President Urges Reckoning With Portugal’s History as Europe at Crossroads Over Colonial Rule

As activists call for a recognition of the legacy of colonialism, others insist Western countries continue to subjugate the Global South.

Portugal’s president claimed the country should take steps to address the legacy of slavery and colonialism during an event with foreign journalists this week.

“We have to pay the costs,” said Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, suggesting the country should devote economic resources to address the impact of historical conquests. “Are there actions that were not punished and those responsible were not arrested? Are there goods that were looted and not returned? Let’s see how we can repair this.”

Portugal was involved in the slave trade for longer than any other European country, being responsible for almost half of some 12.5 million Africans forcibly taken from the continent over four centuries. Portugal’s former colony Brazil was the last country in the Western Hemisphere to outlaw chattel slavery in 1888.

The Iberian nation held expansive colonial possessions across the globe, including in Africa, Latin America, the Indies, the Middle East, and the port city of Macau, which was returned to China in 1999.

Rebelo de Sousa said Portugal “takes full responsibility” for the wrongs of slavery and colonialism in comments made a year after he offered remarks apologizing for the country’s role in the transatlantic slave trade.

The president’s statement comes as world leaders are increasingly questioning the role of the West in global affairs, which critics say is not limited to historical acts of settler colonialism. The North African countries of Chad and Niger recently expelled US troops from their countries as across throughout the continent question Western support for wars in Gaza and Ukraine.

Niger also forced out 1,500 French troops in a rejection of the European power’s historical influence over the country, which it held as a colony. Neighboring Mali did the same the year prior, and last year the two countries banded together with Burkina Faso to form a joint security pact.

Niger has pursued increased economic and military cooperation with Russia and Iran alongside the exit of Western troops, to the consternation of the Biden State Department. US officials reportedly “warned” Niger’s leaders about closer ties to the two countries during a meeting in March. The country has insisted on its sovereign right to shape its own diplomacy, and protesters have backed the decision to cut ties with the United States.

Observers point to such developments as forming a global trend towards a “multipolar” world order. Countries like Russia and China have stood to gain as the West’s historical leadership in global affairs is questioned, but Russian leaders insist they wish not to take the place of former imperial masters, but to instead usher in a fairer and more egalitarian system.

“Major centers of economic and political power and influence are emerging in the world, which are asserting themselves more and more insistently, demanding that they be reckoned with,” wrote Russian President Vladimir Putin in an article published last year.

“We are sure that a new multipolar world order, the contours of which can already be seen, will be more just and democratic,” he argued. “And there is no doubt that Africa, along with Asia, the Middle East and Latin America, will take its worthy place in it and finally free itself from the bitter legacy of colonialism and neo-colonialism, rejecting its modern practices.”