“Portugal must apologize and face its involvement in the slave trade”

The President of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, has affirmed this Tuesday that his country must apologize and assume its responsibility for its role in the transatlantic slave trade. This is the first time that a leader from the neighboring country acknowledges responsibilities at a national level.

In his speech at the annual commemoration in Portugal of the Carnation Revolution of 1974which toppled the country’s dictatorship, Rebelo de Sousa said the country should go beyond a simple apology, though he has offered no concrete details.

“Apologizing is sometimes the easiest thing to do: apologize, turn your back, and the job is done,” he said, adding that the country should “assume the responsibility” from its past to build a better future.

Between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries, 6 million Africans they were kidnapped and forcibly transported across the Atlantic by Portuguese ships and sold as slaves, mainly to Brazil. But so far Portugal has hardly commented on its past and little is taught in schools about its role in slavery.

On the contrary, most of the portuguese are proud from the colonial era, in which countries such as Angola, Mozambique, Brazil, Cape Verde, East Timor and parts of India were subject to Portuguese rule.

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Paula Cardoso, founder of the online platform afrolink for black professionals in Portugal, said Rebelo de Sousa’s statements were “symbolic” but important, as they put the issue on the table.

“(But) I would have liked to hear something more concrete from the president,” Cardoso told Reuters. “To have any impact, these reflections… must be accompanied by measures and commitments“. Reparations and public policies to combat the inequalities caused by Portugal’s past are essential, Cardoso said.

Rebelo de Sousa made these statements after the Brazilian President, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who was in Portugal on his first visit to Europe since taking office, to deliver a speech to the Portuguese Parliament. Brazil gained independence from Portugal in 1822.

Lula said that the colonization of Brazil also had positive factors, such as the spread of the Portuguese language and culture. “(But) on the bad side, the exploitation of the natives… slavery, the sacrifice of the interests of Brazil and of the Brazilians,” he said.

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The Brazilian Minister of Human Rights, Silvio Almeida, affirmed that Rebelo de Sousa took an “extremely important” step. “We continue to suffer in Brazil the effects of a legacy of slavery,” Almeida said in a statement. “Recognize the exploitation of millions of enslaved people for more than 300 years is a step forward towards a less unequal society”.