Portuguese-Sierra-Leonean relations

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Portuguese-Sierra-Leonean relations
Location of Portugal and Sierra Leone
PortugalPortugal Sierra LeoneSierra Leone
Portugal Sierra Leone

The Portuguese-Sierra-Leonean relations describe the intergovernmental relationship between Portugal and Sierra Leone ( Portuguese : Serra Leoa ). The countries have direct diplomatic relations.

Relationships today are good, but comparatively weak. Portugal participated in the international relief efforts for the 2014 Ebola epidemic . A well-known point of reference to Portugal in Sierra Leone, however, is Portuguese football , especially football stars such as Cristiano Ronaldo or Renato Sanches are popular there.

In 2015, 63 Sierra Leone citizens were registered in Portugal, of which over half (36) were in the Lisbon district . Portuguese are not registered in Sierra Leone (2005 figures), but a number of Portuguese specialists work on international development cooperation projects , for example in the areas of energy, health, the press, the economy and education.

history

The Portuguese explorer Gil Eanes was the first European in what is now Sierra Leone in 1440

The Portuguese explorer Gil Eanes was the first European to reach the Sierra Leone coast in 1440. Another Portuguese navigator, Pedro de Sintra , named the coastal mountains on today's Freetown peninsula Serra Lyoa , " Lion Mountains " in ancient Portuguese . The name was then used for the entire coastline and is now the country name.

Portuguese missionaries turned to converting the local population to Christianity, and traders in particular took up the slave trade . However, the Portuguese traders increasingly had to fend off competition from French, Dutch, Spanish and British traders and the attacks of pirates. Since 1562 the English slave trader John Hawkins once got into the slave business here, the region had come slowly, but increasingly, under British influence. In the 17th century the coastal area was then completely under British control.

In 1728, the Afro-Portuguese slave trader Jose Lopez da Moura plundered the island of Bunce Island and captured it for a short time.

Sierra Leone gained independence from Great Britain in 1961. However, friendly relations with Portugal did not develop until after the end of the colonial Estado Novo regime through the left-wing Carnation Revolution in Portugal in 1974. The new Portuguese government then ended the Portuguese colonial wars, released its previous colonies into independence in 1975 and reorganized its international relations out. Bilateral relations with Sierra Leone did not develop until after Siaka Stevens' term of office ended in 1985.

In the Port Loko District Ebola Response Center , February 2015: Portugal was also involved in the aid for Sierra Leone

As the first representative of Portugal in Sierra Leone , Carlos Maria Moniz Tavares Matos Taquenho , Portuguese ambassador based in the Senegalese capital Dakar, was accredited on June 2, 1987 . The two countries have not set up mutual embassies since then (as of May 2017).

Portugal also provided international aid to Sierra Leone during the rampant Ebola fever in West Africa in 2014, until the country was declared Ebola-free by the WHO at the end of 2015 . It was u. a. also made use of the experience of Portuguese doctors with Ebola and with the Marburg virus in Angola .

diplomacy

Portugal does not have its own embassy in Sierra Leone, since then the country has belonged to the administrative district of the Portuguese embassy in Senegal . There are also no Portuguese consulates there.

Sierra Leone also does not have its own embassy in Portugal; its representation in London is responsible for Portugal.

Sierra Leone has an honorary consulate in the Portuguese capital, Lisbon .

economy

The Portuguese Chamber of Commerce AICEP does not have a branch in Sierra Leone; the AICEP office in the Senegalese capital Dakar is responsible .

In 2016, Portugal exported goods worth 1.881 million euros to Sierra Leone ( 2015 : 1.464 million; 2014 : 1.044 million; 2013 : 4.004 million; 2012 : 3.366 million; 2011 : 4.312). In 2015, 35.6% of these were agricultural products (mainly eggs), 35.5% machines and devices, 16.1% wood and cork and 3.4% vehicles and vehicle parts.

In the same period, Sierra Leone delivered goods worth EUR 0.432 million to Portugal ( 2015 : 0.043 million; 2014 : 0.091 million; 2013 : 0.215 million; 2012 : 0.141 million), of which 70.9% were agricultural products ( especially coffee) and 27.7% minerals and ores. In 2015 it was exclusively ores, especially titanium .

This put Sierra Leone in 144th place for Portuguese foreign trade in 2016 both as buyer and as supplier, in Sierra Leone's foreign trade in 2015 in 70th place as buyer and 45th place as supplier.

Culture

The Portuguese cultural institute Instituto Camões is not present in Sierra Leone, its next branch is in Guinea-Bissau .

The first performance of a play by William Shakespeare outside Europe took place in 1607 on the British ship Red Dragon on the coast of Sierra Leone. English sailors performed Hamlet before leaders of the Temne . The Afro-Portuguese Lucas Fernandez translated word for word into the Portuguese language , which was familiar to the Temne elites. The Temne had trade relations with Portugal for over 100 years and often sent their princes to Lisbon for training.

In the Museu Nacional Grão Vasco in Viseu , an important Portuguese ciborium chalice from Sierra Leone can be seen.

Web links

Commons : Portuguese-Sierra-Leonean Relations  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Overview of diplomatic relations with the Ivory Coast at the diplomatic institute in the Portuguese Foreign Ministry , accessed on May 4, 2019
  2. ↑ a b Article about Portuguese all over the world during the European Football Championship 2016 , article from July 10, 2016 in the Portuguese newspaper Diário de Notícias , accessed on June 10, 2017
  3. ↑ Official Portuguese aliens statistics by district , Portuguese Aliens and Borders Authority SEF, accessed on June 10, 2017
  4. ↑ Website on Portuguese-Sierra-Leonean migration at the Portuguese Scientific Observatório da Emigração , accessed on June 10, 2017
  5. ↑ Os médicos portugueses que dão luta às doenças tropicais ("The Portuguese Doctors Who Fight Tropical Diseases"), article of October 18, 2014 in the Portuguese newspaper Diário de Notícias, accessed on June 10, 2017
  6. ↑ List of Portuguese missions abroad (under Serra Leoa ), website of the Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, accessed on June 10, 2017
  7. ↑ List of the Sierra Leone diplomatic missions abroad , website of the Sierra Leone embassy in the USA, accessed on June 10, 2017
  8. ↑ Entry by the Sierra Leonean Honorary Consulate in Lisbon in the Portuguese business and address directory www.portugalio.pt, accessed on June 10, 2017
  9. ↑ a b c Bilateral economic relations between Portugal and Sierra Leone ( Serra Leoa ) , Excel file retrieved from the Portuguese Chamber of Commerce AICEP, accessed on June 10, 2017
  10. ↑ Hamlet traduzido há 400 anos para português por um africano (“Hamlet translated into Portuguese by an African 400 years ago”), article from April 22, 2016 in the Portuguese newspaper Diário de Notícias, accessed on June 10, 2017
  11. ↑ Há 22 tesouros nacionais guardados num museu com 100 anos (“22 national art treasures in a 100-year-old museum”), article from March 17, 2016 in the Portuguese newspaper Diário de Notícias, accessed on June 10, 2017