The early Colonial days – assumptions, confrontations, and where it all began.
In the era where many countries had emigrants going to distant lands, for any number of reasons, the arrival of the ‘foreigners’ in different parts of the world, Africa, Australia, USA, and numerous other smaller countries would no doubt have highlighted the differences between the new arrivals, and the existing occupants. The questions I often ask myself relate to a large extent, on how they communicated. What did they think when they saw the people so unlike them, and what emotions were they experiencing, on both sides?
The question that has strained my few grey cells (now just starting my 83rd year) were mainly related to the way of communicating. No doubt some arrows flew through the air, with some bullets flying in the opposite direction. What signs did they make to show peaceful intentions, or at least, some good will? I suppose that we will not easily find literature dealing with the subject.
If I were to speculate a bit, I would assume the one ‘side’ saw the others as a threat, as this was a strange situation, with very little predictability. The travellers would see people unlike most of them had encountered before, and the other would see a strange group of human figures coming across the sea on large floating ‘logs’ The fear of the unknown might have been a huge factor in the decisions around the issue of ‘flight or fight. The travellers from across the sea, having spent many months at sea, with all the problems related to such a journey, would be relieved to have reached their ‘destination’.
The question that challenges my mind is how each side perceived the other, or actually learned something about each other from these early confrontations. The perceptions of the travellers, observing the ‘undressed’ condition of the others, their behaviour, waving spears and shields, would no doubt have been seen by the travellers as signs of a primitive and warlike people. The absence of any form of communication, other than by showing open hands not holding anything that could be seen as a weapon, must have been a small sign that there was no threat. This is purely conjecture. From what I have read, there had been some very small successes in communication from the missionaries, but I cannot believe that this was sufficiently widespread to make a difference to the population at large.
One of the things that I have been thinking about a great deal, when considering what to include, or exclude, when writing this particular blog, is what perceptions each group had of the other. Did the travellers have the perception that they were dealing with an uncivilized, warlike, and somehow ‘inferior’ race that needed to be ‘converted’, defeated, or even eliminated? Did the inhabitants when they saw these strange, pale-faced beings believe it was necessary to protect themselves against this strange unknown group? Whatever the views were, history shows us that the ‘travellers’ considered the ‘locals’, by and large, as uncivilized by their standards and values. Were these encounters the beginning of the perception that persist to this day that certain groups are inferior to others? More in the next blog