Young journalists defend Malangatana and Craveirinha estates in Maputo

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Young journalists defend Malangatana and Craveirinha estates in Maputo

1:00 CAT | 12 Jul 2017

The Mbenga association of young Mozambican journalists is currently discussing measures to protect the estates of Mozambican artists Malangatana and José Craveirinha, with strategies to defend their legacy to be debated today at the German Cultural Centre in Maputo.

Leonel Matusse, one of the movement’s journalists, believes that ignoring the residual production of these two “cultural institutions” will mean the country losing sight of an important chapter in the history of Mozambican art.

“It is an initiative that aims to promote reflection on the management of the material that these two figures have left,” Matusse told Lusa.

“Malangatana and Craveirinha influenced generations of Mozambican artists,” Matusse says, adding that to talk about these two is to talk about the very origins of the plastic arts and poetry in Mozambique.

Matusse said that a policy of government protection is needed when it comes to the legacies of figures of this magnitude. “It is the history of the country, and it is imperative that there is a willingness on the part of the government to deal with these matters,” he concluded.

Considered one of Mozambique’s greatest poets, José Craverinha, the first African writer to win the Camões Prize (in 1991), died in 2003 at the age of 80.

Malangatana, one of the most famous Mozambican visual artists, died in 2011. Among other honours and international prizes, he won Portugal’s Grande-Official Medal of the Order of the Infante D. Henrique.

Source: Lusa