casas, Fray Bartolome,
*The Diario of Christopher Columbus's
First Voyage to America 1492-1493*.
(Norman: University of Oklahoma Press,
1989); trans. Oliver Dunn and James E.
Kelly, Jr.]

Copyright 2004 Mumia Abu-Jamal

[Check out Mumia's latest: *WE WANT FREEDOM:
A Life in the Black Panther Party*, from South
End Press (www.southendpress.org<http://www.southendpress.org/>); Ph.
#1-800-533-8478.]
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