Dr. Cleveland W. Eneas Sr. addressed the Rotary Club of East Nassau October 1989. His Discovery Day remarks follow.

INTRODUCTION Prof. Leo Wiener: The news is easily captured the Moorish CAPE OF GOOD Africa and the Dis- confirmed by Chris- stronghold of Ceuta HOPE This weekend is covery of America, topher Columbus in North Africa, and a holiday weekend, which was published - because on his sec- this inspired them With the knowl- and we are having more than a half cen- ond voyage to the to go further south edge of what was in a public holiday on tury ago. I quote Americas, the natives along the coast of the East and espe- Monday to celebrate Sertima: “Profes- described repeat- Africa finding peo- cially what was in Discovery Day. It is sor Wiener had been edly to him the black pled settlements all India, this achieve- also called Colum- working on a gram- men who traded with along the way. ment of the Portug- bus Day, and is cele- mar of American lan- them, and whose ese, spurred them on brated in many parts guages in the early spears were tipped of the Western world, years of this century, with gold.” including the United when he stumbled He went on with States. Almost 500 upon a body of lin- well documented years ago, a cele- guistic phenomena notes and references brated Genoese sailor that indicated clearly to describe some named Christopher to him the presence of the possible evi- Columbus happened of an African and dences as to the like- upon an island in our Arabic influence on lihood of all this. archipelago, which DR. CLEVELAND some medieval Mexi- This is not pertinent none of his peers W. ENEAS can and South Ameri- to this Discovery Day knew was there. can languages before talk but I brought In the western the European contact it up as a matter About the author part of this globe period.” of interest related we now know about This English to the discovery of Cleveland W. Eneas Sr. is a some time them, but the Euro- author then went into America. Our talk is practising dentist who is employed part pean of the 15th cen- a serious search for about Columbus and time by his older son, Dr. Cleveland W. tury had no positive evidences to prove the effect his discov- Eneas Jr. He is a Bahamian-Bahamian, knowledge that they such a theory, and ery had on the world. having been born in the middle of Bain existed. Town, in the middle of the summer of 1915. came up with some The people of In spite of the fact that most people believe I have told you, startling revelations Europe and Asia that he is the oldest man in Nassau, he’s the last time I talked about “the secret had written histo- still in the youth of old age. to you on this sub- route from Guinea”. ries, many centuries ject, about a study For this discussion before the 15th. They He is the son of the late Bishop W. V. by an English author allow me to quote had gone through Eneas of the Church of God. He was edu- named Ivan Van Ser- briefly from Sertima centuries of develop- cated in the schools of Nassau, and then tima entitled They one evidence that he ment and recorded his father sent him to Tuskegee Institute, Came Before Colum- came up with: “Chris- their achievements where he finished high school in 1933, and bus in topher so that the people of earned a B. Sc. degree in 1937. He and his which he, Colum- Europe, Asia Minor, wife Muriel, a retired headmistress of St. in a very bus is at and North America Anne’s High-School, have just returned scholarly dinner, had certain knowl- from Tuskegee University, where he cele- manner, intriguing edge in common. brated his 15th class reunion. discusses with Don Marco Polo in the He is a graduate of Meharry Medical the Afri- Juan, the 13th century had College in Nashville, Tenn., in the class of can pres- king of travelled to the East 1941. Upon graduation, he taught gross ence in Portugal, and described graph- anatomy and oral surgery for six years at ancient who first ically the kingdom Meharry. America. tells him of Prester John, the He has practiced general dentistry in Ivan Van of a secret empire of the Grand Nassau since 1947. He is in partnership Sertima trade Khan and the gold with his son, whom he describes as “a very was prodded to make route that Africans and silver of Java and benevolent boss.” His other children are: Dr. this study after dis- have been travelling India. The Portugese Judson F. Eneas, who is practising internal covering the work of to the New World. in 1415 attacked and medicine and nephrology in Nassau, and a Harvard Linguist, to the desire to round the far East by mak- what Portugal had Dr. Agreta Eneas, who is practising family the Cape of Good ing a western voyage. done in Africa with medicine at the Princess Margaret Hospi- Hope, like Vasco da In the 13th century, colonies and free tal. Gama, to get these Roger Bacon’s sci- labour. Dr. Eneas is a charter member of the treasures. Europe’s entific methods led The Crusades had first Kiwanis club to be formed outside of dreams and ambi- him to speculate that failed but the zeal the continental U.S.A. and Canada – the tions in the 15th there was land and that was built up Kiwanis Club of Nassau – and is still an century consisted ocean distribution for the propagation active member in that club. He has served mostly of reaching all over the globe and of the faith and the in many positions in Kiwanis, from chair- India and the East. by sailing west from saving of the Holy ing programme committees, president in To reach the riches Spain for a few days Land for the Chris- 1969-1970; Lt. Governor in 1974 for which of the East was nec- one would arrive in tians was still pres- he received a distinguished Pin. essary for them, for western Asia. ent. This zeal had to His hobbies are many, but chiefly golf as the Estates Gen- Columbus of have an outlet some- and writing, in which pursuits he is ably eral of France com- Genoa was a sailor where and so dis- assisted by his wife. It is said that he is plained in 1484: two and navigator of covering new lands a very good golfer, but never learned how Popes had drained great learning, espe- and expanding their to make good scores. He has written and France of more than cially of things per- overseas possessions published three books: Bain Town, Let the two million in gold. taining to geography ensured most of this, Church Roll on and his latest, Tuskegee, Other countries must and mathematics. As especially in Spain Ra! Ra! have suffered the a youth, he studied and England. Dr. Eneas has been the chairman of the same fate and needed all that was available There were two Bahamas Golf Federation for a number of a bolstering of their in these faculties and economic factors years. He is the chairman of the boards economies. made “Marco Polo’s that also spurred the of trustees for both the Southern Public It never occurred accounts of China interest in Columbus’ Library and the Nassau Public Library. to the Europeans almost his bible.” He, venture. First, the that the riches of the therefore, planned a European in the Med- He is a Presbyterian elder, and superin- East belonged to the voyage to put to the iterranean area had tendent of the Sunday school at the Kirk in people of the East test Bacon’s spec- learned from India Nassau. and were not theirs ulations, and was how to process sugar, In the 1989 New Year’s honours he was to take. To them, the assured by the great and had their facto- made an Officer of the British Empire. world was theirs. The Italian geographer, ries and plantations Pope had divided the Pablo Toscanelli that in Sicily and Cyprus. GREAT CONTRO- team through the aid world up between his intention was Second, Europeans VERSY of computers, found Spain and Portugal in sound. had learned from that Columbus did 1455 and France and AN INDEPEN- the Portugese and The certainty land in The Bahamas Britain and the other DENT PORTUGAL the Moors how to as to where he first but not at San Sal- countries of Europe tap colonial labour. landed is still a mat- vador, but at a place assumed their own- Political and When Columbus left ter of great contro- called either Savan- ership later and took economic changes Spain on August 3rd, versy. Historians nah Cay or Samana the Pope’s gesture as brought about much 1492 (exactly 500 have come to the Cay. a joke. unrest in Europe. years to the day I was arbitrary conclusion At this point, I Europe was burst- The nation state was married - in 1992 that it was an island wish to quote from ing at the seams with on the rise and the I would have been in The Bahamas that the thesis of a Baha- people and its econ- shape of Europe was married 50 years) he we now call San Sal- mian student, Karen omy was being dev- drastically altered. was equipped with vador. The natives Stewart, which she astated. It was the France had rejected a variety of help- called it Guanahani. submitted for her period of the Renais- England’s claims to ful gadgets. He took Christened in San bachelor’s degree in sance and there was any of its lands; Por- with him the Euro- Salvador and by an 1988. She entitled a renewed interest in tugal established its pean wanderlust, Act of Parliament in her thesis: “Could the geography. The medi- independence from a powerful eco- 1927 we officially Real San Salvador eval idea of the earth Spain, which had nomic impulse, the called it San Salva- please stand up.” dor. On the eighth of being flat had been become independent required technical “In November October 1986, I hap- dispensed with long of the Moors and Fer- aids, a dominant cru- 1986, Joseph Judge, pened to have heard ago. After reading dinand and Isabella sading motive and Senior Associate Edi- over radio station Greek scholars, there became sovereign the knowledge that tor of National Geo- WKAT an announce- was speculation that Lords of Spain. These Africa was a reser- graphic startled ment that National there was a possi- two were ready to voir of almost limit- both the public and Geographic Research bility of reaching emulate in the West; less labour. academics alike by claiming that the didn’t know where two large continents tors so they went that there was an solution to the mys- he was when he got that lay to the west singing and dancing unlimited source of tery (of the Columbus there, and ended up of the islands of the to the prospect. In a cheap labour in West landfall) is Samana in goal when he got Caribbean. strange land being Africa. The Portu- Cay. Why is it that back home. This has The whole object forced to labour all guese had used black many people since been the fate of many of his venture was day they began to fret Africans as slaves 1625 have done exten- since him. to find gold and sil- and began to die in long before Colum- sive research and He, like the peo- ver, and to spread the great numbers. Those bus left Spain, and come up with nine ple whom he met on faith of the Catholic who would not suc- he was sensitive to different possible these islands, did not church. When he had cumb to the deceit of this. When the Span- solutions to the mys- record very much, sailed through our the Spaniards were iards found that they tery? The unfounded and not as accurately islands and found no hunted like animals needed this labour, certainty is due to as he might have. gold, he lost interest and suffered the they remembered the the ambiguity and Because of this, a in them, and estab- great cruelty in being knowledge of Colum- imprecision found in German professor of lished his first set- forced to work. bus. the third-hand copy geography named the tlement on the north WHAT DID THEY Thus he must be of Columbus’s Dia- lands that Columbus coast of Hispaniola, FIND? credited with open- rio de a Bordo. Fray found America. This where he did find ing up the way for Bartolome de Las was done because a gold. Here he also The people of one of the worst peri- Casas, contemporary Florence adventurer found a gentle peo- these islands found ods in the history of of Columbus, tran- by the name of Amer- ple, whom his people that they were not man’s inhumanity to scribed Columbus’ igo Vespucci reached forced into panning able to withstand man - human slavery diary from a copy of the new world in gold from the streams the cruelty and the in the West Indies the diary (known as 1492, but he wrote from dawn until ungodliness of the and the Americas. the Barcelona copy) completely about his dusk. When they Spaniards, nor had The dastardly “mid- in his book, Histo- achievement to the had exhausted the they any resistance to dle passage” followed ria de las Indias. The point that it was read streams of the area, the diseases that the the route of Colum- fact that Las Casas all over Europe and they were put to Spaniards brought bus, and turned out worked from a copy the thought persisted digging for the ore. to the islands. When to be the watery of the diary coupled that he had eclipsed This kind of work they had decimated grave of many an with the unavoidable Columbus. It wasn’t decimated them to the people that they African. navigational errors until the early part the point that too found here, the Span- WHAT DO WE that a friar could iards left the islands of the 19th century, soon there were not CELEBRATE? easily commit allows when a country upon enough left to do the fallow for more than a lot of room for gaining its indepen- digging. a hundred years and Nevertheless in error. Each advocate dence chose to call When the labour never did anything the face of all this, of a specific landfall itself Columbia in of Hispaniola was for the development the results of his theory used this high honor of Columbus. depleted, the Span- of them. ventures, though percentage of error WHAT DID HE iards (if not Colum- It was good to bad for some, were in the log to his own DISCOVER? bus himself, but those have discovered good for the many. personal advantage.” whom he caused to these lands but they In 1992, this new It is reported that the What did Colum- be there) remem- were useless unless world would have Minister of Educa- bus really find? He bered that Columbus they could be made been included on the tion was asked about found land, where had many “friends” in to produce. Even- map of the globe for this and his reply he hoped it would The Bahamas. They tually, it was found 500 years. In those is reported to have be, but he thought it petitioned the king to that they could pro- five centuries, the been, “I can care less was Asia. He found a allow them to bring duce sugar cane on a thinking, the beliefs, as long as they don’t kind and gentle peo- these Arawaks to big scale. To do this and the demean- try to take him out of ple, whom he called Hispaniola, so that they needed inex- our of the earth have The Bahamas”. Indians because they could convert pensive labour, and changed enormously Nevertheless, he thought that he them to Christianity, the people that they and the question is: Columbus goes was in India. In our and to continue to found here were not is the globe any bet- down in the records islands he found dig for gold. suited for the labour ter off for it? I dare as our first Euro- no gold or miner- They beguiled that they required. say there is not one pean tourist, who left als, but a kind and these unsuspecting It must not be for- of you who will not home on borrowed gentle people who Arawaks by telling gotten that from his agree that it is better. money, not know- befriended him. them that they were first voyage, Colum- I am certain that it is ing exactly where There is no evidence being taken to the bus was equipped “Better in The Baha- he was going and that he ever saw the land of their ances- with the knowledge mas” and for many reasons. In spite of the fact be worthy of our sovereign state and nation. It is only proper that anything that has that the Spaniards had no changed the world as much as Columbus’ discovery has, is worthy of great adulation. hand in making it better, we I plan to go to Adelaide for the weekend and enjoy it. Gentlemen, may you also have an still have cause to celebrate. enjoyable Columbus Day. A few years ago our gov- BIBLIOGRAPHY ernment formed a committee 1. Eric Williams: From Columbus to Castro - The History of the Caribbean 1492-1969. to make plans for the recog- 2. Gillian Bain: Bahamian History Book 2. nition of this great event; what these plans are, has 3. Eric Williams: Capitalism and Slavery. not yet been fully revealed, 4. Ivan Van Sertima: They Came Before Columbus. but we hope that they will 5. Karen Stewart: Bachelor’s Thesis - Could the Real San Salvador Please Stand Up?

Article from The Nassau Guardian, Monday, October 30, 1989