October 16 - 18, 2007 

The myth of Heaven Sent:: Columbus, Western identity and (inferior) Others

Uzzi Ohana

London School of Economics and Political Science

The aim of this paper is to survey the myth of Heaven Sent.  By advancing this myth, Christopher Columbus created the base for modern Western identity and doomed the Indians as perennial inferior Others. The myth wrought by Columbus developed into a truth, which prevails in our days: non-Westerners are by and large still depicted as inferior in the West, whilst non-Westerners regard Westerners as superior than themselves. From the very first encounter with the Taínos, the first Indians he met, Columbus was predisposed. As Edmundo O’Gorman put it, “he not only thinks he has arrived in the Eastern side of the orbis terrarum, but he believes so”. 

This predisposed, narrow-minded stance impedes any real communication with and understanding of the natives. Instead of trying to comprehend, he chooses to manipulate reality, a situation that renders his Diario de Abordo a very questionable document. On the day he met the Taínos, Columbus ascertains they have no religion whatsoever. Afterwards describes how the Indians “thank God” for “the men who came from heaven”. Even if “hands served as a language here”, as Bartolomé de las Casas chronicled, the Admiral gives the impression he catches without hesitations every single detail of what the Indians tell him taking for granted they understand him too. Later, he recognises the difficulties in communication saying they do not understand each other. The incongruence in Columbus’s words here is obvious for how could the Taínos have grasped complex theological concepts such as “god” and “heaven” if they had no religious instruction at all as he claimed? And, more importantly, if the Admiral did not understand a word of what they were saying, lacking the cultural context too, how could he have known the Taínos believed the Spaniards were coming from heaven and were thanking god for their presence? By describing Spaniards as sent from heaven, Columbus created a perdurable myth that would become essential during the Conquista —when Spaniards are upgraded to the category of gods— and in the construction of Western identity.

About Uzzi Ohana

A Mexican doctoral student at the London School of Economics and Political Science. His doctoral research examines the notion of the securitisation of Others. Specifically, his thesis centres on how the Other is increasingly being conceived as a security matter in the post-9/11 world and the process through which the Other is constructed as a threat for a dominant identity.

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