Transatlantic cruise to turn spotlight on Brazil-Angola slavery past
Helena Monteiro da Costa's father was brought from Angola to Brazil as an enslaved person in the 19th century. Next year, the 99-year-old hopes she can take part on a first-of-its-kind cruise that would do the reverse journey back to her father's homeland.
"My father was enslaved and he obeyed ... everything they (enslavers) told him to do he did," Costa said at her home in Santos, the coastal Brazilian city where her father ended up after the brutal voyage across the Atlantic.
From the 16th to the 19th century, Brazil received around five million enslaved Africans, more than any other country. Most were forcibly transported in inhumane conditions from Angola, in West Africa, aboard Portuguese vessels.
The organisers of "A Grande Travessia", or the Great Passage, are seeking to charter a cruise ship to depart from Santos and stop in Rio de Janeiro and Salvador before making its way to Luanda, Angola's capital.
Artistic exchange between Brazil and Angola aims to reclaim colonial ties
Dagoberto Jose Fonseca, 63, a professor at Sao Paulo's State University UNESP, is the mastermind behind the cruise, which is planned for 1 to 21 December 2025.
"We want to resume the maritime routes of the past to build another future," Fonseca said.
But the Portuguese government has rejected initiating any reparation process.
Read more on RFI English
Read also:
Artistic exchange between Brazil and Angola aims to reclaim colonial ties
Benin to give nationality to descendants of those deported as slaves
After Britain, the US sends looted royal artefacts to Ghana’s Ashanti King
