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I don’t really know when I was born
PART I
I was told that it was a couple of years after the independence of my country. I was born in the village of Mualela, in the heart of the Makonde region of Mozambique, and I spent my childhood climbing trees and hunting birds – there are no pictures to prove it, though.
PART II
When I was about 8 years old – again, I’m not sure – I was sent to the traditional initiation ritual.
I spent what seemed to be months in the forest learning, among various things, how to hunt lions, how to become invisible and the trickier art of choir singing.
I spent months in the forest, learning
I was about 10 when I saw a guitar for the first time
PART III
Roughly two years later I saw a guitar for the very first time and I decided that I should make one myself. It looked great! About the size of a ukulele, the sound didn’t match its looks. An older boy from my village was kind enough to let me in on the universal tuning concept and shows me an instrument I could use as a model to build something “serious”. After I built my first real guitar I started to experiment with sound, but I quickly lost my interest.
PART IV
About five years later, thanks to my career as a sculptor, I ended up in Maputo, Mozambique’s capital. One fine day I was walking down Mao Tse-Tung Avenue and I see a sign that reads NATIONAL MUSIC SCHOOL. I had no idea that music could be learnt at a school, and that was how I started my musical education: I studied the piano for one year, and moved on to the classic guitar.
I had no idea that music could be learnt at school
I travelled to Portugal
PART V
In 2007 I was awarded a scholarship in one of Portugal’s Fine Arts Faculty. It was in the city of Oporto that I continued to look into music, studying at Guilhermina Suggia’s Music School and Oporto’s Jazz School.
PART VI
Being away from home for so long made me reminisce about my previous life. In 2012 I started writing songs inspired by the melodies of my childhood and lyrics in my mother tongue, Shimakonde. Four years into it and I have about 50 songs ready and waiting to be heard. I’ve played in more than 40 venues, big and small, and I’m on the way to record my very first album. It will be called ALIVALILA – “he who will never forget”.
"He who will never forget"
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