Author: mouhamadou bah (Page 3 of 3)

Mouhamadou bah

ENGLIT 2200

Proff.Noonan

9/17/23

Discussion: one scene that I found very interesting was when they decided to leave the homes they have known for so Long in search of a new one because of the enforced religion they were living under. they traverse the the harsh seas the long winters in hoes of finding a place to call their own. And I think that is the bravest thing someone could do in that time was leave the known in search for the unknown.

READING: In praise of new Netherlands 1634. the first poem written in and about New York

this reading is about a man who was one of the first settlers in New York City, he was a poet named Jacob Steendam. the reading talks about Jacob life as one of the first settlers .it talks about his life before, as in where he was from, his ethnicity and his parents it also talks about when he cane to New York as in the job his had, the poetry he wrote, the places he’s been  and the memories h’es made. for examples it says that because of his passion for writing poetry, he sought others who had the same passion and even joined a literacy circle run by a famous dutch person called Jan Zoet. But he realized that he needed more money so he decided to get a real job with dutch west India company, an organization heavily involved in trade specially in tropical regions. soon after he came back from his post in Ghana he decided to Mary in 1649.he also visited other visited other places with his wife for work related reasons. what I found most interesting in this whole entire reading is the the poetry he wrote about New York. I found it very fun to read and easily understandable. it says when he returned to Poland  he got rehired by the dutch east India company. soon after he and his wife got sent to to the East Indies now known as Jakarta, where he continued to write and owned an orphanage and died of old age.

VIDEO: history of new Amsterdam

in this video the narrator talks how the americas came to be formed. they talk about  the how the early settlers slowly ceased control lands from the ingenious people. they colonized the country by bringing trading companies and ships so that they can take the resources to their countries. also how they tricked the Indians by taking so much stuff and only giving them trinkets with only $20. and just like the America’s was own by the white American’s, and there are so few left of those who owned it the first place.

Mouhamadou bah

RNG 2200

Professor Noonan

9/9/23

VIDEO:  Lost history of the Taino people.

I found the documentary video on the lost history of the Taino people very disturbing to me, because of all the horrors the Taino people suffered at the hands of the people they thought were sent from heaven. A key theme that I believe people should think about after watching this video is what colonization looks/looks like. I know that everybody’s history of colonization is messed up, but this video proves how it looks for the colonizers and the colonized.

For example, we see images of the Taino people being overworked, beaten half to death, and dismembered. Some even killed their offspring and committed suicide.

And it’s really disturbing because the more I look at it the more I think that those colonizers had no morals. I know those were different times, but I keep wondering how a human being could do that to another human being.

At the end of the video, it is explained that luckily there are still people who are or think of themselves as Taino and I guess not killing all the Taino had something come out of it.

READING: An optimistic letter by Columbus “On His First Voyage to  America, 1492”

I found the letter by Colombus very interesting to read because I had always thought that Columbus was a major colonizer. I had read stories of how he colonized most of West Africa the moment he stepped foot in it, but after reading this I feel like I was a bit biased because of the histories I learned.

His letter “On his first voyage to America” explained the way he saw the Taino Indians and their home in very detailed ways. He describes by mentioning the mountains, the trees, the resources, the people, and the gold. It talks about how he treated the Taino people, with kindness and goodness and how they treated him in return with goodness, care, love, and admiration. He talks about the places he visited and claimed his king, queen, and country. And the allies he made by introducing his culture and religion to the people who had none. It’s all so fascinating. He also talks about how timid these people are and how they do not know how to protect themselves, which makes it easier to dispose of anyone who does not accept their rule.

But I also think it’s too bad that he sent that letter, describing all the beautiful things you could find on this island. Because after he did the Taino people suffered a lot.

I think he should have chosen his wording wisely because if he had thousands of people would not have suffered because of his letter.