news Portugal recognizes guilt for slavery and indigenous genocide in Brazil

[constantinople]

Source

 

 

"Portugal was responsible for the crimes commited against slaves and indigenous peoples of Brazil during the colonial era and should pay for this" - says portuguese president Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.

 

In a conversation on Tuesday night (April 23) with foreign correspondents, Rebelo de Sousa also said that he suggested that his government should make reparations for slavery and stated that his country "assumes full responsibility for the damage caused", such as massacres of indigenous people, slavery of millions of Africans and looted goods. April 22 was the 524th anniversary of the portuguese finding the land the indigenous people called Pindorama - modern Brazil.

 

However, the Portuguese president did not specify how the reparation will be carried out. It is the first time that a president of Portugal -- who is the country's head of state -- has acknowledged guilt. Last year, Rebelo de Sousa said Portugal should apologize for transatlantic slavery and colonialism, but didn't make a full apology.

 

As early as Tuesday night, he claimed that acknowledging the past and taking responsibility for it was more important than apologizing. "Apologizing is the easy part," he said.

 

 

Portugal was the country that trafficked most Africans in the colonial era. There were almost 6 million of them, almost half of the total number of people enslaved at the time by European countries.

 

Instead, Portugal's colonial era -- during which countries such as Angola, Mozambique, Brazil, Cape Verde and East Timor, as well as parts of India, came under Portuguese rule -- is often seen as a source of pride. Over more than four centuries, at least 12.5 million Africans were kidnapped, forcibly transported long distances, mainly by European ships and traders, and sold into slavery. Those who survived the journey were sent to work on plantations in Brazil and the Caribbean.

Edited April 24 by constantinople

[Bacardo Royale]

Progress 

[Cloudy]

Wow that graph, you wiuld think Spain would be among the first ones considering the mass of land they took control off but they are behind NL

 

It's nice that he aknowledged and is receptive to some kind of compensation. Would be nice to see Spain follow suit, unlikely tho as our politics are a mess as they are inside pur borders. 

[Tropez]

5 minutes ago, Cloudy said:

Wow that graph, you wiuld think Spain would be among the first ones considering the mass of land they took control off but they are behind NL

 

It's nice that he aknowledged and is receptive to some kind of compensation. Would be nice to see Spain follow suit, unlikely tho as our politics are a mess as they are inside pur borders. 

The graph needs historical context. 
 

Portugal was the main slave trader and the first in the transatlantic to do so. They had a tiny population, and needed people to work. Because they established so many holdings along the African coast. They essentially created a monopoly on the slave trade. Most countries had to buy slaves from Portugal. 

The slave trade was highly lucrative. So of course other countries wanted in by establishing their own point of slave trading. But the Portuguese were the biggest country in that market. Spain was the second largest importer of slaves after Portugal. But you wouldn't think that from the graph. 
 

By wars, the British took over the Portuguese monopoly. Which is why you see them as second. However, the British also ended the slave trade. And used their power to force other countries to abolish slavery. 

[Odette Violet]

Good.

 

Espania when 

[Mirtilo]

Time to return the gold

[TitanicSurvivor]

Well... Better late than never

[tiagol88]

Quote

Instead, Portugal's colonial era -- during which countries such as Angola, Mozambique, Brazil, Cape Verde and East Timor, as well as parts of India, came under Portuguese rule -- is often seen as a source of pride.

As Portuguese i can tell you the problem starts right at school. At least during the 90's, history books taught us this in a way that made us feel proud of that past...and it never mentioned the word slavery per say...at least not directly. It was always "Portugal discovered Brazil", "Portugal discovered India", etc . Like...there were people already there...we didn't discovered those countries...how did we discover them? lmao 

 

Books talk about all the travels by boat on those dangerous oceans we used to make (and honestly...impressive stuff for its time) but it barely mentions the atrocities we did once we landed on the other side. 

 

That's why so many people here refuse to even talk about this later in life. 

[Dear Reader]

well, finally 

 

14 minutes ago, tiagol88 said:

As Portuguese i can tell you the problem starts right at school. At least during the 90's, history books taught us this in a way that made us feel proud of that past...and it never mentioned the word slavery per say...at least not directly. It was always "Portugal discovered Brazil", "Portugal discovered India", etc . Like...there were people already there...we didn't discovered those countries...how did we discover them? lmao 

 

Books talk about all the travels by boat on those dangerous oceans we used to make (and honestly...impressive stuff for its time) but it barely mentions the atrocities we did once we landed on the other side. 

 

That's why so many people here refuse to even talk about this later in life. 

and yes, all of this 

[conquxror]

19 minutes ago, tiagol88 said:

As Portuguese i can tell you the problem starts right at school. At least during the 90's, history books taught us this in a way that made us feel proud of that past...and it never mentioned the word slavery per say...at least not directly. It was always "Portugal discovered Brazil", "Portugal discovered India", etc . Like...there were people already there...we didn't discovered those countries...how did we discover them? lmao 

On the other hand, here in Brazil we are taught from a very early age that Portugal colonized us, enslaved our indigenous people, took our precious resources, amongst other things. That's why so many brazilians have such strong feelings towards Portugal, especially since we are aware of how it is a matter of pride for a lot of people in there.

Edited April 24 by conquxror

[Jotham]

That number. The role that Portugal played in both slavery and imperialism gets underplayed a lot.

[Dear Reader]

1 minute ago, conquxror said:

On the other hand, here in Brazil we are thought from a very early age that Portugal colonized us, enslaved our indigenous people, took our precious resources, amongst other things. That's why so many brazilians have such strong feelings towards Portugal, especially since we are aware of how it is a matter of pride for a lot of people in there.

I'm glad it's taught that way there cause it's the harsh truth. 

As @tiagol88said, we're taught story in a heroic way and it's very romanticized. Deconstructing myself from that was hard, but if I was able to educate myself, so is everyone else. The Portuguese in general are kind of small minded and xenophobic. And then we (not part of that group) engage on online fights vs the Brazilians as if it's not normal for a colonized country to be angry at us. 

I have many brazilian friends now and they taught me a lot of stuff. 

[LegaMyth]

I'm glad that they've acknowledged wgat they have done. Native and Afro Brazilians are still dealing within racism in Brazil. It's a damn shame. 

[Dear Reader]

Just now, LegaMyth said:

I'm glad that they've acknowledged wgat they have done. Native and Afro Brazilians are still dealing within racism in Brazil. It's a damn shame. 

And still dealing with xenophobia in Portugal. It's horrible… 

[tiagol88]

1 minute ago, conquxror said:

On the other hand, here in Brazil we are thought from a very early age that Portugal colonized us, enslaved our indigenous people, took our precious resources, amongst other things. That's why so many brazilians have such strong feelings towards Portugal, especially since we are aware of how it is a matter of pride for a lot of people in there.

I mean, the sentence "give us back our gold" turned into a meme and a joke online...but it makes sense for people to have that feeling, specially in Brazil. 

 

There's so many Brazilians migrating to Portugal right now that our president probably figured this needed to be addressed sooner or later.  

 

In 2024 pretending this never happened or that it isn't important, isn't progress in any way. This isn't the 1970's. We should do better. Hopefully we will. 

 

Just now, Dear Reader said:

I'm glad it's taught that way there cause it's the harsh truth. 

As @tiagol88said, we're taught story in a heroic way and it's very romanticized. Deconstructing myself from that was hard, but if I was able to educate myself, so is everyone else. The Portuguese in general are kind of small minded and xenophobic. And then we (not part of that group) engage on online fights vs the Brazilians as if it's not normal for a colonized country to be angry at us. 

I have many brazilian friends now and they taught me a lot of stuff. 

Same here. With so many brazilians living here that i got to meet, these subjects always end up getting addressed sooner or later. I usually just shut up, get awkward and listen, lmao.

[conquxror]

8 minutes ago, tiagol88 said:

There's so many Brazilians migrating to Portugal right now that our president probably figured this needed to be addressed sooner or later.  

Oh, that's 100% true. I know about 3 people from my inner circle who are currently living in Portugal. That truly might be the reason why this was addressed, didn't really make that connection until now

[Virgos Groove]

41 minutes ago, tiagol88 said:

As Portuguese i can tell you the problem starts right at school. At least during the 90's, history books taught us this in a way that made us feel proud of that past...and it never mentioned the word slavery per say...at least not directly. It was always "Portugal discovered Brazil", "Portugal discovered India", etc . Like...there were people already there...we didn't discovered those countries...how did we discover them? lmao 

 

Books talk about all the travels by boat on those dangerous oceans we used to make (and honestly...impressive stuff for its time) but it barely mentions the atrocities we did once we landed on the other side. 

 

That's why so many people here refuse to even talk about this later in life. 

It's still taught like that (or at least was in the late-10s).

 

In my old textbooks, there was one (1) page dedicated to the tragedies of slavery and colonialism. Meanwhile the "discoveries" had like 50 pages and the tone was always "we discovered everything, what a great country we are oh and millions of slaves died". Way too many people in this country still believe we were the "good colonizers".

Edited April 24 by Virgos Groove

[Ms. Togekiss]

43 minutes ago, tiagol88 said:

As Portuguese i can tell you the problem starts right at school. At least during the 90's, history books taught us this in a way that made us feel proud of that past...and it never mentioned the word slavery per say...at least not directly. It was always "Portugal discovered Brazil", "Portugal discovered India", etc . Like...there were people already there...we didn't discovered those countries...how did we discover them? lmao 

 

Books talk about all the travels by boat on those dangerous oceans we used to make (and honestly...impressive stuff for its time) but it barely mentions the atrocities we did once we landed on the other side. 

 

That's why so many people here refuse to even talk about this later in life. 

Has the education system changed a bit or are they still teaching it that way?

28 minutes ago, conquxror said:

On the other hand, here in Brazil we are taught from a very early age that Portugal colonized us, enslaved our indigenous people, took our precious resources, amongst other things. That's why so many brazilians have such strong feelings towards Portugal, especially since we are aware of how it is a matter of pride for a lot of people in there.

It's obviously taught differently in former colonies. Most Hispanic countries in LATAM learn about the atrocities of the Spaniards and how they wiped out entire cities, not to mention the African slaves that were brought to the Caribbean and who reached Central America escaping from slavery

21 minutes ago, tiagol88 said:

I mean, the sentence "give us back our gold" turned into a meme and a joke online...but it makes sense for people to have that feeling, specially in Brazil. 

 

There's so many Brazilians migrating to Portugal right now that our president probably figured this needed to be addressed sooner or later.  

 

In 2024 pretending this never happened or that it isn't important, isn't progress in any way. This isn't the 1970's. We should do better. Hopefully we will. 

 

Same here. With so many brazilians living here that i got to meet, these subjects always end up getting addressed sooner or later. I usually just shut up, get awkward and listen, lmao.

It's interesting that Brazilians think the same way about Portugal and gold that Hispanic Latinos do about Spain and gold. The interesting part is that Spanish people get offended if you tell them they should give back all the gold and silver they took. From the replies in this thread I assume the Portuguese react the same way.  
 

i wonder how the Spanish colonization of the Americas is taught in Spain 

[bielneira]

Finally! It took them long enough. I'm brazilian, and knowing that they never recognized their own genocide towards our people was enfuriating. If they were once a rich country, it was because of OUR gold.

[Tropez]

1 hour ago, Jotham said:

That number. The role that Portugal played in both slavery and imperialism gets underplayed a lot.

I think it's because we live in a very Anglocentric world. People probably don't know how bad slavery was in the Danish, Swedish and Dutch colonies. The Dutch in particular were very brutal. But we all know about slavery that happened in the British colonies and US South. I can guarantee you a random person wouldn't even know that it was Portugal who started the transatlantic slave trade. 

[DuffStan]

10 minutes ago, Tropez said:

I think it's because we live in a very Anglocentric world. People probably don't know how bad slavery was in the Danish, Swedish and Dutch colonies. The Dutch in particular were very brutal. But we all know about slavery that happened in the British colonies and US South. I can guarantee you a random person wouldn't even know that it was Portugal who started the transatlantic slave trade. 

Very interesting take I have to agree with. The French also discuss some part of their colonial past but not all of it, especially with the DOM/TOM.

[manuelalex9810]

That's good. 

Unfortunately, from what I've seen in Spain they still celebrated it as "El Día de la Hispanidad", a lot of them think and paint it as it was an exchange of cultures between natives and Spanish people (which it wasn't) and the colonization was a favor to all LATAM countries. 
 

 

Edited April 24 by manuelalex9810

[Sun]

Wow these numbers are striking 

[Princess Aurora]

When will the UK and Spain?

Edited April 24 by Princess Aurora

[bliaz]

Your turn, España