Lisbon doesn’t have an official venue or association supporting or celebrating the Mozambican community and its culture, but there are several groups that organize events in different venues, such as OMM – Organização da Mulher Moçambicana, whose activities are aimed to promote women’s rights and sometimes include solidarity dinners – and the AAM – Associação dos Amigos de Moçambique, which is currently struggling to get a venue to develop their social aid projects and communal activities.
One of the venues that often hosts such events is Casa Mocambo. Located on a steep residential road just east of the Graça neighborhood, it is spread out on two floors; the café and restaurant on the ground floor offer fusion Portuguese-PALOP food, with African-focused cultural events (including concerts, performances and poetry) taking place in the basement. Recently the venue exhibited the work of Malenga, a famous Mozambican plastic artist, to much fanfare.
Ana Mafalda Nunes, the owner of Casa Mocambo, has her own kind of attachment to Mozambique, being the daughter of a retornado – a term referring to Portuguese people who lived in the former colonies until 1974. The name of her space is inspired by the Mocambo neighborhood, which formerly existed in the current Lisbon district of Santos, an historical African area where slaves were traded from the 16th century.
In the 20th century, the area was renamed Madragoa, which some saw as an attempt to remove any connection to the former African colonies that were at the time agitating for freedom. Casa Mocambo, Ana says, aims to rekindle that connection and recall a past that others have worked so hard to forget.
Published on August 25, 2017
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