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Part 8: 'Boys from Brazil' Lots of culture this week. First of all Maputo had two visitors of very different kinds from Brazil. Fred Litto, a brilliant Brazilian distance educator came to visit our training programme. Fred's one of those people who just exudes enthusiasm, and for someone in his 60s, has boundless energy. New York born, but 30+ years in Brazil, he highlighted the incongruity that Portuguese is a minority language spoken by 200 million people.
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Hard on his heels, we had the chance to see Gilberto Gil, the top Brazilian rock musician who also happens to be the Brazilian Minster of Culture. Take a look at his web site at
http://www.gilbertogil.com.br.
He gave an outdoor concert on Wednesday night to around 5000 people at Espaço Artistico in downtown Maputo. It's said that when he was offered his ministerial post, he only took it on condition that he could continue performing and touring! Four warm-up bands before he came on, so we were on our feet for over 4 hours. Nowhere to sit down, but it was well worth it. It was a charity concert, which is quite unusual in Mozambique. As it was for an AIDS charity, every ticket had a condom attached. I staggered into bed at 1.45 a.m. for a 6.00 wake-up call, condom unused I hasten to add!
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This weekend it was visual arts, as I went out to Matalana, a village in the countryside about 40km from Maputo which has been rebuilt by the world-famous Mozambiquan artist
Malangatana. He was brought up in the village, and he's turning it into a cultural centre for artists, but at the same time retaining the original Mozambiquan lifestyle. It's already got an amphitheatre, music room, school, etc., but still no electricity or running water. The web site for the project is
http://go.to/matalana/ and there's a lot about Malangatana at this
site.
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 Children's
Workshop |
A piece by
Malagantana |
Children's Workshop |
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For more information,
contact World Spirit by email