allow me to explain. none of these things are my thoughts or views i have no opinion on any of this, this is just a discussion. every year at my uni there are hispanic protestors gathering around campus protesting the fact columbus day is a celebrated holiday and they go on about things like he was a rapist, a murderer, a thief, he didnt discover north america there were people living there, he almost wiped out the native society and stuff like that. the general idea behind it is history is written by the winner. kind of like how in the US we think of General Washington as a brave hero but if he had lost society would have remembered him as basically a terrorist rebel.

well, my sister and i were just in south africa doing a volunteer program a couple weeks ago and the general idea in south africa with a lot of people is a lot of people dont like nelson mandella and said he almost caused a civil war and and he was a bad guy and that this whole idea of history being written by the winner and there being two sides to every story applies to him too, but nobody from south africa that we were with (people running the volunteer program) wanted to tell us about it bc they said it isnt appropriate for them to talk about race and politics in the volunteer setting we were in even though all the volunteers who were from the states or england wanted to know bc this is all news to us, though nobody in the volunteer group was particularly pro or anti mandella, we just thought it was interesting to hear.

so historians, i have no stake in anything he did, im neither black nor african. im actually a white Spaniard (what up columbus protestors!jk) im just looking for a calm discussion and dont want anyone to be offended. i just want to know for my own general knowledge. cheers!