Angola and Cape Verde citizens have called on Portugal to apologise for its colonial past and return artefacts and other items looted during the colonial era.
According to a poll carried out by Lisbon’s Catholic University, in partnership with public broadcaster RTP and a commission commemorating the fall of Portugal’s fascist dictatorship in 1974, 58% of the more than 3,000 people surveyed across Angola, Cape Verde and Portugal said Portugal should return artefacts such as masks, sculptures and ritual objects taken from its former colonies.
Portugal’s Colonial History
Portugal’s colonial history spanned Angola, Cape Verde, Mozambique, Brazil, and East Timor, as well as parts of India from the 15th to the 19th century.
The country’s entrance into Africa, which was initially driven by the search for gold, spices, and a sea route to India, soon degenerated into a slave trade and cases of forced labor as during this period, nearly six million Africans were forcibly transported by Portuguese ships and sold into slavery, primarily to Brazil.
The fall of Portugal’s authoritarian Estado Novo regime in the 1974 Carnation Revolution eventually triggered a rapid process of decolonization, and by 1975, all its major African colonies had gained independence. This request by Cape Verde and Angola citizens comes amidst global calls for reparations for the wrongs of independence.
