Portugal is gradually regaining its memory

In 2019, the Portuguese capital, Lisbon, is expected to open the first monument honoring the victims of slavery.

Portugal between glory and memory

The monument dedicated to the memory of African deportees is one of two projects chosen by the city of Lisbon.

The first project proposed by the Association of African Descent will be built in 2019. It will be located in Ribeira das Nos, an ancient shipbuilding and outfitting area. The second, promoted by City Mayor Fernando Medina, consists of the creation of a Museum of Great Discoveries. This would glorify the Portuguese expeditions, which led to the deportation of six million slaves.

The topic is controversial. But some call for merging the two projects. Indeed, one (the great discoveries) is inseparable from the other (the deportation of slaves). For Beatriz Dias, president of the Djass-Associação de Afrodescendentes, creating a memorial structure is nonetheless essential.

“The fight against racism needs symbolic structures, and the need for a memorial that goes against the glorification of discoveries was clear to us.”

Ribeira das Naos Park is where the memorial should be erected

The beginning of change

In 2017, the project “Testemunhos da Escravatura” was launched. African Memory » (Evidence of slavery. African memory), started in Lisbon. It was an exhibition entitled “Passado e Presente – Lisboa, Capital Ibero-americana de Cultura 2017” (Past and Present, Lisbon, Capital of Ibero-americana de Cultura 2017). It was held at the Museum of Ethnology on April 22, 2017. This beginning generated a desire for greater recognition. However, Portugal has not yet fulfilled its “duty of memory”. However, the country was the first to participate in the transatlantic slave trade.

Exhibition “Testemunhos da Escravatura. African Memory »

A brief historical review

Portugal was the first European country to engage in transatlantic trade. Thus, for more than fifty years, Portuguese ships controlled the introduction of African slaves to southern Europe, to its colonies (Cape Verde, São Tomé, Brazil) but also to America, under the Spanish monopoly. The sound of the Portuguese invasion was heard in the Canary Islands, Cape Verde and São Tomé. Then in the Caribbean (Hispaniola, Cuba and Puerto Rico) before setting off on the Antilles and Brazil with their large plantation economy.

In 1540, more than 5,000 slaves annually passed through the port of Lisbon. At mid-century, Lisbon was the largest black city in the entire Latin world with a population of over 10,000 blacks. They represented about 10% of the city's population.