Some ‘hidden’ history facts

THE EDITOR: Open letter to the queen of the Warao Nation, Donna Bermudez and Shabaka Kambon, director of the Cross Rhodes Freedom Project.

My father is of African descent and my mother is a descendant of the Caribs.

You have in recent days been advocating for the removal of the Christopher Columbus statue. You have pointed out that he was the main cause of enslavement of your people.

Following are a few history facts that I am sure you are both aware of but have hidden from public view for your own gain.

Fact #1: Long before Columbus came to these shores there was inter-tribal rivalry between various Amerindian groups which saw enslavement of one group by another. History shows that the Caribs were the main perpetrators of this, having enslaved the weaker Arawaks. The same could be said of the Aztecs and Mayan civilisations. This was the practice many years before Columbus came.

Fact #2: You took advantage of the Spanish and English colonial education system, health system, clothes, language (English) and technology, such as the cellphone which was developed by a westerner. If you so believe in your ideas and convictions, why not give up all these luxuries?

I noted that in your meeting with the mayor of Port of Spain, Kambon wore a colonial grey suit, not African attire, and Bermudez wore jeans and jersey, colonial attire, yet you speak of erasing colonial artefacts.

Fact #3: The white man did not just go into Africa and the New World and forcibly enslave the native population. No white Portuguese or English trader could have gone into Africa by themselves and successfully captured and forcibly removed large hordes of Africans without the complicit help of African chiefs who knew the interior and layout of the land and who, history would show, captured the slaves for the white man in exchange for gun powder, rifles, gold, precious metals, etc.

In other words, the African themselves sold their brothers into slavery and it was common practice in Africa at the time to trade in slaves between tribes. The same thing could be said for the New World where some chiefs aided and abetted the capture of their weaker tribesmen for 30 pieces of silver.

Fact #4: Slavery and conquest among people existed and will always exist in one form or another. Of course it is wrong but we must learn from the past and not try to erase the memory of it for fear of it being repeated.

I am a proud Trinidadian having descended, as said earlier, from African and Amerindian parentage. I would also like to take a page out of Police Commissioner Gary Griffith’s book and ask: What has Kambon done for African people in TT who continue to slaughter each other daily? I have not heard him once call for this violence to stop.

Similarly, what has Bermudez done to help our people? Her voice is silent on the crime and genocide taking place in the country. Your call for the removal of the Columbus statue is racist in itself as you apparently do not respect other views or other races’ contribution to society.

You people are opportunists looking for attention as you have realised that you are becoming irrelevant. You preach one thing and do another. If you would like to stand up for your people, do like the indigenous people of Canada who dress in their indigenous clothes, eat indigenous foods only and don’t partake in western luxuries of life. Give up your cars, western foods, don’t use planes to travel and don’t travel to any western country for vacation because they are colonial.

Why don’t you get funding to make a statue commemorating African and Amerindian people who contributed significantly to your communities? I am sure no one will object to that.

Mr Mayor, don’t be fooled by these people who are just opportunists looking to sound relevant. I am a proud Trinidadian and would like my Columbus statue and all other relics to stay so that our history can be preserved.

ZANE ROMEO

via e-mail