Postcolonization-2

‘Repair is recognizing what history has denied us’

Portugal needs ‘to pay the cost’ of slavery and other colonial-era crimes, the country’s president Marcelo da Sousa declared at a recent dinner with foreign journalists. ‘The country takes full responsibility for the wrongs of the past and that those crimes – including colonial massacres – had costs.’

‘Are there goods that were looted and not returned? Let’s see how we can repair this. Acknowledging the past and taking responsibility for it is more important than apologizing. Apologizing is the easy part, you turn your back and the job is done.’ 

The president’s remarks came after the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk added his voice to the African and Caribbean countries calling for reparations to be made over slavery and colonization at the UN Forum on people of African descent in April.

The head of State further defended that Portugal has the ‘obligation’ to ‘lead the ‘reparation process’ to the countries that were colonized. He noted that this process does not have to go through ‘paying compensation.’ Reparations could be made by cancelling the debts of former colonies or introducing credit lines, financial packages or special cooperation programmes.

Portugal’s new centre-right government severely disapproved the president’s suggestion of slavery reparations, declaring that ‘ there was and is no process or programme’ for paying reparations for the Portuguese colonial past. The government’s line is and will be: deepening mutual relations, respect for historical truth and intense and close cooperation, based on the reconciliation of brotherly peoples.’

The president’s comments elicited above all strong criticism from rightwing and far-right parties in Parliament. Paulo Núncio, the leader of the Christian Democrats (CDS) and junior partner in the Democratic Alliance government, said ‘his party does not need to revisit colonial legacies and reparation duties.’ André Ventura, the leader of the far-right Chega party went even further by calling the president’s behaviour ‘a betrayal of the Portuguese people.’

The minister of Racial Equality of Brazil Anielle Franco on the other hand warmly welcomed the forceful statement of the Portuguese president and called for concrete actions and payment of reparations for past mistakes.

Her declaration was fully supported by the Marielle Franco Institute and the Centre for Labor Relations and Inequalities Studies. ‘The Portuguese expansion is inseparable from slavery. The absolute absence of positioning on the part of Portugal, and the lack of concrete measures of reparation to the Brazilian black population for the profound damage caused by enslavement and transatlantic trafficking are faults that need to be remedied.’ 

Meanwhile, the Angolan historian Alberto Pinto considers it ’impossible and even absurd’ to make a calculation today of the tragic costs of history. ‘It is better to teach the history of Africa in schools. Knowledge about the history of slavery is important. Returning assets, asking for forgiveness or paying debts are things common people do not think about, that only has to do with certain political interests.’

Epsy Campbell Barr, former Costa Rica vice-president and chairwoman of the UN Forum for people of African descent, agrees that it should be mandatory to teach the history of slavery in schools, but disagrees with regard to repairs. ‘Repair is recognizing what history has denied us.’ 

Enjoy your week          Aproveite a semana      (pic Público/Sapo)

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Postcolonial-1

‘Portugal has a romanticized interpretation of its past.’

Portugal was the European country with the longest historical involvement in the slave trade, kidnapping and forcibly transporting about 6 million African men, women and children across the Atlantic between the 15th and 19th centuries.

Although it abolished slavery to the Portuguese mainland in 1761, the trade to Brazil continued and slavery was not completely eliminated across all territories Portugal controlled until 1869.

Portugal’s colonial era lasted more than five centuries, with Angola, Mozambique, Brazil, Cape Verde, São Tomé and Príncipe, East Timor and some territories in Asia (Goa, Macau) subject to Portuguese rule.

Decolonization of the African countries and the end of the empire in Africa happened months after Portugal’s ‘Carnation Revolution’ in April 1974, toppling the longest fascist dictatorship in Europe.

“People find it hard to admit that the racism fostered by slavery and colonialism still exists, let alone acknowledge how thoroughly it has penetrated in the Portuguese society,” says Evalina Dias, project manager at Djass – Portugal’s Association of African Descendants. “The problem here is the systemic and structural racism, that frustrates black people every day when it comes to employment, health, education and housing.”

With regard to its history there are similarities between Portugal and Netherlands. “I think the way the official memory in Portugal operates is similar to the way memory around ‘the Golden Age’ exists in the Netherlands”, explains Paul Cardullo, curator of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture in the British newspaper the Guardian.
“In Portugal it is ‘the Age of Discoveries’ that provokes the same longstanding and fierce desire to protect it – without acknowledging the pain that comes along with that for a lot of people. Why? Because it’s caught up in the national identity.”

“Unfortunately, kids still learn at school that Portugal was an excellent colonizer, that the country ‘discovered’ other countries and that Portuguese people are so unique that they mixed with different cultures as if no violations occurred”, says Paula Cardoso, founder of the Afrolink online platform for black professionals in Portugal.  

Plantacão  (Plantation), the contemporary piece of art and memorial to the victims of slavery – conceived by the Angolan artist Kiluanji Kia Hendi in 2017 – should long have appeared but lack of political will and arguments over where it should be located have dogged the project’s progress for more than seven years.
“Portugal has a romanticized interpretation of its past”, Kia Hendi believes.

Enjoy your week                   Aproveite a sua semana      (pic Público/Lusa)








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