Cabo Verde Backs AU Reparations Push Over 500 Years of Slavery and Colonialism
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · Jul 10
Cabo Verde Backs AU Reparations Push Over 500 Years of Slavery and Colonialism
3 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Jul 10
Summary
Augusto Jorge de Albuquerque Veiga said Cabo Verde supports the African Union’s reparations drive and is in dialogue with countries involved in the slave trade, especially former coloniser Portugal.
The AU has said the campaign could eventually include diplomatic pressure or legal action in international courts, as debate intensifies over compensation for slavery and colonial rule.
Cabo Verde’s case is shaped by more than 500 years of Portuguese rule, its role as a major slave-trade hub and enduring legacies of colourism, identity loss and contested African belonging.
Critics say the country must also confront profiling of Black Africans and a school curriculum that downplays European crimes in Africa if it wants to engage meaningfully in the reparations debate.
Portugal remains a difficult target: President José Maria Neves said in 2023 that Europe’s rightward shift was slowing the debate, even as Lisbon and Praia agreed a €12 million debt-for-climate swap.