Lula thanks Africa “for everything that was produced during 350 years of slavery”

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) thanked Africa this Wednesday (19) “for everything that was produced during 350 years of slavery”. The president met the president of Cape Verde, José Maria Neves, during a stopover on his way back to Brazil from the 3rd Summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac) and the European Union (EU), held in Brussels, capital of Belgium .

“I want to recover the relationship with the African continent because we Brazilians are formed by the African people. Our culture, color and size are the result of miscegenation between Indians, blacks and Europeans. We are deeply grateful to the African continent for everything that was produced during 350 years of slavery in our country”, said Lula.

The Brazilian president pledged to resume relations with the African continent. “We think that the form of payment that a country like Brazil can make [está em] technology, the possibility of training people so that they have expertise in the various areas that the African continent needs, is to help in the possibility of industrialization and agriculture,” he said.

Lula also said that he intends to visit African countries as head of state and not just for a visit, as happened this Wednesday. “We are going to open embassies in countries where Brazil does not have embassies, and hold many meetings with various African specialists to define what Brazil can help the African continent with the most,” he added.