1992: A Call for Reconstruction

"They would make fine servants...With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want." So Christopher Columbus wrote in his log to describe the Arawaks of the Bahama Islands, the first people he met in "discovering the New World."

The truth is that Columbus didn't know where he was going when he set out across an unknown ocean for Asia in 1492, didn't know where he was when he arrived in the Americas, and didn't know where he had been when he returned to Spain. The only thing Columbus did know was what he wanted -- gold and slaves.

The Arawaks, much like the other native peoples the European invaders would meet, greeted Columbus with great hospitality and sharing. He reported to the king and queen of Spain that the Indians "are so naive and so free with their possessions that no one who has not witnessed them would believe it. When you ask for something they have, they never say no. To the contrary, they offer to share with anyone ..."

Columbus asked his royal benefactors for more financing and promised to bring back from his next voyage "as much gold as they need ... and as many slaves as they ask." He concluded with the appropriate religious benediction, "Thus the eternal God, our Lord, gives victory to those who follow His way over apparent impossibilities."

Thus began an era of conquest, genocide, and slavery which is celebrated by American school children each October on Columbus Day as the great adventure of discovery. And for 1992, the 500th anniversary of Columbus's first voyage, a giant extravaganza is being prepared.

Books like Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States should become required reading as we also make ready for the great quincentennial cover-up. Zinn tells the awful story of Indians enslaved by the thousands and exterminated by the millions.

Columbus sent many slaves back to Spain. Many died en route. On the island of Haiti, all Indians older than 14 were ordered to bring in a certain quota of gold every three months. Those who failed and were found had their hands cut off. Brutal forced labor killed countless numbers. By 1650, for example, no Arawaks remained on the island where Columbus landed.

Zinn describes the atrocities of Spaniards riding the backs of Indians, testing the sharpness of their knives and swords on Indian flesh, and beheading Indian children for sport. Even the most distinguished writer on Columbus, Harvard historian Samuel Eliot Morison, admits, "The cruel policy initiated by Columbus and pursued by his successors resulted in complete genocide."

This policy of taking land and destroying lives was implemented against all the indigenous peoples of North, Central, and South America. It eventually extended to African peoples who were ripped from their own homeland and sold as slaves, the human foundation of an economy based on theft and genocide. And finally, the policy of destruction was carried out against the land itself. The very environment in which all peoples must live was poisoned. Zinn writes, "These were the violent beginnings of an intricate system of technology, business, politics, and culture that would dominate the world for the next five centuries."

IT IS THIS MOMENTOUS event that the federal, state, and local governments across the United States are already planning to commemorate with gala celebrations. Replicas of Columbus' three ships -- the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria -- will be launched from the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain. They will sail to numerous American ports where they will be welcomed by great festivities. NASA will launch three "space caravels" named after the famous ships. Enormous amounts of money are being appropriated for events and exhibits throughout the land. Most Latin American nations also are planning grand celebrations.

However, groups of indigenous people, African Americans, and church and progressive organizations have determined that there will be another voice. Indeed, the quincentennial could become a "teaching moment," an opportunity for reflection and even repentance. Instead of commemoration, many see 1992 as a time for turning, healing, reparation, and redirection. What more appropriate occasion could there be for a call for the reconstruction of America?

Our need is greater and deeper than simply telling the truth about the past. What is required is nothing less than a fundamental shift of the social paradigm that has governed us for the past 500 years. The assumptions, values, and structures we have accepted for so long are in need of basic transformation.

Only an alternative vision of what this country could and should be can keep us from continuing to repeat the injustice that has shaped our past, controls our present, and threatens our future. A broad-based, cross-cultural effort to start the process of reconstruction might begin to redeem the quincentennial.

Sojourners will be deeply involved in the efforts to offer an alternative voice for 1992 and begin the process of national reconstruction. Vital networks between many groups and constituencies are already being established. We invite our readers to share their own interests, ideas, and activities with us.

Jim Wallis is editor-in-chief of Sojourners.