Over four centuries ago, Portugal was responsible for the traffic of almost six million African citizens in order to be enslaved in Brazilian territory. Brazil, a colony of the country and one of the biggest sources of revenue through natural resources, increased as a society based on slavery and exploration of African people and Brazilian natives. That shows that even halfway through the contemporaneity, we still reap the result of a country recognized by an exploration process and its stigmas associated with the most affected people.
After more than 201 years since the dawn of a liberal revolution that separated Brazil and Portugal, reshaping their relationship as colonizer and colonized, the Portuguese country recognized for the first time its fault for the slavery of the Brazilian people.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, the current president of Portugal, declared the responsibility of the country for the crimes arising from the colonial era, suggesting that the necessary repairing be concluded.
Therefore, the historic repairing, denominated as a set of actions that reduce the injustice coming from the past periods and against some social groups, became a target of polemics between different groups and political positions.
Has another country already recognized its fault for the slavery process?
Even after its recognition, Portugal still keeps in a backward position if compared to other European countries and its respective repairing to the damage caused.
In 2022, the first minister of the Netherlands, Mark Rutte, apologized for the slavery period in Asiatic and African countries and financed a fund of 200 million euros for combating slavery. In 2023, the Canadian government was responsible for the creation of a commission of reconciliation with native people and, with that, announced an amended commission of 17,35 billion dollars. In the same year, King Charles 3rd, from the United Kingdom, expressed intense support to a survey project about the paper of the British monarchy in the slavery process.
Is Brazil only a victim in the context of slavery?
Although situated in a colonized position for centuries, Brazil kept in a co-participant slavery context with Portugal and, after the independence period, provided continuity to slave labor.
Domingos Custódio Guimarães, historically known as Rio Preto’s Viscount, was a Brazilian responsible for the maintenance of tens of farms with explored labor, besides a 1280 enslaved people legacy. Francisco Félix de Sousa, also known as Chachá, was an enslaved son. Félix de Souza was responsible for the title of biggest trafficker of enslaved people in Brazil.
Brazilian settlers, farmers, and traders were also responsible for the slavery origin in our country, with active participation in traffic and, as consequence, Brazil also needs to assume a portion of the guilt and the necessity of repairing.
What is the importance of this recognition?
The recognition of an estate chief treating a reverberated issue in the recent period demonstrates intense representative power. Throughout this new historic mark, repaired milestones to the European ex-colonies will be further discussed and the countries responsible for those explorations will be charged for the damage caused anciently, in a pursuit for justice and reconciliations.
With the repercussions of speeches similar to the Portuguese president, the UN (United Nations Organization) also has been pressed for the creation of a court that examines the slavery and colonialism in our society for, finally, achieving a social repairing fund. For that, the recognition of slavery as a humanity crime is, overall, essential, but also necessary to be seen as the first step for considering a plurality of measures responsible for handling the legacies of a slavery process.
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The article above was edited by Maria Clara Polcan.
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