It was in the São Paulo neighborhood, a bustling and heavily trafficked area of the capital, where crowds of sellers and buyers gather daily, that news of the death of the former head of state, on Friday, aged 79, was received with greater commotion.
It is in this place that many of the 'zungueiras' are concentrated, the street vendors who seek the daily sustenance of the families, covering dozens of kilometers, and who were surprised by the news of the death of the former president.
With some in tears, dozens of women showed their pain through chants, dances and drumming as is usual in funeral ceremonies in Angola, carrying their goods on their heads, many of them also with babies on their backs.
"Zedu, will carry the message at Savimbi, here the people are suffering", they chanted in a lively rhythm.
They asked the former head of state popularly known as "Zedu" to tell his biggest rival about the people's suffering, the founder of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), Jonas Savimbi, who was killed in combat in 2002 by the pro-MPLA government forces, the party that has ruled Angola since independence in 1975.
"That's not done, they killed our 'everything'", cried some.
"A father's love is only God knows", was also heard among the merchants, a world dominated almost exclusively by women.
Telma da Costa, 37, was moved when she told Lusa how she felt about the death of the former head of state: "We are crying for José Eduardo dos Santos, because he was a father to us, as he was a father we have crying, even saying that he made people suffer. He stole, I know he stole with us, as a people, [but] at least we didn't buy rice at 15 or 17 thousand kwanzas", said the saleswoman, looking for "the bread for the children and the family".
This "suffering 'zungueira'", who claimed to be "poor happy", said that the former President makes "a lot of difference" in relation to the current one.
"We are suffering a lot, we are buying a box of [chicken] thighs at 10, 12 thousand kwanzas. Nowadays, the food has gone down because of the elections, but I am sure that after the elections the food will return to rise", he criticized.
Margarida António Bernardo, 41, better known as "Magui" was also "saddened by the death of 'Zedu'".
"It is greatly missed, he was once our President, what he did is in the past, now we are in the present. He died, we have to cry for him", she told Lusa, noting that "he committed [thefts], but he also helped us ".
In a conciliatory tone, "Magui" reinforced: "Let's not just think about his evil, we must also think about the good things he did, if he died we have to cry for him, he was President".
"It's like, João Lourenço, if he dies we will cry for him too, so we also have to cry for our former president, because he helped the people too", she continued.
"Magui" says that in her time, everything was better: "Everything was cheaper, now everything is more expensive, although it has lowered some things, but it doesn't compare with the past", she commented.
But, he accepts, "that was the past, now we have to live in the present, we can't just criticize".
"Each person governs in their own way, so we shouldn't criticize anyone," she added.
The former President of Angola died last Friday at the age of 79 in a clinic in Barcelona, Spain, after weeks of hospitalization.
