Promotion of the work of the Batoto Yetu Association as well as their guided tours throughout Lisbon and the Sado region. This side event showcases the the Batoto Yetu Association promoting their Lisbon guided tours. The tours promote a better understanding of Portugal's history and reality through a guided and specialised guide. 

Synopsis

https://batotoyetu.pt/guided-tours-african-presence-in-lisbon-batoto-yetu-portugal/

“Batoto Yetu Portugal’s guided tours, “Discovering Lisbon’s African Heritage”, are now open to the public! The goal of these tours is to disseminate Lisbon’s African character which is scattered in a variety of visible and invisible memories and traces today.

The “migration” of African peoples is a permanent element of the History of Portugal since the 6th century. Whether out of their own free will (as the Moors, or Muslim Africans and Arabs, did), “by force” (until the end of the 18th century) or afterwards “by strength” (from late-18th century colonialism to 1974, and the globalized age of today) there were countless African peoples who established themselves in Lisbon.

The presence of these populations was always different than any other: The majority of this most “recent” presence of Africans did not come out of their free will as the Romans, Moors and Arabs. For centuries, they took on essential tasks but these were also the harshest and most undervalued tasks in society.  Inserted in all fortune-making industries, Africans – enslaved or free – were a structural element of Portuguese urban life.

However, in physical and structural terms, the visibility of their presence in the city is very bleak today, albeit the same is not true genetically and culturally (Fado) .

Let’s rediscover Lisbon’s African heritage together! Reservations are always open and the tours are guided by professors and researchers such as: Isabel Castro Henriques, José Antunes, and members of Batoto Yetu Portugal.”

Promoted by the Association Batoto Yetu Portugal