The Portuguese Community in South Africa

Source: crossed-flag-pins.com

The Portuguese explored the coasts of South Africa in the late 15th century, and nominally claimed them as their own with the erecting of padrões (large stone cross inscribed with the coat of arms of Portugal placed there as part of a land claim). 

Bartolomeu Dias did so in 1486, and Vasco da Gama recorded a sighting of the Cape of Good Hope in 1497, en route to India.

The early 20th century witnessed a trickle of emigrants from Madeira whose numbers greatly increased in the decades following World War II.

Madeiran immigrants, who are traditionally associated with horticulture and commerce, form the largest group within South Africa's Portuguese community.

The largest single event of Portuguese settlement occurred when two of the former Portuguese colonies, (Angola and Mozambique), became independent in 1975.

While most Portuguese from the two Portuguese-speaking African countries went to Portugal and the rest to Brazil, some of them were allowed to enter South Africa.

Their entrance made South Africa the home of the largest Portuguese African population, numbering about 49 000, but their number grew to 300,000.

One known Portuguese South African creation was Nando’s, created in 1987, which incorporated influences from former Portuguese settlers from Mozambique, many of whom had settled on the south-eastern side of Johannesburg after Mozambique's independence in 1975.

The Portuguese South African community is highly active within the South African community, both politically and economically.

Notable members include Maria Ramos who was the former director general of South Africa's National Treasury. She is currently the Group CEO of ABSA, one of South Africa's largest financial services companies.

Other Portuguese involvement within the business community includes companies like Mercantile Bank.

The community is also actively involved in investment activities with other Southern African countries like Angola and Mozambique.

Socially the Portuguese community have held an annual festival called Lusito Land (the second largest festival in South Africa).

Portuguese-South Africans natively speak European Portuguese (many in the Madeiran dialect), while also adopting South African English, which tends to become the first language of second- and third-generation Portuguese-South Africans.

Some others also speak Afrikaans. Many members of younger generations of Portuguese-South Africans can only speak Afrikaans or English.

Source: Wikipedia

Larissa Bona

Children of Either Portuguese Parent, Born Abroad - Part II

Source: portugalnet.pt

The children of either Portuguese parent, born abroad, even though their Portuguese parent (s) is not serving the Portuguese State, are also entitled to the Portuguese citizenship (remember Portugal adopts the jus sanguinis rule) as long as they declare their wish to become Portuguese.

According to the Article 8.1. of the Portuguese Nationality Statute, all the child needs to do is to declare that he/she wishes to be Portuguese and then register his/her birth in the Portuguese Civil Register Office.

That is, the child must resort to the procedure of the attribution of citizenship through declaration and the child can declare his/her wish to become Portuguese at any moment of his/her life.

If the child is underage, only his/her parents can apply for the Portuguese citizenship. If the child is over 18, only he/she can apply for the Portuguese citizenship.

In all above mentioned situations, the applicant must instruct his/her application with a proof of the Portuguese citizenship of his/her Portuguese parent – Portuguese Birth Certificate.

Opposite to the case of the children of Portuguese citizens serving the Portuguese State abroad, whose registration of birth in Portugal can be made even after their deaths, the right to the citizenship is extinguished with the death of the child of the Portuguese parent and if this happens the citizenship chain is broken, as I have previously explained.

Therefore, if you are child of a Portuguese citizen, even though you do not have any interest in Portugal or Europe, it is important for you to obtain the citizenship, because, if you do not do it, it becomes harder for your children and grandchildren to obtain the citizenship for themselves.

Besides, the Portuguese law authorises the dual citizenship, consequently, the fact you obtain the Portuguese citizenship does not cause the loss of your current citizenship, at least for Portugal, which is a huge advantage because we do not know what the future holds and it is always better to have several options.

Summing up:

Case: children of either Portuguese parent, born abroad, who declare their wish to become Portuguese.

Type of citizenship: Original Citizenship.

Procedure: Attribution of Citizenship through Declaration.

Documents to instruct the application: Birth Certificate of the child; ID of the child; and Birth Certificate of the Portuguese parent.

Larissa Bona

Sounds of Portugal: Fado

Nem às paredes confesso (Not even to the walls I confess) sung by Amália Rodrigues

Fado is currently a worldwide known symbol of Portugal, being represented for many years in foreign countries by Amália Rodrigues, and more recently by Dulce Pontes, Mariza and Katia Guerreiro, among others.

But where did the word Fado came from? It came from the Latin fatum, which means fate, the inexorable destiny that nothing can change. That is why Fado is usually so melancholic, so sad: as it sings that part of destiny that was opposite to the wishes of its owner.

Although taking many forms, as it is sung differently in Porto, Coimbra and Lisbon, the Fado is, by self-earned right, the very expression of the Portuguese soul.

Portugal, since the moment of its birth, emerged in a crossroad of cultures. This makes difficult to point out a precise origin of Fado, but all scholars agree that its origins go back many centuries, maybe even to times before the existence of Portugal as an independent country.

The most commonly accepted explanation, at least when speaking about Lisbon Fado, is that it came from the songs of the Moors, which kept living near Lisbon even after the Christian take-over. The sadness and melancholy of those songs, that are so common in Fado, are a good base to explain the rhythms of Fado.

However, there are those who say that the Fado came to Portugal, once more through Lisbon, under the form of Lundum, the music of the Brazilian slaves. By this explanation, it should have arrived to Portugal with the sailors returning from their long trips, approximately in the year of 1822. Only after a while, Lundum started modifying until it became the Fado. Supporting this belief is the fact that the first songs of the kind were related not only to the sea but also with the lands far beyond them, where the slaves lived. One can look as an example to one of Amália's song, called "The Black Boat", which talks precisely of a senzala (place where the slaves were kept).

Another possibility puts the birth of Fado back to the middle ages, to the time of the minstrels and the jesters. Already in that time one could find the characteristics that even today it conserves. For example, "cantigas de amigo" (friend songs), that were love songs for a woman, have great similarities with diverse subjects of the Fado of Lisbon. The love songs, that were sung by a man to a woman, seem to find kinship in the Fado of Coimbra, where the students intone their songs beneath the window of the loved one (serenades). We still have, in the same time, satire songs, or of disdain that are still today frequent themes for Fado, in social and political critics.

Anyway, Fado seems to have first appeared in Lisbon and Porto, being later taken to Coimbra with the University students (since Coimbra was, during many years, the University city by excellence), and having there acquired different characteristics.

Despite Fado being a symbol of the Portuguese nationality, it is not, by all means, the national song. From region to region, Portugal possesses several rich and typical folklores of each geography, which has nothing to do with Fado. Perhaps we can, if you like, say that it is the form of folklore of Lisbon, Porto and Coimbra.

Extracts from the text The History of Fado published at Lisbon Guide.

Larissa Bona

Children of Either Portuguese Parent, Born Abroad - Part I

Source: cafepress.co.uk

Previously, I have explained about the case of the children of either Portuguese parent, born in the Portuguese territory.

Today, I will explain the case of the children of either Portuguese parent, born abroad.

As you may have noticed, I have written “Part I” on the title of this post because there are two possible situations that we must take into account when analysing the cases of such applicants:

The children of either Portuguese parent that were born abroad because their Portuguese parent(s) was/were serving the Portuguese State;

The children of either Portuguese parent, whose Portuguese parent (s) was/were not serving the Portuguese State abroad.

When I say “Portuguese parent (s) that was/were serving the Portuguese State” abroad, I refer to the Portuguese diplomats, members of the Portuguese Army in mission abroad and any other public servant performing any activity abroad due to order of the Portuguese State.

Mr. Miguel Reis understands that the expression “Portuguese State” also comprises those workers who render services to the indirect public administration abroad.

In this case the birth of the child must be registered in the Portuguese Civil Register Office at any time by the parents, when the child is still underage; by the child himself/herself, if he/she is over 18, or by the child’s descendents if the child has passed away.

The Birth Record of this child will contain a special remark informing that his/her parents were serving the Portuguese State abroad when he/she was born.

When registering the birth in the Portuguese Civil Register Office, the applicant must provide a document, issued by the department in which the Portuguese parent was working, proving that he/she was abroad to serve the Portuguese State.

This demand can be dispensed if the Registry Officer has official knowledge of the situation the Portuguese parent.

For example: the Consul of the Portuguese Consulate has the official knowledge that the Portuguese employees of the Consulate are serving the Portuguese State abroad. Therefore, if one of these employees has a child abroad and goes to the Consulate to register his/her child, the Consul will have official of knowledge of his/her status.

Summing up:

Case: children of either Portuguese parent, born abroad, when his/her Portuguese parent (s) was/were serving the Portuguese State abroad.

Type of citizenship: Original Citizenship;

Procedure indicated: Registration of birth;

Documents to instruct the application: Birth Certificate of the child; ID of the child; Birth Certificate of the Portuguese parent; Proof that the Portuguese parent was serving the Portuguese State abroad.

Larissa Bona

DUE TO TECHNICAL PROBLEMS WE WILL NOT HAVE POST TODAY - I APOLOGISE FOR THAT

The Portuguese Community in Canada

Source: crossed-flag-pins.com

Today, I am going to talk about the Portuguese Community in Canada, which is the 6^th biggest Portuguese Community in the world, with around 400,000 members.

The Portuguese migration to Canada is not as ancient as the migration to Brazil or the USA, although there are records of Portuguese migration since the 16^th Century.

The first time that a considerable number of Portuguese people migrated and settled in Canada was in 1953, after the Canadian government invited them to come to Canada, most of them coming from the Azores.

The members of the Portuguese Community in Canada are mostly based in Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia.

In Toronto the neighbourhood Trinity-Bellwoods is also known as Portugal Village or Little Portugal, because the Portuguese Community and now the Brazilian Community are based there. Due to the fact the most of the Portuguese migrants that went to Canada were of Azorean origin, there is also a street there called “Rua Azores”.

There are several notable Portuguese Canadians, being the singer Nelly Furtado the most famous world-wide, who has strong roots with the Portuguese Community, to the point she was the one who recorded the theme-song of Euro 2004, which took place in Portugal.

My personal impression of the Portuguese Community in Canada is that, although they are in a smaller number than in other countries, they seem to be very united and attached to their roots.

I wish that someday I could have more contact with such community and I am really planning to go to Toronto to pay a visit. This may happen sooner than later.

Larissa Bona

Children of Either Portuguese Parent, Born in the Portuguese Territory

Source: cafeprees.com

Now, that we know who is entitled to the citizenship, the types of citizenship, the procedures through which someone can obtain it and the effects of such procedures, we will now analyse case by case of those who are entitled to the Portuguese citizenship.

The Article 1, 1, (a) of the Nationality Act and the Article 3, (a) of the Portuguese Nationality Statute establish that “the children of either Portuguese parents, born in the Portuguese territory” are native Portuguese citizens.

This is, indeed, the most straightforward case of all, in which a child of a Portuguese couple or of a couple formed by at least one Portuguese citizen is born in Portugal, Azores or Madeira.

The Portuguese Civil Registration Code, on its Article 96, establishes that the births occurred in the Portuguese territory must be verbally communicated to a “Conservatória do Registo Civil” – Portuguese Civil Register Office, within 20 days of the birth, or at the hospital or maternity in which the birth took place, if the hospital/maternity has this service available, until the date mother and child are discharged from there.

The Registration Code also establishes that the parents are the ones who should communicate the birth of the child to the Portuguese Civil Register Office. Only in their absence is that a third person or entity can make such declaration.

So, every child that is born in the Portuguese territory to a Portuguese parent will grant his/her citizenship in the moment the parent register his/her birth in the Portuguese Civil Register Office. And this is it, nothing further must be done.

But this does not mean that exceptions cannot take place and that something that seems to be so straightforward cannot become complicated.

For example: the case of the children of Portuguese citizens born in the Portuguese territory that, later on, have stopped being a Portuguese territory. This we will talk about further on.

Summing up:

Case: children of either Portuguese parent, born in the Portuguese territory;

Type of citizenship: Original Citizenship;

Procedure indicated: Registration of Birth.

Larissa Bona