Original translation of an article published by the Black Anarchist Mário Domingues on September 9th 1919, in the newspaper A Batalha. Translation from the reproduction of the text published in the book A Afirmação Negra e a Questão Colonial: Textos, 1919–1928.
The other day, in America, blacks and whites rioted; there were dead and wounded; blood ran through the streets.
What did Europe have to say about it? Very little, very little; a few laconic telegrams and nothing more.
Why did she not speak out; why did the newspapers not take up the matter and show the people which side was right? Could it be that a few too many dead and wounded do not merit the attention of those who have impassively watched the loss of 15 million lives, or was it convenient not to touch the truth?
The fact is that the blacks are giving the Americans something to do.
Ex-slaves, thrown into the middle of the evolution of science, which in the last century has taken a colossal development, the blacks have been educated, they have seen how unfair North American society was for them, they have understood their rights, which are equal to those of the whites, and, until they enjoy them, the riots will not cease and the blood will not stop running in the streets.
Those who wish to deeply understand the plight of the black Americans should note the tremendous analogy of the struggle of blacks robbed of their rights against the whites who deny them, and the struggle of the deceived workers against the bourgeoisie who deceives them.
On a careful analysis of the present revolts, one sees that they tend towards a grandiose effort towards Equality and Justice — or degenerate into it. And that of blacks in America did not stop there.
The bourgeois press of Europe has not spoken more widely of this question, giving it the appearance of a simple incident, because to speak of blacks and whites implies speaking of colonization, and colonization, even today, can only be translated by one word — crime.
The governments of a civilized country, on the pretext of exporting civilization to savage peoples, wash away the cannon that kills them and the trade that robs them. If colonizing is this, colonization is undoubtedly a crime.
Exterminating a people, weakening and bestializing them with alcohol, forcing them to believe in an improbable God; fornicating their wives and daughters; vitiating the pure environment of the hinterlands: this has been the civilizing mission of Europe, this is its culture!
And (oh, irony!) how comical it is to hear about the illustrious missionary, the distinguished roceiro [colonial planter], the powerful company, the apostles of civilization!
But the true type of skilled settler (according to the patriotic leaves here at home) is the Portuguese.
It is nearly 500 years since the Portuguese settled in Africa and see how the colonies are progressing! What a highly benevolent action! If the savages cannot read, they can at least ingest decilitres of spirits in an astonishing way; if they were strong and beautiful due to the free and healthy life in the jungles, today they are completely transformed because syphilis, a refined product of European elite, is already rife there, transmuting the poor blacks into valuable lepers, into civilized rags.
From the Portuguese, educated and instructed as they are, one can in no way expect the dissolving ideals of Freedom and Love.
There is an island commonly known as the Pérola do Atlântico [Pearl of the Atlantic] that has been the most fertile of genius and intelligence in colonial activity. This island is São Tomé, the most profitable colony in the nation.
60 thousand black men imported from other African lands work there. Most of them are ignorant; the average of those who know how to read… must be something like one per four or five thousand.
Where is the civilizing action of the whites here? Is it the 60 thousand illiterate people? It must be for sure. But it is also in the corporal punishment; in the deteriorated food; in the exhausting work under a sun that burns everything and in the humidity that ruins everything; in the hypocritical slavery that is still maintained; in the juggling games with the terms of contracts; in the prostituted women. It is in the infamous partiality of most of the trustees — sent by the governments to protect the workers who feast on the plantations, in banquets given by the farmers and paid for by slavery, by the pain of 60 thousand souls. Civilization is in the monthly salaries of two and three escudos, salaries that return to the pocket of the boss in the profits of trinkets and brandy that he sells to the vicious black through his fault; is in the persecutions against the sincere voices that ask for justice!
The truth has been hushed up, withheld; but it will come out, spoken by no matter by whom, as soon as it will see the light of day.
I cry out loud for the people to hear me; in the Pérola do Atlântico, in São Tomé — do you understand? — the most atrocious barbarities are committed! There are individuals who take advantage of the ignorance of 60 thousand blacks to rule like Neros, to enrich themselves at the cost of the suffering of others! These are the ones the bourgeois newspapers, in a demeaning adulation of gold, honour with the gaudy title of apostles of civilization. But they are no more than thieves, vulgar vandals on the loose!
Didn’t I say that to speak of blacks and whites implies speaking of colonization, and that colonization means crime?
