#portuguese colonialism

[hussyknee]

People declaring the Pope should excommunicate Joe Biden for genocide has me like??? Bro...what do you think the Catholic Church was built on...

[kuronekonerochan]

Wiriyamu Massacre ( trigger warning: descriptions of war crimes below)

50 years ago my country committed a heinous war crime in Mozambique.

We are talking about the genocide of the civilians of an entire village, estimated 500 people, special ops team (comandos) carried out in the province of Tete, with orders to “kill every single one of them”. Reports from foreign missionaries revealed the further details of pure indescribable evilness of what went on, from murdering children by throwing them around and kicking them, to executing civilians by decapitation and then playing football with their heads, to the most chilling recount of the horrendous act in which a soldier walked towards a crying baby and asked if he needed to be breastfed, forced a rifle barrel to the baby’s mouth, said “you can suck on this” and then shot. To spare ammunition, people were forced into huts in groups and then set on fire inside or victims of explosions  by the use of granades.

 It’s important to mention here in Portugal we never learn about this massacre in school (or any other specific atrocity) when we talk about the colonial period and the Ultramar (Overseas) war. We talk about the Colonial war, under the fascist regime, against the many rebel militias fighting for freedom and independence in Angola, Guinea-Bissau and Mozambique (rightfully so), how the international community was overall against the Fascist Regime and some countries aiding the rebels (this is also framed in class as we were clearly the ones in the wrong), how the cost of war was consequently leading to the impoverishment of the people in Portugal, how soldiers were mandatory conscripted and forced to go fight in Africa (and some chose to flee to France to escape) and how we were losing the war in multiple fronts and the military themselves grew tired and disgruntled about the war, which eventually lead to some failed coups against the regime until they succeeded in a coup on the 25th of April, 1974, with the support of the Portuguese people, putting an end to the fascist dictatorship and to the war. The details such as chain of command, where the orders for the massacre came from, if from the top or decided by some people of the 6th brigade alone (some of them not from Portugal, but from Portuguese colonizer ascent on Mozambique with personal grudges), these are all still unclear and muddy, but the fact that the massacre took place is undeniable.

And yet, we are not told of the Wiriyamu Massacre, swept under the rug, and it took 50 years for a Portuguese head of state to acknowledge and formally apologize to Mozambique for this war crime.

As a Portuguese citizen, I am ashamed of this dark side of our history and I think more than words of apology (which should have been said much sooner), reparations are needed. Currently  Wiriyamu has a serious problem with lack of water as they only have 1 well for 4000 ppl. That’s where we should start making amends, by solving this essential issue to the inhabitants of that place and building more wells, schools, aiding with construction, etc to make sure these ppl have their basic need met. We also need to discuss this and other war crimes in school here in Portugal. The idea of “soft” colonialism pushed and assimilated into our culture by the fascist regime propaganda at the time still ripples through to today and that perception needs to change in my country by actually discussing these issues.

As for what I can do for now, realistically, as an individual, is making this post to spread the knowledge of what happened, to not let it be forgotten as an inexcusable war crime committed by my own country, to honor the victims and apologize for something that should never be forgiven or forgotten, even as we keep moving forward with a relationship of diplomacy and cooperation between Portugal and Mozambique.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiriyamu_Massacre

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/portugal-apologises-for-mozambique-killings-50-years-after-times-expose-5ngnkpp2v

https://ewn.co.za/2022/09/04/ex-colony-mozambique-a-priority-for-portugal-pm

[respect-the-locals]

🪼Daily Cnidarian Fact:🪼

Portuguese Man o' War: The Portuguese man o’ war, is often called a jellyfish, but is actually a species of siphonophore, a group of animals that are closely related to jellyfish. A siphonophore is unusual in that it is comprised of a colony of specialized, genetically identical individuals called zooids with various forms and functions, all working together as one. Each of the four specialized parts of a man o’ war is responsible for a specific task, such as floating, capturing prey, feeding, and reproduction. Found mostly in tropical and subtropical seas, men o' war are propelled by winds and ocean currents alone, and sometimes float in legions of 1,000 or more!

[captain-price-unofficially]

Portuguese soldiers attend mass in their colony of Goa, India, just before the Indian military swept in to liberate the city. 17 Dec 1961

[probablyasocialecologist]

Since the Portuguese empire clung to the coasts instead of moving inland to colonize territory, it needed to develop a fluid state for governance of its global archipelago of fortified enclaves. To manage some twenty feitorias on the coast of India alone, the crown appointed a viceroy who, after 1530, would rule that country’s Estado da India (State of India) from a capital at Goa lined with impressive stone structures that had the look of Iberia in Asia. That enclave would also serve as headquarters for a Portuguese community scattered across Asia that eventually grew to some fourteen thousand, half of them Catholic clerics and the rest officials, soldiers, and merchants. This geopolitical array of forts linked by fleets proved reasonably capable of absorbing attacks by massed Asian levies—repelling assaults from stone ramparts, drawing support from nearby ports, and evacuating safely if necessary.��The result: an imperial juggernaut that allowed the Portuguese to dominate the vast Indian Ocean with a few dozen ships and several thousand soldiers, neutralizing more powerful Asian monarchs whose enormous land armies were drawn from a vast Indian subcontinent with 150 million people.

Alfred W. McCoy, To Govern the Globe: World Orders and Catastrophic Change

[historynerdj2]

History memes #55

[artthatgivesmefeelings]

La Amistad, 1839 by unknown

This 1839 oil painting of La Amistad shows the ship off Long Island, New York, next to the USS Washington. The Portuguese were the first and the last to partake in the Transatlantic Slave Trade. The Spanish were also major transatlantic slavers and committed a genocide of the Native Cuban peoples when they colonized Cuba. The Spanish empire enslaved people of African origin and they often depended on others to obtain enslaved Africans and transport them across the Atlantic. Spanish colonies were major recipients of enslaved Africans, with around 22% of the Africans delivered to American shores ending up in the Spanish Empire. The story of the Amistad began in February 1839, when Portuguese slave hunters abducted hundreds of Africans from Mendeland, in present-day Sierra Leone, and transported them to Cuba, then a Spanish colony. Though the United States, Britain, Spain and other European powers had abolished the importation of enslaved peoples by that time, the transatlantic slave trade continued illegally, and Havana was an important trading hub. The Spanish plantation owners Pedro Montes and Jose Ruiz purchased 53 of the African captives as enslaved workers, including 49 adult males and four children, three of them girls. On June 28, Montes and Ruiz and the 53 Africans set sail from Havana on the Amistad (Spanish for “friendship”) for Puerto Principe (now Camagüey), where the two Spaniards owned plantations. Several days into the journey, one of the Africans—Sengbe Pieh, also known as Joseph Cinque—managed to unshackle himself and his fellow captives. Armed with knives, they seized control of the Amistad, killing its Spanish captain and the ship’s cook, who had taunted the captives by telling them they would be killed and eaten when they got to the plantation. In need of navigation, the Africans ordered Montes and Ruiz to turn the ship eastward, back to Africa. But the Spaniards secretly changed course at night, and instead the Amistad sailed through the Caribbean and up the eastern coast of the United States. On August 26, the U.S. brig Washington found the ship while it was anchored off the tip of Long Island to get provisions. The naval officers seized the Amistad and put the Africans back in chains, escorting them to Connecticut.

[mapsontheweb]

Territories that once belonged to the Portuguese Empire.

[sorvete-de-pacoca]

Friday Prompt, cute one this time 💕

"We're still family... right?"

"Huh?" Zola raises an eyebrow.

"I mean, you guys are finally free, Portugal won't bother you again" Luciano scratches his nose, feeling awkward "and it's not like I'm really your brother. I'm just a boy you happened to speak the same language from the other side of the ocean..."

"Stop right there! I'm too tired for this nonsense now."

"But.."

"You are my brother you dork!" Zola laughs and piches his cheek "My caçula, even if you're from the moon that wouldn't change that. You're not getting away from us so soon."

She stops and observes him "Are you crying?"

"No!" Luciano sniffs. She snorts and brings him into a hug. Luciano wraps his arms around her.

"Still a big baby."

[sitting-on-me-bum]

Portuguese men o'war (Physalia physalis)

The Portuguese man o' war is comprised of a colony of zooids that work together an one unit.

(Image credit: Getty Images)

[fatehbaz]

[M]onk seals continued to live in large herds along the largely unexplored Atlantic seaboard of northwest Africa. It was not until 1434 that Portuguese explorers landed on these [supposedly] untamed coasts, and discovered thousands of monk seals. Almost immediately, an intensive and lucrative trade in skins and oil was established [...]. Constantly vying with Spain [...], Portugal was determined to increase its sphere of influence in Africa. While Spain eventually became preoccupied with Columbus’ elusive vision [...] [and] his celebrated 1492 expedition [...] Portugal’s colonial influence in Africa was reaching its height by 1500. The first expeditions to Africa’s Gold Coast were recorded for posterity by an official chronicler, Gomes de Zurara [...]. In his book [...] he relates how the Portuguese Infante [royal prince], eager [...], dispatched explorer Afonso Gonçalves Baldaya in a cargo vessel to make contact with the mysterious “moors” or “pagans” who were believed to inhabit the region (Zurara, 1437).

“But these are people, no matter how beastlike they may be,” proclaimed the Infante, “and they need to be governed... I command you to penetrate this land as far as you can and that you work in order to learn about those people, perhaps taking one captive, so that you may become acquainted with them.”

It was in “the year [...] one thousand four hundred and thirty-six” that Alfonso set sail [...]. [T]he barinel eventually reached the shores of the Gold River, the Rio de Oro, situated at the Bay of Dakhla in the western Sahara. [...] Afonso and his crew sighted their first seals. Literally thousands were suddenly in their field of vision. [...] “Upon seeing on a reef at the mouth of the river a large number of sea-wolves,” relates Gomes da Zurara, “which, according to the estimates of some, amounted to five thousand, he ordered killed those that could be killed and had their furs loaded onto the ship [...].” Despite the windfall in skins and oil, Afonso was still dissatisfied, having failed to take captive any of the elusive natives. He therefore ventured a further 50 leagues “to see if he could capture a man or at least a woman or child in order to satisfy the will of his master.” [...]

---

[In] 1437 [...] another Portuguese ship was dispatched to the Gold River to fill its hold with the furs and oil of the sea-wolves. [...] In 1441, [...] the Infante ordered his young wardrobe keeper, Antão Gonçalves, to captain a small ship and return to the Gold River. [...] “[T]he reason for this voyage, as instructed by his Lordship,” writes da Zurara, “was none other than to load that ship with a great quantity of hides and oil from those sea-wolves.” It appears to have been a lucrative undertaking. “ [...]

Antão Gonçalves had fulfilled the command of his master, his ship’s hold brimming with hides and casks, but the young man was eager to pursue his adventures rather than return home as ordered. He assembled his 21-man crew on deck, and addressed them with a rousing speech: “Friends and brothers, our cargo is complete, as you can see, so the principal aim of our mission has been accomplished, and we could well return should we wish to limit our toil…” He then proposed an adventure that would gladden the men’s hearts, providing relief from the laborious and tedious task of hunting, skinning and melting-down seals - a hunt for native slaves [...].

---

These first tentative expeditions to the Gold River paved the way for hunting on a more intensive, industrial scale, with 15th century Portuguese explorers dividing their time between lucrative massacres of seals and the equally profitable slave trade [...].

Indeed, within a few years of the sea wolf discovery, a purpose-built installation to process seal hides and oil had been constructed on Ylha de Lobos [...] in the estuary of the Rio de Oro [...]. Around Cap Barbas [...] no less than three sites once bore the name of the sea wolf [...]. [T]he [French and British] colonial plundering of the region [in the early twentieth century] [...], like [...] [Portuguese] conquest before them, were also portrayed as essentially idealistic endeavours. Just as the conquest of the Rio de Oro by massacre and slavery [...] “proves anew that the pursuit of disinterested geographical knowledge [...] were never the only motives of colonial conquest, so the slaughter [...] [today] would today be called “rational exploitation” [...]”,

---

All text above by: William M. Johnson. “Monk Seals in Post-Classical History: The role of the Mediterranean monk seal (Monachus monachus) in European history and culture, from the fall of Rome to the 20th century”. Mededelingen 39. The Netherlands Commission for International Nature Protection. 2004. [Bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me. Presented here for commentary, teaching, criticism purposes.]

[kuramirocket]

These Native Americans are not a people of the past. It's us. We have just been rebranded as Mexican. Latino. Hispanic. It's called ethnic erasure or ethnic cleansing. You kidnap a people, you shove them in Indian boarding schools, force them to no longer speak their languages, remove their original names and force them to have Spanish names, English names, French names, Portuguese names. On paper we've been identifying as White. And that's how much ethnic cleaning has affected us. We've been blinded by the fact that they took away our names, our languages, our culture, everything that we are and replaced it with the colonizers identity, hence colonialism. They slaughtered our ancestors, they built their own "countries" on top of our corpses.

- Ricardo Ignacio

[handweavers]

you can literally trace the present day wealth distribution in angola back to when it was the centre of the transatlantic slave trade & it's capital of luanda was the biggest port out of which african captives were shipped overseas to the americas in throughout the 1800s. the luso-african (descendants of mixed portuguese and african relationships) people who ran merchant companies profiting off chattel slavery didn't suddenly stop running businesses or had their wealth appropriated when the slave trade was outlawed, they simply reinvested in alternative "legitimate" commerce that was also gained thru the exploitation of black africans' labour and continued to accrue wealth & the present day bourgeois class of angola is made up of their descendants, the wealth they have today can still be traced back to the money made by forcing black africans into chattel slavery in the americas. if you think the exact same thing didn't happen in the USA and across the americas where african chattel slavery was practiced you are sorely mistaken

[captain-price-unofficially]

Portuguese up-armored Unimog during the Portuguese Colonial Wars, likely Angola.

[the-terrible-theys]

thinkin about wild kratts again

can you imagine how crazy it must feel for them to use the creature power suit and have the entire experience of Being Alive be entirely altered within a single moment. CAN YOU IMAGINE having to entirely relearn and relearn and relearn how to perceive the world because every new creature power alters every part of that perception.

[ub-sessed]

I have just started learning Portuguese, and I am fascinated by the pronunciation of European Portuguese compared to Quebecois French: we both completely omit a significant proportion of the vowels in our words in basically the same way. But whereas the attitude in Quebec seems to be that this is wrong or bad somehow, when learning European Portuguese it is considered the correct pronunciation. So the immediate conclusion I would draw is that there is still a strong "metropole = correct" bias.

But: Nobody ever seems to imply that the Brazilian pronunciation, where all the vowels are actually pronounced, is inferior. In fact, when trying to learn Portuguese as a second language, Brazilian Portuguese seems to be the standard.

To me, arguing that Quebec French is somehow inferior or less correct than France French has always seemed absurd, like arguing that Canadian or American English are somehow less correct than British English.*

And yet I know that a lot of people think that any English that isn't RP is inferior or incorrect, and that speaking RP means that you "don't have an accent". 🙄

I haven't studied Spanish, so I don't know what the attitudes are towards the respective dialects there.

I imagine this has all been researched and I am curious to learn more. I feel like in my limited experience, on a scale of how much the metropolitan dialect is valued over the colonial dialect, French is the highest and Portuguese is the lowest, with English somewhere in between, but I could be completely off base. I wonder what the factors are that affect these attitudes.

*I should disclose my personal bias that I vastly prefer Quebecois French: It's pithy! It's evocative! It goes straight for the gut.