O Negro was first publised in 1911 by a group of black students in Lisbon. It was the first of eleven newspapers run by the African diaspora, published in Portugal between 1911 and 1933. O Negro had three issues and was launched months after the establishment of the Republic. Although not explicitly stated as a manifesto, their opening statement on the front page of the inaugural edition established the tone and intention of the newspaper directly and poignantly: “Let us reflect… Our slavery is centuries old and by virtue of it we have suffered all vexations and tyrannies and by virtue of it we have been the target where envy, crime and insult have impudently riddled their poisonous arrows.”

Words that painfully still carry their weight in the history of contemporary Portugal. 110 years later, in an edition by Falas Afrikanas, the newspaper was reissued “for the right to memory”, unearthing a rich history of black activism in Portugal mainly led by independent publications whose names, presence, contributions and fights had been forgotten. By examining this publication as the propeller of the use of print in shaping the political consciousness of the blackdiaspora in Portugal at the time, we are also able to speculate the echoes they might have had in the
years that followed.