From: lkk@panix.com (Larry Kolodney)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.african.american,soc.culture.african
Subject: Re: The White Man's Burden.
Date: 9 Jan 93 22:45:19 GMT
Organization: The Devil's Advocate

In <1993Jan8.182129.6577@cs.wm.edu> sunny@me.cs.wm.edu (John S. Egbo) writes:

>                          The White Man's Burden

>Regarding the first slaves brought to Europe, Morel writes:

>   "The captains of two of Prince Henry's exploring caravels brought
>    back with them to Lisbon in 1442 a dozen Africans, whom they had
>    captured on the West coast in the course of wholly unprovoked
>    attack upon an African village.  Further exploits of similar kind
>    followed.  The ancient Portuguese chronicles recording them
>    resemble the literature of the Crusaders.  The African was a
>    heathen, and as such fair game for the prowess of the noble
>    Christian knights who opposed their steel breast-plates, tempered
>    swords and cross-bows, to his bare chest and primitive spear. 
>    Here is a typical account of one of these predatory forays:

>       'Then might you see mothers forsaking their children and
>        husbands their wives, each striving to escape as best he
>        could. Some drowned themselves in the water, others
>        thought to escape by hiding under their huts; others
>        stowed their children among the sea-weed, where our
>        men found them afterwards, hoping  they would escape
>        notice. . . . And at last our Lord God, who giveth a
>        reward for every good deed, willed that for the toil
>        they had undergone in His service they should that 
>        day obtain victory over their enemies, as well as a
>        guerdon and a payment for all their labour and
>        expense; for they took captive of those Moors what
>        with men, women and children, 165, besides those that
>        perished and were killed. . . . '
>        
>    Thus did Europe first bring the 'glad tidings' to the African.  It
>    did not take long to ascertain that the spiritual consolation
>    derived from converting the African to Christianity had its
>    utilitarian counterpart.  He made an excellent labourer."

>It would be interesting to see the many people, especially white people,
>that have written a lot about Malcom X, Spike Lee, and just about many
>figures of African descent (even the venerable Patrice Lumumba was
>accused by someone of being a crack-pot) say about the above quotation.
>Where are Stephen Chaney, Stefan Michalowski, Terry Parks, Weiner, Tim 
>Smith, and others.  Let's hear some really good debate on this one.


Well, I'm not included on your list of s.c.a.a. notables, but I'll
comment anyway.

What is your point?  That slavery was a barbaric practice?  So what
else is new?  Slavery was a widespread practice all over the world in
the 15th century.  Unprovoked attacks for the purpose of gaining
territory and taking slaves has a long and dishonorable history in
virtually every civilization on earth.  Read your history:  Shaka
Zulu, Geghis Khan, the Aztecs.  All were quite brutal with "the
enemy."  For better or worse, the history of nation building is the
history of brutal aggression and slavery (not to mention torture and
rape). 

The only real difference between European barbarism and that in other
countries was that, because of advanced technology, the Europeans have
been able to be much more efficient and systematic about it than other
cultures.   In particular, Europeans had large oceangoing vessels
which allowed them to permanently carry large numbers of slaves away
from their homelands.  They also knew how to forge wrought iron to
make shackles, and guns.



-- 
larry kolodney:(lkk@panix.com) 
_(*#&)#*&%)@(*^%_!*&%^!)*&#+!*&$+!?&%+!*&^_)*&#%)*&^%#+&
The past is not dead, it's not even past.   - Wm. Faulkner