This post is for Portugal’s former African colonies — Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, and São Tomé and Príncipe. Not to ask for anything. Not to seek empathy. Just to expose what is still thought and said inside public structures in Portugal.
At a bar called Old Vic, in Alvalade, Lisbon, sat a member of the Alvalade Parish Council — Rodrigo. Not just any member: the right-hand man (or ex-right-hand) of the council president. He was drinking whisky and speaking loudly, like someone who wanted to be heard. He spoke with the bartender — a bald man with a ridiculous ponytail — while pouring out, shamelessly, what was in his head.
He said: “These days, blacks call everything racism.”
Then: “Thanks to us Portuguese, the ex-colonies have anything at all.”
And also: “They were colonized because they were weak.”
And as if that weren’t enough, he added: “We were strong. We dominated them. Still do.”
This isn’t just bar talk. This is institutional mindset. Rodrigo represents — or represented — a parish council. He deals with people, decisions, local policy. He’s paid with public funds.
This post doesn’t ask for dialogue. It exposes. The Alvalade Parish Council is now publicly associated with this kind of discourse.
Portugal lost its colonies, but not its addiction to feeling superior. There are still those who speak loudly, whisky in hand, vomiting the rotten arrogance inherited from a dead empire.
July 2025
This article is in English. Read the Portuguese version ⇒ Ler em português