Brazil-Angola crossing calls for support to Portugal as “historical reparation”

The organization of a boat crossing that will take about two thousand Brazilians to Angola, on a trip to remember slavery, has called for support from the Portuguese government to reconcile “with its history”.

“Portugal needs to have to the altive and oudia And the historical responsibility of not wanting to be last ”and to be in the“ avant-garde of this historical process, to recognize a crime committed in the past, a crime of lesa-humanity and therefore constitute a justice, a restorative justice of that past, ”the teacher told Lusa the professor Dagoberto José Fonseca.

“I have always said that Portugal has the moral dutyan ethical duty and a civilizational duty, ”said the professor of the Faculty of Sciences and Letters of the Paulista State University of Araraquara and responsible for the project.

Titled “The great crossing: the return, the reunion, the recognition, the reparation”The vessel starts from the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro, on December 5, towards Luanda with about two thousand Brazilians from various quadrants of society.

Will be seven daysseven days present in Angola and seven days back.

In Angola, the Two thousand Brazilians will perform actions Aimed at research and cultural tourism, with special emphasis on Afroturism, which aims to rescue and revisit African history at different points of Angola.

“If Portugal said to usin this project, the Portuguese society, the Portuguese State, told us, at this time, Portugal does not have a ship in which two thousand people fit, but We have a ship for eight hundred people and people Want to give you this ship To make this crossing with all comfort, this It would already be a sign that Portugal would be opening a door to the path of this reparation, this restorative justice, ”said the Brazilian teacher.

In your opinion, Portugal’s support would be “An unequivocal sign that the country wants to talk and wants to dialogue and wants restore your own past”.

“Portugal can tell the world that is reconciling with your past And therefore, he is making a first repair gesture, ”he said.

For now, The trip will be funded by the public and private sector Brazilian and will have all the Logistic support by Angola as soon as the boat dock in the African country.

“We need to do our way back through the Atlantic Ocean to Know the story that ours made and also to recover those who were thrown into the Atlantic Ocean, ”said the anthropologist, pointing out two and a half million people were thrown in the ocean Throughout this trajectory of the 16th and nineteenth century, only those who came from Angola to Brazil.

In addition to this number, it is estimatedand five million Africans They arrived in Brazil during the Portuguese colonial era.

“Us We are the same family, separated by a history of traffickinga history of the process of enslavement and this Portuguese colonialism, and so that we are the same family, separated by the Atlantic and divided by a cruel story, which was’ slavery ‘, and this transatlantic trade of people subjected to’slavery‘”Said the teacher.

Historical duty or fashion

The theme of the “historical repairs” due by colonialist countries by “errors of the past” has launched controversy in recent years in several countries.

In 2020, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte apologized “for the Dutch state’s past actions by enslaving people in the past”, gathering the Netherlands to United Kingdom, France e Denmark, who have already commented on the subject, asking for “apologies for the mistakes made”.

Na Belgium, King Philip expressed a “deep grief for the wounds of the past,” but did not make a formal apology. THE Germany, In 2021, he admitted for the first time having committed a genocide against the tribes in Namibia.

Portugal never made a formal apology to other countries related to colonialism or slavery, but in 2023, at the 49th anniversary of 25 April, the President of the Republic, MARCELO REBELO DE SOUSAstated that “We have to assume the best and the worst what we did. ”

A year ago, on the eve of the 50th anniversary celebrations of April 25, Marcelo resumed the theme and said that the costs of slavery and colonial crimes.

“There are actions that have not been punished And weren’t those responsible arrested? Are there goods that were looted and not returned? Let’s see how we can notice this, ”said Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, during a dinner with foreign correspondents in Portugal.

At the event, Marcelo said that Portugal “assumes all responsibilityFor the mistakes of the past and remember that these crimes, including colonial massacres, had costs.

On the same day, the Brazilian Minister of Racial Equality of Brazil, Anielle Francofollowing the “important and blunt” statement by the President of the Republic.

“For the first time We are making a debate of this dimension In the international level, ”said the Brazilian minister”, who said her team was already “in contact with the Portuguese government to talk about how to think these actions and from here which steps will be taken”.

According to the Cuban World History teacher Manuel Barciaspecializing in slavery in the Atlantic, has prevented Portugal and other states with a colonial past from apologizing for slavery.

A formal apology from the Portuguese state would be “one thing minimal after all that happened ”also defends Barcia.

“But The answer has to be given by us who descend from slaves. They are the ones who have to say if they need an apology, adds the Cuban academic.

Also the Brazilian historian Laurentino Gomes considers that Portugal should due to slavery and slave traffic to the African peoples, following made other European countries and old colonies like Brazil or the United States.

Not everyone agrees with the idea that countries with colonialist past should apologize. According to the leader of CDS-PP, Nuno Meloapology from other countries “They are a fashion, Portugal does not have to ask ”.