Mastodawn

MicroWave Apr 27, 2024

Portugal says no plans to pay colonial reparations

Portugal says no plans to pay colonial reparations - Lemmy.World

Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa had called for Lisbon to find ways to compensate its former colonies, including canceling debt. The government says it has not initiated any process to that effect. Lisbon [https://www.dw.com/en/lisbon/t-40075833] is not planning to pay reparations for trans-Atlantic slavery and colonialism, Portugal’s [https://www.dw.com/en/portugal/t-19099779] government said on Saturday. The statement comes in response to remarks by President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who said Portugal could find ways to compensate its former colonies. Portugal said in a statement that it seeks to “deepen mutual relations, respect for historical truth and increasingly intense and close cooperation, based on reconciliation of brotherly peoples.” It stressed that it had not launched any “process or program of specific actions” for paying reparations.

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muhyb Apr 28, 2024

Sorry but being held responsible for what your ancestors did is bullshit. The very same bullshit as trying to reclaim the land your ancestors had. Both are not mine, it’s in the past and I have nothing to do with it.

Also, it is most likely that everyone’s ancestors did some bad things. Sad but it is a process in the human history.

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Flying Squid Apr 28, 2024

Ancestors?

By the middle of the 1920s, the whole of Angola was under control. Slavery had officially ended in Portuguese Africa, but the plantations were worked on a system of paid serfdom by African labour composed of the large majority of ethnic Africans who did not have resources to pay Portuguese taxes and were considered unemployed by the authorities. After World War II and the first decolonization events, this system gradually declined, but paid forced labor, including labor contracts with forced relocation of people, continued in many regions of Portuguese Africa until it was finally abolished in 1961.[55]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_Colonial_War

There are people alive right now who were slaves in Portuguese Africa.

Portuguese Colonial War - Wikipedia

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muhyb

I spoke generally but in this specific topic, Portugal should be fined by European Court of Human Rights for those individuals. Because it’s unlikely there are still people alive who caused this incident in the first place. So yes, ancestors, for those who didn’t commit these crimes.