Columbus and All That

For several years now I have been teach­ing a course titled “Expansion of the West” at a West African University. The subject of our course is the expansion of Europe or, better said, the expansion of the capitalist mode of production.

A few students resent having to take the course because they feel that the history of Europe has been drilled into West African students for too many generations. However, more aware stu­dents do not resent the course; they understand that the history of Europe­ an expansion can be presented in vari­ous ways—that the study of capitalism, European conquest, or Western imperi­alism certainly is not synonymous with Eurocentrism. What is curious and puz­zling, however, is that in spite of this awareness and their allegiance to Africa, the students’ understanding of history often remains pegged to certain West­ern notions. The Western interpretation of history, as found in Western textbooks, has affected them more deeply than they realize.

A few years ago two Swiss authors, Preiswerk and Perrot, published Ethno­centrism and History: Africa, Asia, and Indi­an America in Western Textbooks, a remarkable analysis of Eurocentrism. There would be little to add to that analysis if the authors had included textbooks published in the United States. They didn’t, however, and it is to fill this gap that I have undertaken this brief examination of American text­books, to focus on the American brand of the Eurocentric view of expansion and discovery. Let me add that this evaluation is not based on other aspects of these works; it is possible that the texts are excellent in other regards.

The term “discovery” is used in al­most all of the textbooks I have sam­pled, at least in connection with the voyage of Christopher Columbus in 1492. A typical example is A World His­tory: A Cultural Approach by Roselle, a book that is used as either a high school or college text. Although the work is described in its introduction as a world history with the non-West receiving bal­anced treatment, its emphasis remains on the West. The discovery of America is described as the key event of chapter eighteen, which is entitled “Man ex­plores the earth, the universe, and himself.” The keynote of this key event is that on March 14, 1493, Christopher Columbus “reported his great discovery of what later turned out to be the ‘New World.'” The discussion of this event does not include a critical examination of the term “discovery” or of the con­cept “New World”—new primarily to the Europeans. This type of oversight is standard. Potentially more damaging is the use of the word “Man” in the chap­ter title. It becomes clear to the reader that “Man” in this context means West­ ern man. Somehow other non-Europe­ans do not seem to qualify, to the same extent, as human beings. These people, one is led to believe, did not bother to explore the earth or even explore them­ selves.

Many of the textbooks make a slight concession to Europeans other than Co­lumbus. For example, Roselle adds that “Columbus was not the first man to discover America. Almost 500 years be­fore Columbus made his voyage, Leif Ericson and the Vikings crossed the Atlantic. We do not know whom to credit as the first discoverer of America nor that it is important that we name him. The point is this: It was Columbus’ discovery or rediscovery of the ‘New World’ that was to have the most impor­tant consequences for mankind” (page 297). Similarly, Burns and Ralph argue in World Civilizations, “If we except the Norsemen, who discovered America about 1000 AD, the pioneers in ocean­ic navigation were the Portuguese” (page 579).

Thus, the possibility that the Ameri­cans were first discovered and settled, not by Columbus, Leif Ericson, or their shipmates, but by Native Americans, and that native settlement had momen­tous consequences, which is not contem­plated by the textbook writers. Nor is there a hint that the Chinese, Arabs, Polynesians, and others also navigated the oceans well before the Portuguese, who later may indeed have learned di­rectly or indirectly from the former.

The term “discovery” is seldom ap­plied to the coast of West Africa. Apart from textbooks by Nigerian authors de­signed for use in secondary schools, an exception is an anthology of readings, The Western Tradition, edited by Eugen Weber. Here we read that a “series of expeditions supported by the (Portu­guese) government enabled Diego Cam to discover the Congo in 1484 . . .” (II, page 325). Another exception is the text by Richard M. Brace, The Making of the Modern World. Brace writes that “explor­ers from Europe discovered the coast of Africa, North and South America, the all-water route to India . . .” (page 62).

An explanation of why West Africa was seldom “discovered” is simply that West Africa is hardly even mentioned in the chapters dealing with this initial phase of the expansion of Europe; this area had to wait for its turn on the stage of history—the chapter on the “New Imperialism” of the late nineteenth cen­tury. As Preiswerk and Perrot point out, it was not until then that contact with Europe was firmly established, and this contact constituted Africa’s entry ticket into history.

Many of the textbooks place the term “discovery” within quotation marks. This is particularly the case with several more recent texts, such as Tannen­baum’s European Civilization Since the Middle Ages and Greer’s A Brief History of Western Man. Even these works, howev­er, fail to explain why the term  should be set in quotation marks, nor do they follow the practice consistently. Greer, for instance, includes a section titled “The Voyages of Discovery . . . ,” accom­panied by a map with the caption “The Early Voyages of Discovery.” Tannen­baum writes of the discovery by Colum­bus, of Balboa’s discovery of the Pacific Ocean, and of the “discovery of exotic alien civilizations”—all without bother­ing to make use of quotation marks as I have done here.

Several authors admit that the expan­sion of Europe had considerable impact, particularly on Europe itself. Thus, Burns and Ralph refer to Columbus’ discovery of America and add that “the results of these voyages of discovery and the founding of colonial empires were almost incalculable . . .” (page 580). Greer, like Tannenbaum, feels that the impact of the discoveries may have been even greater on Europe than on Ameri­ca.

Yet, strangely enough, there are books of readings that take little cogni­zance of the discoveries at all. For example, Van Baumer, in Main Currents of Western Thought, offers only one selec­tion under the heading “Geography and the Expansion of Europe.” This selec­tion consists of excerpts from Mon­taigne, reflecting on European discover­ies, that show Montaigne to be far ahead of some modern textbook writers. Brin­ton’s Ideas and Men makes no reference to European expansion, although it does include a section entitled “Making the Modern World.” A similar work, Great Issues in Western Civilization, edited by Tierney,  Kagan, and Williams also does not refer to expansion or discover­ies. One might ask, is expansion not a great issue?

In regards to the motivation for ex­pansion, the textbook writers fare some­ what better. Most ascribe primary im­portance to economic factors and estab­lish some link between European conquest and the expansion of capital­ism. Yet students will be confused by frequent inconsistencies that are not al­ways easy to detect and, hence, all the more nefarious.

For example, Tannenbaum argues that “religion, politics, and the lure of adventure prompted Europeans to probe the unknown, but their main mo­tive was economic” (p. 118). However, on the same page he had already in­ formed the reader that “some of the territories were heavily populated, oth­ers sparsely settled; but all were ‘known’ to some. . . .” Burns and Ralph specify that trade with the Orient was the pri­mary reason for the voyages. Roberts points out that the Europeans had al­ ways wanted land and gold, but now they had acquired the skill needed to satisfy their desires. McKay, Hill, and Buckler in A History of Western Society also agree that “the basic reason for European exploration and expansion . . . was the quest for material profit” (B, page 455). The authors cite a contempo­rary sixteenth-century source to the ef­fect that religion may have supplied the “pretext” but gold was the real “motive” (page 447). So far, so good.

But then everything is placed once again into question as the same authors argue that the first motive of the Portu­guese in launching exploration was cru­sading and Christianizing, whereas the search for gold and for an overseas route to the spice markets was second. Greer mentions the “aspirations of the clergy to spread the gospel,” and the “desire of the monarchs for power and glory” ahead of the “hunger of the merchants for gold” (page 209). But the student is liable to become confused when informed, a few pages further on, that the Spaniards were driven by the “twin desires for exploitation and Chris­tianization” (page 215).

Perhaps more crucial than the way expansion and motivations are dealt with is the space devoted to or the importance accorded to civilizations be­ yond the West. To be sure, many of the texts in question deal expressly with Western civilization and, thus, cannot be expected to devote much space to other civilizations. But there is no reason, on the other hand, why their very existence should be totally ignored. As Preiswerk and Perrot point out, “. . . to begin a chapter on America with the description of [Columbus’ discovery] is to relegate what existed there before the arrival of the Europeans to second place,  or worse, to be totally silent on the matter. In the eyes of the reader this continent became of interest and had a reason for existence only when considered directly or in relation to an event which was strictly European” (page 109). More­ over, West African civilization is consid­ered even less than pre-Colombian ones, except within the concept of the slave trade.

When the titles of texts do not specify Europe or Western civilization and promise a more universal coverage, the contents may be just as limited. Brace, in Making of the Modern World, makes but a few fleeting references to any part of the Third World. This, by implication, suggests that the modern world was made exclusively by Europeans. A His­tory of the Modern World (to 1815) by Palmer and Colton makes no reference to civilizations such as those of the Az­tecs or the Maya. Nor does it mention West Africa, except for an incidental remark about gold  from Guinea. The fact that the second volume of this work contains such references does not ab­ solve the authors, for West African and “pre-Columbian” (a most inappropriate designation) civilizations were omitted from their rightful chronological place.

Although Africa is not entirely ig­nored by Roberts in History of the World, it is viewed negatively. “Black Africa south of the Sahara seems to have been remarkably inert,” we are told (pages 411-413). Roselle, whose textbook also encompasses the world, devotes some space to the Ghana empire, but only towards the end of the book and in the context of contemporary history. This is all the more surprising as the author concedes that this Empire, in its cultural achievements, was “easily the equal of the Holy Roman Empire in Europe” (page 718 ff).  The  promise, expressed in the introduction, of a “balanced” em­phasis is not kept. The claim of balance only renders the bias even more biased, for it implies that what is meant by balance is a deliberate disproportion. The Third World, in fact, receives only as much attention as it deserves.

Only the text by Burns and Ralph fares reasonably well in this regard. It contains an entire section on “The Emergence of Civilization in Sub-Saha­ran Africa” in proper chronological se­quence. The section discusses not only Ghana, Mali, Songhay, but also the Hausa kingdoms, Kanem-Bornu, and the “forest civilizations” of Akan, Oyo, and Benin, incorporating some of the more recent findings of African schol­ars. Africans fare better in this text than Native Americans; the Aztecs, Maya, and Inca are mentioned only as an af­terthought toward the end of the book, in connection with contemporary Latin America.

Although this survey is not a scientific one, I would like to venture several tentative conclusions. First, American textbooks, in general, seem to score somewhat higher on the scale of objec­tivity than the European ones analyzed by Preiswerk and Perrot. The farmer’s description of European expansion seems less grossly ethnocentric and Eur­ocentric. Of course, their American, as opposed to strictly European, origin may account for the difference. It is also possible that the Swiss authors deliber­ately selected the worst offenders in order to make their point clear, while my selection has been rather at random and limited to those texts that were available to me.

A second conclusion is that there has been a slight improvement over the years. The new editions of older texts, and particularly recent first editions, show some effort to transcend ethno­centrism.

A final, and more important, conclu­sion is that much remains to be done to overcome European and Euro-Ameri­can ethnocentrism. In other words, it must be recognized that all continents, all nations, and all ethnic groups have a history and that the importance of this history should not be measured by the ability to expand, to conquer, to discov­er, or even to invent. The fact that Africans south of the Sahara have invented neither gunpowder nor com­pass—to borrow images from Cesaire Aime—does not render their history less relevant.

What may be needed is a history text that is not ethnocentric. But is such a history possible? Probably not, at least not until the unequal relationship be­ tween the West and the Third  World has been overcome.

In the meantime, if we must choose between varieties of ethnocentrism, an Afrocentric approach seems preferable. For Afrocentrism is not the counterpart of Eurocentrism, but rather a legitimate reaction to it. At least it would serve to rehabilitate the damaged egos of the colonized and neocolonized victims of this continent. It might also serve to open the eyes of authors of textbooks in Europe and America to their own, hopefully unintentional, deficiencies in interpretation. Certainly, an Afrocen­tric approach to world history would help to undermine the intellectual and ideological underpinnings of continued Western domination.