THE COURAGE OF THE CULTURAL PIONEER

Being the first or amongst the first to do something such as visiting another country inhabited by people who are ethnically, linguistically and/or culturally different from you is not only a very courageous thing to do, but it can be potentially very dangerous. Most of us will be au fait with the exploits of past explorers, whether it be Columbus 'discovering' the lands of the West Indies, the Spanish Conquistadors invading the Americas and dominating and destroying its native peoples, or Mongol warriors conquering and dominating the peoples of the Steppes of Asia, the Chinese emperors, before and after them, conquering and expanding their empires, or, in more recent times, the British, French, Belgian and Germans scrambling for the lands of Africa and the West Indies. Those invasions were based on explorers desire to accumulate wealth and lands for themselves and their countries of origins, and their invasions were not meant to be friendly or promoting peaceful co-exis...