"It cannot be a whim of the President of the Republic, because it is a matter that concerns everyone, fundamentally the most important element of each State, which is the holder of sovereign power: the people. And it is the people who have felt this struggle to fade into the negative, to slow down", said MCK, stage name of Katrogi Nhanga Lwamba.
MCK confesses to being disappointed with the current President of the Republic, João Lourenço.
"We all had a lot of expectations. Because we had first come from 27 years of military conflict and then we had come from 38 years of José Eduardo dos Santos' consulate. So anything that came in would appear fresh and new," he says.
Before, during the Presidency of José Eduardo dos Santos (1979-2017), MCK highlights that Angola was characterized by two types of relationships: submission or repression.
"There was no middle ground that apparently Lourenço tried to create in the first months of his mandate, inviting civic activists such as Luaty Beirão, Rafael Marques, Alexandra Simeão and many other groups representing civil society to go to the Palace to sit with him and talk, with the declaration of the fight against corruption, which also created a lot of expectations, because after the war it was the great cancer of Angolan development, so this created a lot of illusions regarding the future of Angola", he adds.
The passage of time has frustrated expectations, he considers.
"Today we perhaps have more freedom of expression, but less freedom of the press", he laments, considering that almost all companies belonging to 'politically exposed people' "linked to the State apparatus, linked to the management of Eduardo dos Santos, these companies that were confiscated, recovered as part of corruption, asset recovery, returned to the public sphere".
The result is that "there is no freedom of the press in Angola", because all the media are managed by the state-owned Televisão Pública de Angola and Rádio Nacional de Angola.
"We no longer have an alternative space for opposing ideas. In the public press there is no place for criticism of President João Lourenço. In other words, a space has been killed, that initial space of six months of democratic opening, of more press freedom, has died. Today we have a completely muzzled press and there is no space, no place for the opposite idea, no place for impartiality, no place for reporting the truth", he criticizes.
MCK says that in the time of José Eduardo dos Santos, public tenders were held and now, with João Lourenço, there is a focus on the so-called simplified contracting and direct award.
"It created a new monopoly", he denounces, lamenting the lack of "ethical programs that promote freedom of expression, that promote reporting, that promote safety lines for anyone who wants to report".
Above all, in Angola "there continues to be a lack of democratic openness to discuss this openly and freely", with public institutions "without transparent accounting processes".
"There is no accountability of public actors", he summarizes, considering that the "many complaints" that are made "are simply ignored and as the social situation has worsened, it gives the impression that the levels of corruption are higher".
MCK says he believes more in an organized civil society, with "the ability to establish guidelines for action" that political parties should follow.
"That's what's missing. We have an organized civil society with the capacity to make its choices and then demand better political offers from those who want to achieve political power", he explains.
Regarding "Sementes", the first original album in two years that will be released on the 31st in Portugal, MCK says that he will hardly be able to present it in Angola.
"In Angola there is tacit censorship. Sometimes the censorship is not explicit, but it is tacit. For example, I am here in Portugal to launch the album and I can freely go to any media outlet, publicize my work without obstacles", he acknowledges.
"In Angola, for example, I would not have the freedom to go to the public press and talk about my work, which is work focused on Angola (...) I would also have difficulties choosing public spaces to present music or my art, because almost everything in Angola, the State in Angola was captured by people linked to the MPLA. The big companies, big concert producers, almost everything revolves around what the party wants", he accuses.
A lawyer by profession, MCK says he feels "very comfortable" whether as a musician or a man linked to justice.
"My music has been, throughout these times, the advocacy of the great interests, the great aspirations, the great dreams, the desires of the Angolan people", he concludes.
