Other Americas Blog- Ian Miller

 Oroonoko is a tragic story about Prince Oroonoko of Coramentien. His secret wife is first taken into slavery after she refuses to marry Oroonoko's Grandfather, and later on Oroonoko and his men are tricked into boarding a ship for trading slaves. He is taken into custody by the British and shipped to Suriname. The text states, "And in great Admiration of the Ship, for he had never been in one before; so that he was curious of beholding every Place where he decently might descend. The rest, no less curious, who were not quite overcome with drinking, rambled at their Pleasure  Fore  and  Aft , as their Fancies guided ’em: So that the Captain, who had well laid his Design before, gave the Word, and seiz’d on all his Guests; they clapping great Irons suddenly on the Prince". Oroonoko makes the great mistake of letting his guard down and letting his curiosity out. He had been drinking, and this may have led to his lapse in judgement. He is immediately seized, and almost ...

  Bartolome de las Casas was a Spanish Friar who became the first  European to advocate for the rights of native Americans. He was invited to Spain to debate the king of Spain in relation to the Encomienda system. The Encomienda system was initiated during the 16th century in Spanish colonies. It was implemented because the Spanish rulers viewed the natives as barbaric and incapable of leading their own nations. As a result, the king decided that a European ruler must be implemented to preside over the colony to instill order and tranquility. de Las Casas though though otherwise; he thought that the natives were capable of living their own free lives and he also believed that they deserved to be treated as humans without being dictated by the King and ruler that was chosen. As a result,  de las Casas began speaking out against the Encomienda system advocating for radical change. So, the king of Spain brought  de las Casas to debate Juan Sepulveda ...

 I have always found Columbus to be a character of intrigue, so I decided to focus on his accounts of his voyage. Sir Walter Raleigh is an incredible explorer in his own right, however, I did not find his accounts to be incredibly captivating. I found the way in which Columbus described his accounts to be fascinating. Not only does he do a great job going in depth as to what happened each day, he also uses a short hand type of speech. I would venture a guess that he did not want his accounts to be too wordy or long while also making sure that everything that had happened was recorded. I strongly propose that it was not only Columbus who was responsible for this accomplishment of finding new land, but rather his crew should have gotten much more recognition than they eventually got. The admiral was stern in his beliefs and did not want to turn back. Columbus recalls, " The Admiral thought from this that Martin Alonzo did not wish to proceed onward to Cipango; but he considered it b...

      Child's theory on post-colonialism is an interesting read that goes in depth to analyze the true meaning of the post-colonial period. The book definition refers to post-colonial as a, "time after colonialism has come to an end". The reading was intriguing because the idea of  post-colonial can be interpreted in many different ways. In the reading, the author quotes Anne McClintok's different take on the word post-colonial. She says, "All territorial aggressions ever undertaken in human history are included under the same heading, thus rendering the term useless." She basically says that everyone in history has experienced some sort of post-colonial era, thus they all experienced a post-colonial phase. This can be one way to look at the idea of the term, however the word relates to a state of being after something. As a result, I find that it is not right to say that all of time and all of Earth has always been in a state of post-colonialism On th...

     The documentary "Tongues of Heaven", is an interesting documentary that highlights how the indigenous people of Asia are beginning to lose their tribal languages. Instead of using the languages that are inherent to their small tribe, people are now adopting Chinese (Mandarin) and other languages that are more widely practiced. In doing so, the tribes are losing parts of their culture, as well as losing members to the surrounding majority. Due to the dwindling amount of new learners, the indigenous languages may die out, which could cause the tribes and their cultures to go extinct. With so many Austronesian languages, many are lost constantly to the most widely spoken languages in the area. In the beginning of the documentary, the young girl says "I do not want to go there, I just want to look at it from here"  ("Tongues of Heaven.", directed by Anita Chang, et al.). . She responded this way after being asked if she would want to go to her original vi...