in Público, March 2021

The day after arriving on a Caribbean island in 1492, Columbus writes in his diary: "At dawn, crowds arrived on the beach, many are young and beautifully shaped, with large, beautiful eyes. I found, as we expected, no cannibals among them, but, on the contrary, men of great deference and kindness." Later, anchored on another island, he writes to D. Fernando: "They brought us parrots, cotton balls, spears and many other things. They have no iron; their swords are made of cane. But nevertheless, they would make great servants. With fifty men, we could subdue them and have them do whatever we wanted."

Columbus captures about 20 natives and brings them to Spain on his return from the first voyage. The seven who survived caused a great buzz in Seville. Under the promise of a great deal of gold, the Catholic Kings provided Columbus with a second trip with 17 ships, 1500 men, cannons, bows, firearms, horses, and attack dogs. And, thus armed, Columbus did indeed subdue the Caribbean people. In Haiti, inhabited by Taínos, he instituted a taxation regime: all those over 14 who did not return their golden tribute to the settlers had both hands amputated. Around this time, Columbus wrote to the Catholic King, saying that many women on the islands could be bought at a reasonable price, "the very young being the most sought after". The Taínos, unable to find meaning in this regime of servitude and succumbing to infectious diseases brought by the Spanish, die in large numbers.

Parallel to gold and silver mining, Columbus plans another business and reports it to the Spanish kings: "In Castile, Portugal and Aragon and even in the Canary Islands, they need a lot of slaves, and I don't think they get all they need from Guinea". And he views the death toll among the Taínos with optimism: "The blacks from the Canary Islands were also dying at the beginning." Which didn't turn out to be true: the Amerindians continued to die, and it was the Africans who ended up being enslaved en masse and transported to the Americas.

About what happened in the Caribbean, the Spanish missionary Bartolomé de Las Casas left us a precious book, Brevísima Relación de la Destruición de las Indias, (Brief Account on the Destruction of the Indies) which is almost unbearable to read, given the violence that runs through it. Faced with this narrative, some say that the violence of that period cannot be read in the light of today's sensibility. At the time, they were different men, generically less elegant, it is said; malice was collateral damage of their bravery, it is suggested. But, the Spanish colonists themselves, in 1499, with the sensitivity of their time, denounced Columbus' behaviour to the Kings of Castile. As a result, he returns to Spain in chains and loses the title of governor forever.

Knowing what is known about Christopher Columbus, it is curious how current speeches refer to him. In his Little History of the World,  aimed at young readers, Ernst Gombrich calls him a "capricious adventurer", considering him and his men "of indescribable bravery but also cruelty". About his arrival in the Caribbean, he writes: "Finally, on October 12, 1492, 'Land in sight!' Columbus was all proud and happy." Look out for the emotional attributes: pride, happiness, bravery - even whimsy and cruelty. Later, we learn that India was the "land of his dreams". Here and in the textbooks, the story is told from the emotions and moods of the main characters, for whom we naturally come to root. To do it differently is a storytelling challenge that should mobilize historians, teachers and governors.

The great blackout, the significant discursive failure, which extends to teaching, is not limited to this heroic protagonism or the lack of mention of the suffering of the colonized peoples. It is also about the omission of who they were, how they organized themselves, how and with whom they warred, whether they cultivated the land, what was medicine like, and what gender relations were like. One of the few common references to the Taínos' customs is that they played ball games with rubber balls, which the white settlers had never seen. But they already played with rubber balls because they were lucky enough to have the rubber tree, not because they had invented technologies to extract the sap, or because sports and leisure were an integral part of their culture. The crushing is such that all traces are ours, soccer, rubber – everything is post-Columbian. Before European rule, the world was a static place, inhabited by naked, primitive people, unable to navigate and with nothing to offer but the labour of their dark bodies. Luckily, some brave white men appeared and provided their existence with some colour.

To this day, concerning Columbus and European maritime expansion, glory, the unspoken, and amnesia prevail. As long as we insist on a Eurocentric version of history, it is natural that signs of white supremacy are 'learned' by each of us in school and in our unquestioned and privileged life. Under the circumstances, the number of subscribers who wish to expel the Portuguese citizen Mamadou Ba from his country can be considered very low. Unless proven otherwise, these thirty-some thousand people are only acting under what they believe to be correct, without up-to-date institutional discourse allowing them to find they might be wrong.

Minimizing the central role of racial inequalities and colonialism in human affairs prevents a much-needed comprehensive understanding of the tensions in the world today. It is said that slavery already existed in the occupied territories - that it was not invented by Europeans, that we were all bad, them and us. Before European contact, the slavery that existed in those territories resulted from various social stratifications and movements. It was unfair, to be sure, but it was not the export business ensured by large slave ships, where a third of the transported – in subhuman conditions – died on the journey. These ships, not by chance, were also known as "tumbeiros" - meaning floating tombs. The large number of deaths provided more demand – such are the market laws – so black people's lives were never a priority. The slogan Black Lives Matter, besides being fair, sadly reveals that the issue has remained the same for five centuries.  

For various historical circumstances, Portugal was the kingdom of Europe most active in transatlantic slavery: it is estimated that it moved four million people from Africa. Neither this leading position nor the number of enslaved people transported makes us the worst in the world, but it does make us responsible. Practised for more than three centuries, slavery was abolished by decree 143 years ago but extends systemically through time to the present day. If any, the central fault of the last 500 years is the subordination of the world's black population as a whole. We see it now with a precision that is no longer deniable. We will have to live with it.