International Day of Older Persons 1 October| International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition 23 August

 Older persons are invaluable sources of knowledge and experience and have much to contribute towards peace, sustainable development, and protecting our planet.

Ladies and gentlemen, 

My name is  Sofonie Dala, I'm from Angola.

Welcome to our cultural-historical program! Today we are going to talk about the International Day of Older Persons and the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition.

These are two very important dates that cannot go unnoticed. For this reason, we invited the veteran Mr Ricardo, who will tell us about what life was like in the time of slavery.

"It is time to abolish human exploitation once and for all, and to recognize the equal and unconditional dignity of each and every individual. Today, let us remember the victims and freedom fighters of the past so that they may inspire future generations to build just societies."

Video on demand 

Interview

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon, Thank you very much.

What's your name?

My name is Mr. Ricardo Luis Borges.

How old are you now?

I am 68 years old.

Alright. We are celebrating the International Day of remembrance of the slave trade and its abolition.

As you already existed in colonial times, we would like you to share with us your story of what life was like in that era, what did you witness? Please feel free.

Well, what I witnessed was the following:

When white people came from Portugal to Angola, they arrived in crates at the port. The white bosses forbade us to open the crates. They said we shouldn't open the crates because there were crockeryand fragile things that would break.

But they used these lies to dominate the Angolans, but even so they were unable to dominate the Angolans in their entirety because the Angolans were smarter.

And when you got around to opening the crates, what did you find?

We found the men. Around two to three Portuguese people started coming out inside those big crates.

The white people who were coming from Portugal were not very intelligent men, they didn't even know how to eat bananas.

They used to ask us how do you eat bananas? We used to answer that bananas are eaten with the peel, while bananas are not eaten with the peel. The Portuguese were very stupid men.

When white people came to our land they worked as employees in the stores of their more empowered families who had already been here for a long time, but within a year they also became empowered and opened their own stores too and consequently they also started bringing their children, families and friends...

That's how they worked, in one year they became rich and opened their businesses, and made us slaves.

They mistreated us and beat us with whips.

Black people were beaten savagely. If they didn't see us with shovels in our hands digging and cleaning the grass on the railway, it would be a problem. When we tried to complain, they tortured us.

I'm 68 years old, I haven't seen many terrible events, but my father saw and lived through it all.

What did they do to your father?

The old people were hired but didn't earn anything. They were forced to dig the railway with their hands, from one province to another. My father and other elders dug the railway from our province to the province of Malange, they were not paid, they only received a small meal during the day.

Has your father ever become a victim of other crimes?

My father started exchanging merchandise at another man's store and tried to escape his swindler boss.

Then my father's boss, who was a very dishonest man, crossed out my father's name and put his name on a red list to be killed in the 1961 war.

They set aside a day to carry out raids in the neighborhoods, they took out the red list with the names of all those who protested against their bosses, they were all called one by one, placed in a jeep and transported to be killed in the Zenza river of Golungo Alto, this same The river also passes through the city of Luanda.

After that 1961 massacre, they collected another group of Angolans to be killed in the rivers in 1970. Then the white people who lived in Luanda ordered not to kill any more black people in the Zenza River because they were consuming those waters that came with blood, hair and other remains. Since that date all black people started to be killed in the forests around Manganes towards Banga. The Angolans of 1970 have been killed, but River deaths have happened twice.

MANY TERRIBLE THINGS AND BAD TASTE PRANKS HAVE HAPPENED HERE.

Was your father a very prosperous man?

Yes, my father was a great man, successful and very prosperous.

What did he own?

He had his coffee farms. When the white man measured my father's coffee on the scale, he didn't like it and started to covet and envy my father's wealth, the white man then started to plan my father's murder saying that he is very prosperous and is outdated, that's why for which he must be killed, then he wrote my father's name on the list of those who should be killed.

His former boss was outraged to see this, and said that my father should perish immediately because he was exchanging coffee merchandise with another gentleman. Then the bad white man talked to the new Lord to pay all the cons and transfer my father's merchandise to his store.

Then my father was killed. White people also didn't like wise, smart and intelligent black people, they were seen as a threat. So they rounded up all intelligent black people to be murdered.

That's why Agostinho Neto, the first president of Angola, was not well regarded. Then, also in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Patricio Lumumba was reigning, the white people didn't like him either, they said, here he is, he's going to free you.

So you were already in the period of Angola's liberation, at the time of independence?

Yes, I was a soldier and also fought for Angola's independence in 1975. We used to sing colonists, you can go, we're not doing anything here, you have to leave our country, you've been here for a long time.

We black people no longer wanted to see white people in our land. The whole country was full of white people.

There was also a detail for which we suffered a lot. At that time, if you didn't pay minimum tax, it would be a problem. At the age of 20, young people were already obliged to pay taxes, if they didn't work yet then their father paid for it obligatorily. The minimum fee was 300 escudos, 300 escudos was a lot of money at that time, regardless of whether the person worked or not, the parents had to scramble to pay for their children all the time.

OK. In which province was Mr. Ricardo born, in Luanda?

I was born in Golungo Alto in 1955, I remember when I turned 18 years old. I practically lived through slavery. I couldn't pay taxes, but the white people beat me up a lot because of this, they beat me a lot. It wasn't long before I started picking it up. Then the revolution came and every young man had to join the military without any other option, and it wasn't a raid. We made this decision because we had to end slavery in our country. I decided to go to war voluntarily, when the MPLA emerged we signed up to go to combat, and end slavery in our country.

We already have independence, but I am also not seeing it well, we are still suffering.

Music sung in the time of the colonist:

We will kill and drive white people out of our country, slavery must end.

2023 Theme: Fulfilling the Promises of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights for Older Persons: Across Generations

Seventy-five years ago, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration on Human Rights, a monumental document in the history of human rights. Written by representatives from around the world with different legal, cultural, and linguistic backgrounds, it is the first document articulating the fundamental human rights that are meant to be universally protected.  In recognition of this milestone, and looking to a future that delivers on the promise to ensure that all persons, including all older persons, fully enjoy their human rights and fundamental freedoms, the 33rd commemoration of the United Nations International Day of Older Persons will focus on the theme of  “Fulfilling the Promises of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights for Older Persons: Across Generations”. The event will put a spotlight on the specificity of older persons around the world, for the enjoyment of their rights and in addressing violations, and how the strengthening of solidarity through equity and reciprocity between generations offers sustainable solutions to deliver on the promise of the Sustainable Development Goals.

The work of the International Community around intergenerational solidarity has demonstrated, time and again, through various fora that intergenerational solutions, which are guided by the human rights principles of participation, accountability, non-discrimination and equality, empowerment and legality, can contribute to rekindle the legacy, relevance and activism of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by empowering both youth and older persons to shift the needle of political will towards fulfilling the promises of the Declaration for all people across generations. 

Objectives of UNIDOP 2023:

• To increase global knowledge and awareness of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and generate commitments among all stakeholders to strengthen the protection of the human rights of current and future generations of older persons around the world;
• To share and learn from intergenerational models for the protection of human rights around the world; and
• To call on Governments and UN entities to review their current practices with a view to better integrate a life course approach to human rights in their work, and to ensure the active and meaningful participation of all stakeholders, including civil society, national human rights institutions and older persons themselves, in the work on strengthening solidarity among generations and intergenerational partnerships.

Background

On 14 December 1990, the United Nations General Assembly designated October 1 as the International Day of Older Persons (resolution 45/106). This was preceded by initiatives such as the Vienna International Plan of Action on Ageing, which was adopted by the 1982 World Assembly on Ageing and endorsed later that year by the UN General Assembly.

In 1991, the General Assembly adopted the United Nations Principles for Older Persons (resolution 46/91). In 2002, the Second World Assembly on Ageing adopted the Madrid International Plan of Action on Ageing, to respond to the opportunities and challenges of population ageing in the 21st century and to promote the development of a society for all ages.

The number of older people (defined as those aged 65 years or older) tripled from around 260 million in 1980 to 761 million in 2021. Between 2021 and 2050, the global share of the older population is projected to increase from less than 10% to around 17%.

Rapid growth in the number of people reaching older ages underscores the significance of promoting health, preventing, and treating illnesses throughout the entire course of life.

In societies with aging populations, it becomes imperative to adjust to the increasing number of elderly individuals who possess a diverse range of functional capacities. The capability to carry out essential functions and partake in everyday activities is influenced not solely by an individual's inherent capacity but also by the social and physical environments in which they reside. Supportive environments play a pivotal role in assisting older individuals to maintain their activity levels and independence as they progress in age.

International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition,  23 August

On the night of 22 to 23 August 1791, in Saint Domingue, today the Republic of Haiti, saw the beginning of the uprising that would play a crucial role in the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade.

It is against this background that the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition is commemorated on 23 August each year. It was first celebrated in a number of countries, in particular in Haiti (23 August 1998) and Gorée Island in Senegal (23 August 1999).

This International Day is intended to inscribe the tragedy of the slave trade in the memory of all peoples. In accordance with the goals of the intercultural project "The Routes of Enslaved Peoples", it should offer an opportunity for collective consideration of the historic causes, the methods and the consequences of this tragedy, and for an analysis of the interactions to which it has given rise between Africa, Europe, the Americas and the Caribbean.

SDG 10 is about Reducing inequalities and ensuring no one is left behind are integral to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.

SDG 16 calls for peaceful and inclusive societies based on respect for human rights, protection of the most vulnerable, the rule of law and good governance at all levels. It also envisions transparent, effective and accountable institutions.