Thoughts on Vasco Da Gama

     The visit to the Cape of Good Hope was one of the highlights of the entire visit as far as excitement could go. Imagine actually being given the unique opportunity to visit this Cape, around which the legendary colonizing trader Vasco Da Gama, had sailed and allegedly had initiated colonialism in India, the Far East and in South Africa. Walking across the little hill-top from where one could fathom the most magnificent view of the Cape, it seemed a little far-fetched that one poor White trader was unnecessarily reviled for all the travails of Third World People through colonization and its attendant consequences. The Cape of Good Hope was at the confluence of the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Oceans and was technically at the confluence of the entire world. South Africa was a melting pot of cultures with its population characterized by European, Asian and African peoples. Basically, since childhood, and in grade school, I had been inundated with the idea that colonization in India was primarily initiated by this trader, Vasco Da Gama, who had also given the Cape of Good Hope its name. His act of sailing in search of better trade opportunities had allegedly set into motion, the greedy capitalist exploitation which had resulted in colonialism. This story had taken root in popular imagination and Vasco Da Gama was thoroughly reviled in both popular imagination and in scholarly discourse. Grade school children were taught that the biggest villain and initiator of colonialism, at least in India, was this Dutch trader known as Vasco Da Gama. However, looking at the magnificent view from the mountain-top, this story seemed implausible. At most, Da Gama, was just an ordinary trader who had bravely crossed frontiers in search of better trade opportunities. A group of greedy exploiters, had slowly realized the potential trade opportunities that waited to be exploited and had set up an unjust system of government in the Third World colonies, but popular imagination still reviled this poor trader who was at most a cultural ambassador and had interacted fruitfully with people across oceans.