THE EDITOR, Sir:
ACCORDING TO an article on page A6 of The Gleaner of Thursday, July 15, 2004, Columbus' descendant Cristobal Colon de Carvajal, will arrive in Jamaica on July 19, 2004 for a week-long visit. During his visit, "Mr. Columbus" will be presented with the keys to Spanish Town and will receive a citation from the Mayor of Kingston. He will even lay a wreath at the statue of his ancestor.
Statue? Why do we even have a statue of Columbus? There is no disputing that what Columbus accomplished in his many voyages altered the history of the world, and provided great help to European navigators. However, through murder (many of which were sanctioned by Columbus) and disease brought from Europe, his arrival saw the total annihilation of the original Jamaicans (those referred to as Arawaks, but who we now know were Tainos).
Columbus' mission was not to benefit humanity but to bring glory to Spain through conquest of less aggressive peoples and seizing their riches. This was in no way a noble cause. Columbus was basically a forerunner to the other pirates, who would follow his path into the region. Why do we honour Columbus, a man who was the deliberate catalyst of a mass genocide; a man whose "works" are a scar on the history of mankind?
To honour this man, is to dishonour the memory of the great people who were here before us. Of course, there are those who will argue that we the modern Jamaicans shoot several hundreds of our own people every year, including defenceless women and children. They will argue further, that our politicians play 'huggy-huggy' with known crime lords and murderers and that from that perspective it is unreasonable for anyone to believe that we would know anything of honour, or of humanity. All that is arguable, and can be debated at length.
I would really love to see the Rastas being active and vocal about the whole issue of Columbus having a statue standing, and on the issue of this visit in particular.
I am, etc.,
Garfield N. Morgan
Kingston, Jamaica 10
