In an interview with Lusa in the Alentejo city of Sines (Portugal), where he was performing at the World Music Festival, the nearly 83-year-old musician shared what Angola would like to see 50 years after independence.
"Since we started badly, we have to say we're going back to better advance. And the best way to advance is not to rely on the same people who have already hurt us. We have to rely on others with more character," he stressed.
"We're becoming too cowardly, (...) there needs to be that Angolan of yesterday, bold, perceptive, respectful, genuine. Angolan, without complexes. The tie isn't the most important thing. The degrees he's taken aren't important either, doctor, engineer..." he criticized.
The important thing — he asks — is "to know what he does, what he does for a living, how he lives with his family, whether he respects people, whether he greets people on the street, whether he helps people."
About his 83rd birthday, José Adelino Barceló de Carvalho – better known as Bonga – will be honored as part of the celebrations of Angola's 50th independence by the President of the Republic, João Lourenço, who began a two-day official visit to Portugal this Friday.
The parallel program of the World Music Festival – which runs in Sines until Saturday (with concerts extending into the early hours of Sunday) – includes the group exhibition "Balumuka! – Narrativa poética da liberação... ou ainda, Rebelião Poética Kaluanda."
Bonga visited the exhibition before leaving Sines, to see the cover of his iconic album "Angola 72" on the wall of the Arts Center.
Speaking to Lusa, he praised "the contribution" of the Angolan artist-activists featured in the exhibition, curated by Kiluanji Kia Henda and André Cunha, with a focus on music as a vehicle for preserving history.
"Angola needs many more," like Zezé Gamboa, António Ole, or Luaty Beirão. "The way it is... [it needs] many more. Because no one in our generation ever thought it would end up like this," he lamented, noting that the country has oil, diamonds, and gold.
"Oh, wait a minute, so with all this, aren't we supposed to be happy?" he asked, asking where "the solidarity" is with "those who eat from containers and who are on the streets, wretched," and recalling the "no schools, the failing hospitals."
Living abroad for over 40 years hasn't diminished his love for Angola. "The country is the country. Now, men are a different matter, (...) it is against them that we must rise up," he emphasized.
In his case, he does so "by singing, which is the best way" he finds to send "positive messages to help" the "great people" of Angola.
