Exploring Columbus
To celebrate Christopher Columbus is to celebrate the start of a genocidal process against Indigenous Americans and Africans.
Christopher Columbus (whose real name is Cristobal Colon) helped mobilize a global system of exploitation that caused the greatest crime in World History — The Atlantic Slave Trade.
Scholars have indicated that Columbus had attended a school for chart-making taught by Prince Henry the Navigator who specialized in maritime information. Prince Henry got hold of this information from the University of Salamanca which was preserved by Africans and Arabs.
This information included maps used by Jewish gold dealers who were operating along the coast of West Africa.
In 1482, an abandoned date in history, a Portuguese King landed ships on the West African coast of Ghana (earlier known as the Gold Coast) to exploit labor. They forced their way in with guns and built fortresses, making Ghana the headquarters of the slave trade. Professor Colin Palmer has written, “To facilitate trade, forts were established along the West African coast. The Gold Coast (contemporary Ghana) saw construction of more than 50 such posts along 300 miles of coastline.”
Scholars say there is some evidence that Columbus was a part of that voyage. Columbus said in his diary, “As man and boy, I sailed up and down the Guinea Coast for twenty-three years.” This negates that his first-ever voyage was in 1492 where he allegedly discovered America. He participated in the early Portuguese slave trade.
In 1492, in search of gold, Columbus sailed the Atlantic Ocean where he arrived in the Caribbean and mistakenly called the Indigenous Americans, Indians. In his diary, he said, “I wonder why they’re bringing such small amounts of gold? I wonder where the mines are? They’ll be easier to conquer than I thought they would be.”
Columbus had every intention to exploit resources and labor from the New World. He wrote a letter to Queen Elizabeth saying, “From this area, I can send you as many slaves as you can accommodate.”
In truth, Columbus is responsible for the death of over twenty million Indigenous Americans in the Caribbean which caused an increase of African slaves to replace them. This resulted in the Atlantic Slave Trade that claimed the lives of over sixty million Africans.
The celebration of Columbus Day is a celebration of death, domination, and the destruction of Indigenous Americans and Africans.
