... and relevant to our debate too OPENQUOTE
Some colonialisms are more benighted than others, and the Portuguese variant was remarkable for its combination of repression and stagnation. Lisbon basked in a glorious and largely fictional past. Portugal, so the story went, was a 'pluricontinental' nation, spreading Christianity and civilisation across the globe since the fifteenth century. The regime liked to claim that Portugal had been in Africa for almost five centuries -- so Mozambique and Angola were not colonies at all: they were 'overseas provinces', part of the one and indivisible Portuguese nation. It was indeed true that Vasco da Gama had landed at various points on the Mozambican coast in 1498, but that had been entirely incidental. For the Portuguese seamen, Africa was not their goal; it was just a large obstacle on the route to the fabled wealth of the Indies. That was the real treasure, and the Portuguese crown showed its true priorities by running Mozambique from Goa for several centuries. -- 'Carlos Cardoso: Telling the Truth in Mozambique' by Paul Fauvet, Marcelo Mosse CLOSEQUOTE -- FN * http://fredericknoronha.wordpress.com M +91-9822122436 P +91-832-2409490 http://twitter.com/fn On Facebook: http://www.new.facebook.com/people/Frederick-Noronha/502514643 "All the sugar, Twice the caffeine" - Ad slogan for Jolt Cola
