(MENAFN) Portugal has declined to offer reparations for the transatlantic slave trade and the brutalities of its colonial era, rejecting calls for compensation made by its own president. President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa's recent statements urging Portugal to take full responsibility for its colonial past and consider compensatory measures were met with a government response indicating no plans for specific actions in restitution.
Portugal's colonial history spans over five centuries, with the decolonization process in some African territories only occurring as recently as 1974 following the 'Carnation Revolution' that dismantled the authoritarian Estado Novo regime. The Portuguese Empire's African territories included present-day Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, as well as the island nations of Cape Verde, Sao Tome, and Principe.
Historically, Portugal played a significant role in the African slave trade, with estimates suggesting that nearly six million Africans were forcibly transported across the Atlantic by Portuguese vessels between the 15th and 19th centuries, primarily to Portuguese-controlled Brazil.
The refusal of reparations comes amidst global discussions on addressing historical injustices, with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, a former Portuguese prime minister, urging former colonial powers to consider financial reparations as part of broader measures to acknowledge and compensate for the enslavement of Africans. Guterres' report highlights the staggering scale of the transatlantic slave trade, which saw up to 30 million Africans violently uprooted over a span of more than four centuries.
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