Dear Editor,
October 12 in most Latin American states is referred to as ‘The day of all races’ – ‘El dia de las razas’ – it is a national holiday. However it is not an occasion for celebration by the Indigenous people or the people of African descent of Columbus’s arrival or that of the conquistadores who followed him. As a matter of fact October 11 in most countries with Indigenous populations is regarded as the last day of freedom and a day of mourning.
Some authorities claim that Christopher Columbus was a man beyond his time who bestrode the boundary between ages. It is said that he believed that his God had opened up for him the sea road to all earthly paradise and felt empowered on his mission by the ‘holy spirit.’ But behind the myths and curtain of fantasies Columbus’s exploration of the Indies was characterized by his relentless search for gold.
The Taino Indians were terrified by these men on horses – half man half beast – helmeted, armoured, and flanked by ferocious hunting dogs. Columbus pledged to Spain’s Catholic monarchs that he would convert the Indians to the ‘holy faith,’ but his legacy was one of distrust, subjugation and bloodshed.
Over the past decade following the fifth centenary Columbus’s arrival in the New World, a vigorous debate has raged among historical demographers concerning the aboriginal population of the Americas at the time of European arrival. Some estimate over 100 million inhabited the lands referred to as the New World. An estimated 80 million lived in the civilized states of Middle America and the Central Andes; the remaining number were lowland agricu1tura1ists, and hunters in the interior of South America, the northern region and the Caribbean.
“European conquest radically disturbed the Aboriginal societies. Perhaps the most drastic effect was a rapid and massive population decline characterized by modem investigators as a ‘demographic disaster’ otherwise referred to as the ‘Holocaust’ as it ushered in the Trans- Atlantic Slave Trade which claimed the lives of millions of Americans and completely devastated the African Subcontinent dislocating families and entire agricultural communities.”
In the case of the aboriginal population of the Americas the principal cause of the disaster was the introduction of several new diseases that decimated the native population. The wars of conquest also took their toll as did slavery and other abuses. Estimates of the rate of depopulation differ, but the best calculation suggests an average decline of 95 per cent in 130 years leaving about 4 million inhabitants in Middle America and between 3 to 5 million in the Central Andes. The Caribbean population which was conquered first was wiped out in less than fifty years.
Gold, Silver, cocoa, cotton, rubber, coffee, fruit, sugar, oil, iron, copper, nitrates are the “open veins of Latin America” that Edwardo Galeano wrote of that resulted in so much bloodshed and suffering for the Indigenous population and for the African slaves who were introduced to replace Caribbean Indian labour.
In Guyana for more than 200 years African slaves engaged in an unceasing struggle to reclaim the coastland from the Atlantic Ocean digging canals and building sea defences in what historian Walter Rodney described as the “humanization of the Guyanese landscape.” Thousands succumbed to malaria, snake-bites and tropical diseases long before the arrival of the Portuguese, Chinese and East Indian indentured servants who played an important part thereafter in the economic development of the Guyanese economy.
On October 12, 2010, the organizations of Indigenous people should stand shoulder to shoulder with Guyanese of African descent to commemorate the Holocaust. The Indigenous people were the first anti-imperialist fighters to confront the combined European powers. We need to seriously reflect on this day in recognition of the dynamic contribution made by our great ancestors. From the intermingling of tradition and peoples over the centuries has emerged the soul of the Guyanese nation. We are the inheritors of the past and the architects of the future.
Yours faithfully,
Desmond Alli
General Secretary
Guyana United Artists
