The Africans of Renaissance Europe

This post is not about Timor-Leste, but on a subject (though not remotely disconnected to Timor) that's also of interest to me, the roots of black-white racism and the history of Portuguese empire.

A 17th century painting depicting life in downtown Lisbon (a screen grab from the The Economist video)  

This exhibition at Princeton University Art Museum is particularly interesting because it's examining the presence of Africans in Europe during the Renaissance. As the video (from The Economist) shows, Lisbon, the imperial capital, had the largest African population in Europe at the time. Over 10% of Lisbon's population were black, which included a mixture of slaves and free men. The free African men of Lisbon had varying degree of social status, from musicians to sailors, and even knights. Portuguese imperialism is a lot more complex than what it is made out to be in the current narrative.

While history will remember the Portuguese as the pioneers of mass trade in slavery, uprooting Africans in the thousands to be sent as slaves to the plantations in the Americas, little is known about the other side of Portugal, a society more advanced compared to others in Europe in terms interracial harmony and tolerance.

On this same subject, this book "The First Global Village: How Portugal Changed the World" is also a good read.