By Sir Ronald Sanders
(The writer is Antigua and Barbuda’s Ambassador to the United States and the Organization of American States. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies at the University of London and Massey College in the University of Toronto. The views expressed are entirely his own)
Every year at the Organization of American States (OAS), Spain, as an Observer state, has placed on the Organization’s agenda a celebration of Christopher Columbus’ stumbling on what is now called The Bahamas on October 12, 1492.
This ‘celebration’, according to Spain, is to mark the “Encounter of two worlds”. In the view of Europeans, those worlds were the “civilized” nations of Europe and a new, savage world which Columbus ran into by chance, mistakenly believing he had arrived in ‘the Indies”, as China, Japan, India and Indonesia were collectively known.
The truth is that he was hopelessly lost. But his inability to find his way unleashed consequences which reverberate today to the detriment of the “new world” that Columbus and his patrons thought he had “discovered”.
Treasure and resources were transferred to Europe or placed in the control of European colonial settlers who seized lands, killed or displaced indigenous peoples and introduced brutal slavery. Most of the wealth and power in today’s world is concentrated in the same hands that began the grab in 1492, while most of the poverty exists in former colonies in Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, Asia and the Pacific.
This is why on October 5 at the OAS, I made a statement, calling on Spain, supported by some governments in Latin America and North America, to stop “celebrating” an event, which has brought suffering and underdevelopment to many countries in the Americas.
I reproduce below, for clarity, the full text of my remarks.
I preface my statement by placing on my record my Government’s high regard for the present-day government of Spain and the role it plays in global affairs, and more especially for its support of this Organisation of American States.
However, my delegation would be less than a true friend of Spain if we were to pretend that this occasion is one that we welcome or support.
Indeed, the absence of several delegations at this meeting indicates the concern of a number of member states.
On the last occasion that the delegation of Antigua and Barbuda made a statement on this unfortunate topic that is persistently presented to this Permanent Council, we made it clear that Antigua and Barbuda has no wish to linger over a past relationship.
We emphasised that much of that past had a very dark side with repercussions that have cast a long shadow to this day.
Part of that dark past was genocide and enslavement of the native peoples of the Americas, and the gateway that was thrown-open for centuries of brutal slavery of African people and the exploitation of Asian indentured labour in some Caribbean countries.
That past was indeed linked to an “encounter between two worlds”.
It was an encounter between a lost Italian – Cristobal Colon or Christopher Columbus – and the people who had long inhabited the islands and mainlands that have come to be called “The Americas”.
The native peoples of these lands were not in need of discovery; they already had a civilization, a rich culture, and knowledge that suited the sustainability of their environment.
All that was either destroyed or desecrated by the arrival of Columbus and his crew who stumbled upon these lands in the mistaken belief that they had navigated a new route to the Indies.
That encounter should not be celebrated; it should be lamented.
It was an encounter contrived on the ideology of European superiority that is today commonly called – racism.
The freedom that the European settlers sought in these lands now called “the Americas” came at the expense of the lives, lands. labour, blood and resources of non-white people.
That is what we remember; it is what we recall; it is what we see every time this so-called “Encounter of two worlds” is celebrated and not lamented.
It does our relationship no good.
That is why my delegation has appeared here today to call again for the discontinuance of this event that re-opens wounds and re-enforces the strong desire for reparatory justice.
On October 12th, 2018, the Antigua and Barbuda delegation said, in this Permanent Council, that It is time we stop trying to perpetuate that mistake and, instead, to acknowledge it and, in doing so, vow never to repeat it.
Despite our exhortations, this topic continues to be thrown in our faces, complete with a wreath-laying ceremony, except we are not commemorating the millions of indigenous people who were exterminated or the millions of Africans who were enslaved, brutalized, and exploited for the enrichment of Europe.
We are commemorating those who exterminated people, erased the accomplishments of a thriving civilisation, stole lands, enslaved people and profited from denial of the most fundamental human right and that is equality of all humankind.
As my delegation has repeatedly stated, our country greatly values its modern-day relationship with Spain.
We congratulate Spain on the positive role it plays today in global affairs, and we welcome its efforts to make its present-day encounters with our nations mutually beneficial for all.
We especially welcome Spain’s participation in our Organization of American States as an honoured Permanent Observer.
In our relationship, we would like to stride forward to a bright future, not look backward at a dark past.
The encounters, upon which we should all concentrate, are those which proffer a better future for our common humanity on our shared planet.
There is much that we can do together to end the scourge of communicable disease; to stop the pervasive destruction of Climate Change and Global Warming; to cooperate in economic and social development; to end global inequality; and to foster peace in our shared world.
It is time we advance the reality of one world which our one humanity must make better.
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It would appear that the author has nothing better to do than to harp on about 600 years ago Christopher Columbus and preach to Spain when Spain and the world are far more concerned about getting a grip on the Chinese virus which has and is crippling economies. Is this nonsense at this time what we, the tax payers, are paying a hefty sum every month for a high off the hog lifestyle abroad for? At least Columbus did not do a name change because he was embarrassed about his DNA. IMO it would be far more fruitful to preach to China about the monies (10 trillion might be a good figure to start with) they owe the world for this Wuhan lab pandemic and while at it apologize to Japan for the stipend and stop trying to be woke by provoking racial disharmony and animosity with westernized Spain!
Jeb are you seem highly influenced by Eurocentric thinking. In some ways you remind me of Winston Derrick. The way he would try to zero past damage and pretend they have no impact on the way things are today. Our ancestors enslavement would be derided by his equating it to “Irish slavery”. I see the Chinese are your banging post hence you now embrace proven false conspiracy theories. In terms of his advocacy regarding covid, try and remember he deserves some credit for the push by Caribbean nations (especially A&B) to successfully get the US government to provide us with covid vaccines.
I am flattered that you think I remind you of Winston Derrick who in my opinion was one of Antigua’s heroes who achieved a tremendous feat for the Antigua/Barbuda people by winning his (not easy, not cheap) fight for our freedom of speech. Winston dealt with reality, fought against corruption and gave a voice to many who were not previously heard. If I was a “conspiracy theorist” I would probably not be vaccinated because I would be believing that I was going to be injected with a magnet and a microchip invented by Bill Gates and then maybe little green men would come to my yard and suck me into their spaceship.
If you choose to believe that the virus did not come from the Wuhan Lab etc. and consequently any threats of biological warfare are conspiracy theories then that is your right to do so. Time will tell which one of us is correct. Seems like you have forgotten that China is a very racist communist country and the ones here very obviously do not mix or care beyond what they can acquire for China by bribing those who can further their agenda!
BTW I am not influenced by anything other than the economic survival and eventual success for this country for we, the people not we the Chinese!
I agree with Jeb, we hear absolutely nothing from this Ambassador other than these writing that at this time we care nothing about. Antigua and Barbuda is on the brinks of collapse and all our highest official in Washington can do is to write on non Antigua matters. If taxpayers are paying him to write then he can do so from home. Gaston, is this the best you can give us in representation?
His role is clearly a nice little earner for him.
Agree its time for us to stop celebrating an event that brought mostly pain. Sir Ron as usual deserves kudos for the yeomen service he continues to provide. He was instrumental; in getting the US to have its officials meet with Caribbean governments to deal with some unfair banking rules. Before this he was able to get the IMF to see it as an important issue. These rules placed us in a position of not being able to do biz due to a lack of corresponding banks. 2. This ambassador is currently leading the charge to ensure that the US push for global minimum tax rates does not end up putting Caribbean islands at a disadvantage. 3. Saunders has also been part of the team pushing for reparations and deserves some of the credit for the success made so far with Harvard University. It’s this ambassadors advocacy why the US changed the way its state department reports were done. Among other things he has got them to stop wrongly labelling A&B as a major offshore jurisdiction. Left unchallenged (US State department erroneous report) would have met roadblocks for A&B in terms of the flow of funds. Lets not forget it was his involvement in getting the US to stop its then unfair labelling of our Covid situation when they had wrongly accessed us at level 3. This label at that time if left unchallenged would have caused us economic losses. Clearly this is indeed one ambassador who is worth his salt
Tenman, you clearly don’t know this man. He has no use for Antiguans. He is only interested in collecting 3 pensions and hefty sum of money for doing nothing and his salary for doing nothing is about 10 times the salary of an average worker in Antigua. People suffering and Gaston throwing away taxpayers money. High time for this BS to come to an end
Somebody tell this man to go sit down somewhere. He is very irrelevant. Nobody cares about the crap that he writes. Time to recall him, he’s abusing taxpayers dollars to the maximum. Sir, if you’re reading, inquiry minds want to know, what are your contributions to Antigua? what is your goal for our country? What are you doing in the diaspora? Please, please justify your estimated US$16,000 per month plus other perks or else get the hell out.
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