Published on: 12/22/2024 – 5:00 p.m.

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“My father was enslaved and he obeyed … everything they (the slavers) told him to do,” Costa said at her home in Santos, the coastal Brazilian city where her father went. found after the brutal journey across the Atlantic.

From the 16th to the 19th century, Brazil hosted approximately five million African slaves, more than any other country. Most were forcibly transported in inhumane conditions from Angola, West Africaon board Portuguese ships.

Organizers of “A Grande Travessia”, or the Grand Passage, are seeking to charter a cruise ship departing from Santos and stopping in Rio de Janeiro and Salvador before heading to Luanda, Angolathe capital.

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Dagoberto Jose Fonseca, 63, professor at the State University of Sao Paulo UNESPis the brains behind the cruise scheduled for December 1 to 21, 2025.

“We want to take back the maritime routes of the past to build another future,” Fonseca said.

Fonseca is in talks with Angolan and Brazilian authorities, who support the initiative, as well as with cruise lines. Financial support will be required to charter the cruise ship.

Anielle Franco, Brazil’s minister for racial equality, said the project was aligned with the government’s “Rotas Negras” or Black Roads program, which promotes tourism that highlights Afro-Brazilian history and culture.

“Reconstructing the past”

The plan plans to invite around 2,000 passengers, including students, academics, businessmen, descendants of slaves and leaders of Afro-Brazilian religions.

Activities planned on board include workshops, panel discussions, networking opportunities and tributes to the more than 2.5 million people who lost their lives in the grueling “Middle Passage”.

“I expect to learn more about my past,” said Mary Francisca do Careno, one of the black scholars who will take the cruise, who said she hopes the trip will provide answers to questions she she asks about her heritage.

Afonso Vita, an Angolan expert on slavery heritage tourism, said the cruise would help his country confront its past and accused former colonizer Portugal of trying to avoid the subject.

“The country that colonized us, Portugal“I have never had any interest in this story, which tarnishes his image, being discussed publicly,” Vita said.

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Earlier this year, Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said his country was responsible for crimes committed during transatlantic slavery and the colonial era, and suggested reparations were needed.

But the Portuguese government refused to begin any reparations process.

Vita and Fonseca urged the Portuguese government to get involved in the cruise project.

Portugal’s Economy Ministry, which oversees tourism, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Organizers view the cruise as part of a broader movement fighting for transatlantic repairs. slavery and European colonialism.

How could countries finance reparations for historical injustices?

The debate over whether there should be reparations to right historical wrongs and their legacies is long-standing and remains highly controversial, but support for reparations is growing around the world.

“A project like this… invites us to reflect on reparations, as well as the recognition and strengthening of the identity of black people,” Franco said in Brazil.