Afro-Portuguese people

Black Portuguese
Total population
Approximately
at least 255,000 people (about 2.44% of Portugal's population, possibly much higher)
Regions with significant populations
Portugal (Lisbon metropolitan area, Algarve, Porto Metropolitan Area)
Languages
Portuguese
various African languages
and Portuguese creoles
Religion
Predominantly Roman Catholicism, Afro-Portugueses religions,
Protestantism, Sunni Islam and Irreligious minorities
Related ethnic groups
Afro-Brazilians, Cape Verdeans in Portugal, Angolans in Portugal, Bissau-Guineans in Portugal, Mozambicans in Portugal

Afro-Portuguese (Afro portugueses or Lusoafricanos), African-Portuguese (Portugueses com ascendência africana), or Black Portuguese are Portuguese citizens or residents of Portugal with total or partial ancestry from any of the Sub-Saharan ethnic groups of Africa.

Most of those perceived as Afro-Portuguese trace their ancestry to former Portuguese overseas colonies in Africa. Black Brazilians living in Portugal, as well as other Black people (e.g. Black Caribbean, Black Europeans) are also sometimes included, although no statistics are available, as it is illegal for the Portuguese State to collect data on ethnicity and race (similarly to what happens in other European countries such as France, Italy or Spain but contrarily to the Anglo-Saxon-style Census).

Alternatively, Afro-Portuguese (Afro portugueses or Lusoafricanos) may also refer to various populations of Portuguese descent, to various degrees, living throughout Africa, often speaking Portuguese or Portuguese creole (see Luso-Africans or Portuguese Africans instead). They often also adopt Portuguese cultural norms, from which the Black Portuguese population in Portugal often derive.

History

Early history

Ancient slave market in Lagos

Although there may have been people of Black African descent living in Portugal since the Antiquity, they started arriving in significant numbers only after the Moorish conquest of the Iberian Peninsula (Saqaliba) and, more significantly, after the creation of the Portuguese Empire. For instance, there are early reports of Sudanese working in Portugal dating back to 1440 and of Ethiopian people living in Porto in 1466. The first slaves were brought to Portugal as early as 1444.

There are also records of there being Black slaves in Lisbon in the Middle Ages. By the mid-16th century, there were approximately 10,000 Africans in Lisbon, around 10% of the city's population. By the end of the 16th neighborhood, the predominantly African neighborhood of Mocambo was established in the modern neighborhood of Madragoa [pt].

Modern period

20th century

Cape Verdean Batuque dancers in Damaia, Amadora in the early 90s

Black Portuguese citizens are primarily descendants or migrants issuing from the former Portuguese African colonies: Angola, Guinea-Bissau, São Tomé and Príncipe, Cape Verde and Mozambique. The colonies were abolished in 1951, transformed into overseas provinces by the Estado Novo regime and became integral parts of Portugal. A minority originate in other Sub-Saharan African countries. These communities arrived in Portugal after the independence of the African overseas provinces, in 1974–75 and after the Portuguese economic growth of the second half of the 1980s. They should not be confused with the population - of overwhelming white European descent - that "returned" from the said colonies immediately after their independence. This different ethnic group is the one formed by the so-called retornados (meaning "those who came back") — Portuguese settlers and descendants of Portuguese (or other European such as Germans or Italians) settlers born in former African colonies who relocated to Portugal after their independence and in the first half of the 1980s.

One of the primary settlement areas for communities in Portugal, especially the Cape Verdean one, were the lands north of Lisbon, near the present-day parish of Benfica. Starting from the 1970s, numerous clandestine neighborhoods (bairros)

emerged here, often lacking basic services and plagued by crime-related issues. From 1993 onwards, with Portugal's slum eradication program, many people have been provided with alternative public housing and, despite the initial discrimination, many have nowadays found success. For instance, in Amadora only around 10,000 people used to live in shanty towns such as:

A protester in Quinta da Lage, Amadora, calling for full equality
  • Bairro 6 de Maio: settled in 1970, it housed 1,200 Cape Verdean families, it has been completely demolished in 2021
  • Fontainhas and Bairro Novo das Fontainhas: demolished in 2005
  • Cova da Moura and Estrela d'Africa: Housing 6,500 people, is the biggest informal settlement still existing in Amadora and possibly in the whole of Portugal. It was partially demolished in 2004.
  • Pedreira dos Húngaros: In the northern portion of Oeiras, bordering Benfica. It was considered one of the biggest slums - if not the biggest - in Portugal and in 1984 already housed more than 4,000 people. With the growing Cape Verdean community, it reached a peak of 30,000 shacks. It was fully demolished in 2003. The area was acquired by a Chinese group in 2019 with plans to build residential buildings and offices. The first unites should be inaugurated in 2023. The area is now known as Miraflores and little to nothing of the old settlement remains.
  • Bairro da Quinta da Lage: The demolition process is ongoing, having started in 2019. Up to 300 families used to live here, with the overwhelming majority having already resettled. This slum was different from the previous ones since a plurality of the inhabitants was not of African descent.
  • Bairro de Santa Filomena: Football player Nani was originally from here. It suffered a major demolition and subsequent resettlement campaign in 2012-2016. Until 2012 around 2,000 people lived here in precarious conditions, housed in 442 shacks.

Despite initial difficulty during the resettlements, many Afro-Portuguese people have now access to enhanced opportunities and some popular neighbourhoods built for housing them, such as Outurela and Casal da Mira, have been praised for their succeeding in actually bettering the living conditions of citizens once neglected.

Immigration to Portugal, historically low, soared after the country's accession to the EU in 1986 and increased significantly starting in the late 1990s, also under form of human trafficking.

21st century

Awareness and demand for civil rights have heightened among black Portuguese, who are calling for full equality
Civil workers in Lisbon

After a hiatus due to the 2008 Global recession, immigration increased again starting in mid-2010s. African immigrants have always be an important fraction of the total immigrant population, especially those coming from former colonies.

In 2015, Francisca Van Dunem (Angolan-Portuguese) became the first black Portuguese minister in the Portuguese government. Since the inauguration of Portuguese democracy, 6 Portuguese people of African descent have been elected MPs. As of today, the only MP of African descent is jurist and politician Romualda Fernandes.

In recent years, a renewed interest towards immigration to Portugal has emerged, particularly in Portuguese-speaking African countries and for study purposes. For instance, the number of students coming from a Portuguese-speaking African country has increased by 170% from 2017 to 2022. Moreover, as Portugal started returning tuition fees to those who come to study and then stay in the country to work student visas are in high demand.

In early 2023, Portugal regularized around 113,000 CPLP citizens residing illegally in the country, with PALOP citizens having their status legalized numbering around 20,000.

Immigrants from non-Lusophone countries in Africa

In recent years, Afro-Portuguese immigration has emerged from non-Lusophone African countries, such as Kenya, South Africa, The Gambia and Ghana/ Around 3,000 Nigerians are thought to be living in Portugal and they are generally well integrated apart from a recent problem of marriages of convenience aiming at legalizing immigrants seeking an EU residence permit. Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine some Nigerians have also started arriving in Portugal from Eastern Europe. The small community from Mali is well integrated and characterized by their staying legally in the country, contrarily to what happens in other European nations.

Other recently arrived immigrants include refugees (e.g. Sudan, South Sudan, Eritrea, Nigeria and Somalia) as well as investors (e.g. Uganda, Namibia, Nigeria and Kenya).

Demographics

Quinta do Mocho, in Loures, houses around 4,000 people, mainly of Angolan descent. Once a problematic neighborhood, it was recently turned into a touristic attraction thanks to many murals - around 110 - found on its buildings
African immigrants in Lisbon, Rossio

According to the Portuguese Foreigners and Borders Services, in December 2022, there were approximately 119,876 people holding the citizenship of a Sub-Saharan African country legally residing in Portugal, and thus accounting for 1.15% of the total population. In addition, only taking into account the period between 2008 and 2022, around 134,489 people hailing from Sub-Saharan Africa received the Portuguese citizenship, accounting for a further 1.28% of the Portuguese population.

Bearing in mind that there were many naturalizations occurred before 2008 (as reported by Eurostat), that Black people from former African colonies living in Portugal were considered Portuguese citizens until 1975 (and many retained their citizenship after 1976) and reminding that many Black Portuguese have settled permanently in Portugal for generations (thus their descendants are Portuguese nationals) this leads to an estimate of at least 254,365 people in Portugal of Sub-Saharan African descent. This estimate is done taking into account people with recent immigrant background only, as there are no statistics available indicating the number of Portuguese people of African descent.

For instance, if a person holding a citizenship of a Sub-Saharan country marries a Portuguese national (regardless of their "ethnic origin"), the children of this union are not detected in official statistics. This means that, even if a person is of pure African descent (for example, a daughter of a Portuguese mother of Cape Verdean descent and a recently arrived Angolan father) they would not appear amongst the 254,365 people of "recent" Sub-Saharan background, as the Portuguese nationality law privileges jus sanguinis. Moreover, a person born in Portugal to non-citizens acquires citizenship at birth if at least one parent has been resident in the country for at least one year prior to the time of birth, or was born in Portugal and resident in the country at the time of birth, a fact that is quite common amongst long-established communities such as the African one: again, these Portuguese individuals, although of African descent, do not appear in official statistics as there are no data aiming at portraying the ethnic diversity of the country.

This means that – as of December 2022 – at least 2.44% of the population of Portugal is of African descent (recent immigrant background only), although the percentage is likely much higher. For instance, the Cape Verdean government estimates that 200,000 Cape Verdeans alone might be living in Portugal.

Country Foreign citizens Portuguese citizens

by naturalization (2008-2022)

People with recent

immigrant background

(Naturalised citizens + Foreigners)

Other estimates
 Cape Verde 36,748 55,109 91,857 200,000
 Angola 31,761 25,805 57,566 179,524
 Guinea-Bissau 23,737 27,045 50,782
 São Tomé and Príncipe 13,077 14,990 28,067
 Mozambique 4,785 2,974 7,759 80,570
Other Sub-Saharan African

countries

9,634 8,501 18,135
Countries in the Caribbean

where people of African descent form the majority of the population

134 65 199
Total 119,876 134,489 254,365

To sum up, it is difficult to estimate the number of Portuguese people having African ancestry. In fact, the number of Afro-Portuguese with Portuguese nationality is not known, as there are no official statistics in Portugal regarding race or ethnicity.

Nationality

Protestor in Moscavide

The Portuguese nationality law privileges Jus sanguinis and a sizable number of Black-Africans in Portugal maintained their respective nationality of origin.

Even if the nationality law of 1959 was based on the principle of Jus soli, the changes made in 1975 and 1981 changed it to a Jus sanguinis law after the independence of the African provinces, which denied naturalization not only to first generation migrants, but also to their children and grandchildren. Still this legislation had special clauses: Portuguese nationality was granted to citizens proceeding from Brazil, Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, São Tomé and Príncipe and East Timor, as well as those born under Portuguese administration in Goa, Daman and Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Macau if legally living in Portugal for six years. All other migrants need to live in the country for a period of ten years.

A new 2006 law granted Portuguese nationality to the second generation, if living in Portugal for at least five years. It also removed differences between countries of origin, given the influx of immigrants from Eastern Europe, most notably Ukrainians. The law was announced in 2005 by Prime minister José Sócrates and granted Portuguese nationality to children born in Portugal of foreign parents, as he stated: "those children did not spoke another language other than Portuguese and only studied in Portuguese schools, but had nationality denied."

Immigrants in Odemira

In general, today is much easier for Black people living in Portugal to naturalise as Portuguese citizens via naturalisation: after residing in the country for at least five years and demonstrating proficiency in the Portuguese language (the overwhelming majority of the Black people in Portugal come from countries where Portuguese is an official language) they can, in fact, proceed to acquire Portuguese citizenship. If married to Portuguese citizens they may acquire citizenship by declaration after three years of residence.

The arrival of these black Africans in Portugal, coupled with their difficulty in accessing full citizenship, enhanced, from the 1970s onwards, the processes of ethnic and racial discrimination. This is the result of multiple factors, from institutional and juridical, to socio-cultural (the construction of stereotypical ethno-racial differences), residential (with the concentration of black migrants in degraded ghettos in Lisbon area, although this does not occur elsewhere in the country) and economical (the poorly qualified professional and educational profile of the migrants). coupled with a parallel strengthening of black identity in African migrants, even surpassing national origins.

In 2016, the UN committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination visited Portugal and recommended that Portugal implement specific measures for the Afro-descendent community, in as in cases where some black Portuguese, today full adults, are without citizenship even in cases where siblings can be full Portuguese citizens, such as those born before 1981 or after their parents become legal migrants.

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This page was last updated at 2024-01-16 04:05 UTC. Update now. View original page.

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