The Luciads provide an interesting look into how religion influences mapping. As the Portuguese, headed by Vasco da Gama, explore the eastern coast of the African continent, they come across many different African civilizations and cultures. Through Camões’ narration, these are described nearly solely by their dominating religion. The poem bemoans cultures for their “Moslom” faiths, and eagerly await the discovery of a predominantly Christian culture. The narrator frequently refers to Muslims as “infidels,” as their non-Christian religion places them squarely at odds with the Portuguese. When the Portuguese reach Mombasa, Bacchus fools them into believing that the people there are of the Christian faith. In this way, this belief lulled the Portuguese into a false sense of security. Thus, the religion of a newly discovered land correlated to how it was perceived and mapped. Christian societies and lands were viewed as safe havens and sanctuaries for the European Christians. Muslim lands, by contrast, were dangerous, uncharted territories. Religion thus provides, in my opinion, the dominating narrative so far as to how da Gama and Camões map these newly found African lands.
2 Replies to “Mapping Religion with da Gamas”
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You bring up some very interesting points here. Although I do think it is important to note that the Portuguese explorers did in fact probably come into contact with Christians living in Africa. These regions of Ethiopia and Kenya did have a strong Christian community at this time due to the spread of Christianity from Coptic Christians Southwards from Egypt years earlier. There were Muslims as well, which also clearly conveys the message of how da Gama and his men felt safer around the Christians and not the Muslims, despite Bacchus fooling them.
This is a really good point. Even looking at the style of the writing, de Camoes uses Biblical language to establish his journey as an important, and even divinely inspired, endeavor. For example, Manoel tells the speaker that “to risk one’s life, even to lose it, is to win renown” (116). The speaker explains that his men are “ready to follow him to the ends of the earth” (118). These moments are important because de Camoes uses Christian terms to reshape the colonial conquest as an event that has been assigned to the explorers by God.