Portland Advocate_1981-11

page12 THANKSGIVING (Continued fran Page 7) straight to the Islands of the West where they were literally worked to death. The profits Hawkins made fran slaving impressed Elizabeth I so that she invested a ship nruned the Jesus for his use. Hawkins left England with the Jesus to steal more Afrikans and returned with such dividends that Queen Elizabeth made him a knight. Hawkins chose as his coat-of-arms the representation of an Afrikan in chains. It should be mentioned that during the, 15th and 16th century, the filth and squalor of European monarchs was at an all-time high. (see Will Durant, Story of Civilization and others). While in contrast Afrikans and Asians pride themselves on having the most splended bath houses in the world. After 45 years on the throne, Elizabeth I died and was succeeded by Jrunes I in 1603. During the rule of Jrunes I another group of religious radicals evolved calling themselves the Puritans. Their goal was to puri- – fy the English Church of all vestiges of Rcxnan Catholicism. This new group was further divided into three schools of thought; the Methodist Episcopal Church, The Presbyterian Church and the Congregational Church. All of these European institutions found their way to America. The Puritans began to danand refonns fran James I. He refused and presecuted those that still dananded change. To avoid per– secution, sane Puritans decided to · migrate to Holland which led to their designation as Pilgrruns. In 1620, the Pilgrruns decided to migrate to the "new world". On SeptEmber 6, 1620, the Mayflower set sail for the "new world" with 102 passengers and landed 66 days later near what is now Cape Cod, Massachusetts. At this point, the preceding synop– sis of European history should help in understanding the events that lead to the sailing of the~ayflower. It should be clear to most of us what happened after the arrival of the May– flower (being drilled yearly during our impressable years in church and school of the idealized image of the Pilgrruns). Let us continue and deal with the events that lead to the establishing of Thanksgiving as a European holiday. Celebrate KWANZAA: Dec.26 thruJan.1 After the landing of the Mayflower, On Thursday NovEmber 26, 1789, when the first winter took its toll on the slavery was in full swing, George "religious freedan seekers'.' Those that Washington, (owner of slaves himself) didn't perish during the severe winter declared that the last Thursday in were insane by the time spring rolled NovEmber be set aside as a day of around. Forty-four Pilgrruns died that Thanksgiving. first winter and Governor Bradford of the Massachusetts Bay Colony said of It should be obvious to us (Black the survivors, "scarce fifty ranained people) now that we have absolutely· and of these were only six or seven nothing to celebrate in reference to sound person'.' George Thorpe, a scholar a European Thanks'giving. Honestly, colonist, said in 1621, "more do die what would we celebrate? --' the gena– here of the disease of the mind than ofcidal practice against the Indians the body'.' There is evidence that the or should we be thankful that our Pilgrruns reverted to cannibalism, sodo- ancestors were brutally enslaved and my, uncleanliness and all sorts of de- nrurdered by the so-called pious PH- generate behavior. grruns? The denial of reality and During the first spring the Pil– grruns made contact with the indige– nous inhabitants of the land, mis– nanered the "Indian" • These indige– nous Americans, being friendly and hospitable, taught the intruding settlers how to plant their crops and fish. Little did they know that this very act would ultimately lead to the almost complete theft of their land and extenmination of their people. One of the first acts the Pilgrruns performed in giving thanks to God was the slaughter of men, wanen, and children of the Peguot Indians. In– fants were torn from their mother's breast and hacked to pieces. The heads of the parents were chopped off and kicked about in the streets. Gov– ernor Bradford wrote, "It was a fear– ful sight to see them frying in the fire and the streruns of blood quench– ing the same and terrible was the stench thereof. But the victory seemed a sweet sacrifice and they (the whites) gave praise thereof to God." After the settlers had established their colony, the "Indians" were looked upon as "sava– ges" and had no rights that a Chris– tian European was bound to respect. In the fall of 1621 Governor Brad- the ignorance of our tradition and his– tory are the reasons we continue to ceJebrate this holiday. There are alternatives for us, both locally and nationally, that we should be about the business of developing and perpetuating. These alternatives are Black Frunily Day locally, and Umoja Karrunu (Unity Feast) nationally. They both are based on the same con– cept; The Black Frunily. They are observed as a time for fellowship within Black Frunilies, a time to re– establish those frunily committments to one another and the community, a tLme to give praise and pay hommage to th3se that cane before us, our elders and ancestors. This is the Thanksgiving concept that we must perpetuate. We cannot continue to mimic the holiday madness of Europeans who have historically proven over and over again to be dirunetrically opposed to our legiti– mate aspirations. We must continue the struggle of our forefathers and mothers to build our own institutions and establish our own holidays so that our people can return to their traditional greatness. ford issued a proclrunation calling for References used for this article: - Africa's Gift To America, Joel A. Rogers a thanksgiving feast to commemorate the first harvest. This point in time has great historical ~ignificance to us. Only two years prior in Aug– ust of 1619, twenty captured Afrikans - The Story of Civilization, Will landed on the Virginia coast to set Durant in motion the most vicious and inhu- mane economic systEm ever recorded in this earth's history; the Afrikan Slave Trade. Intially, the "Indians" were forced to labor in the fields for the white settlers. ~~t the In– dian could not stand up under the harsh conditions and the diseases that the colonists spread. So, under the recommendations of Bishop Barthalomew La Casas, the Kings of Europe and Pope - Afrikan People and European Holidays: A Mental Genocide, Rev. Ishakrunusa Barashango - How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, Walter Rodney of Rome turned to Afrika for their .................................... slave labor, and a Thanksgiving feast was held each year after the harvest.