When Portugal remembered “that the Portuguese also existed in South Africa”, the coronavirus happened – Actualidade

South Africa and the Portuguese here were in Portugal’s attention. The expectation was high.

But in mid-March COVID-19 came along and everything had to be put on hold. Portugal declared a state of alert on 13 March and a state of emergency on 18 March. South Africa declared on 15 March the “State of National Disaster” and entered “Lockdown” on 27 March.

And everything had to be suspended.

It was not an abandonment or a withdrawal, it was and is a disappointment, truly an impossibility to make the celebration we all wanted: the high authorities in Portugal, our community, the South African authorities, this Embassy and the entire diplomatic, consular structure , commercial and teaching that we have here.

The withdrawn words of the letter from Manuel Carvalho, Portugal’s ambassador to South Africa, to the Portuguese community are enlightening. The country that is the beginning and the end of the African continent misses Portugal and this year, prepared as tradition has been for more than half a century, to embrace it, it has seen the longing slip before it even reaches the arms of that which is one of the largest communities in the Portuguese diaspora, a fact too often overlooked.

“After decolonization we had over 500 thousand Portuguese in South Africa”, says António José Contente, businessman and president of União Portuguesa, the oldest Portuguese club in the country.

He himself was part of that half a million Portuguese who found a house there after the process that took place after the 25th of April. He was born in Portugal, in the lower Alentejo, in a village near Odemira, called São Martinho das Amoreiras. He went to Mozambique, as a boy, “aged five or six years”, before arriving in South Africa. He has lived in Johannesburg for over 40 years and is one of the most involved figures in the community.

“We learn at our expense. We are people who came from Angola, from Mozambique, others were already here, coming from the island of Madeira, our Madeiran community, many had come for construction. We are united, we created these roots and I think we are more Portuguese than the Portuguese in Portugal ”, he laughs. “It’s a way of saying, we are friends with each other, we celebrate the days, we expand our language, we are vain when our Portuguese team faces other colors outside, we are proud and we are happy to be champions of Europe, we are proud to be Portuguese ”.

To SAPO24 regrets that “this year, that we had a unique case here of our president remembering that the Portuguese also existed in South Africa, the coronavirus happened”.

The celebrations of the Day of Portugal, Camões and the Communities that would take place in Madeira and later in this country, where he would be present not only Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa but also Prime Minister António Costa and the President of the Regional Government of Madeira, Miguel Albuquerque , were canceled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The President of the Republic Prometheus that the celebrations that did not happen this year would take place in 2021, if he were reelected, and that, if he were not, that he would leave this agenda as a suggestion to his successor.

In the gap that lies between the desired meeting between the community and the country that may be bridged in a year – or not – another virus survives, that of forgetfulness.

June 10. “A gypsy party” very Portuguese, for sure

Michael Gillbee was born in South Africa, where he lived until he was seven years old, before coming to Portugal. Around here he studied, graduated and worked until 2012, the year he became unemployed. The return to Africa, where the labor market was bigger, appeared to be the most viable solution the following year.

When he arrived at the land that saw him born, he joined the newspaper Voz Portuguesa and later jumped to The Century of Johannesburg. The Portuguese community is her home and her object of work, she writes about and for her.

He tells us that the 10th of June “is like a gypsy wedding” that lasts from seven to 15 days, which is celebrated by the various Portuguese associations in the country, and that this is the first time in decades that Portugal Day will not be celebrated , Camões and Communities.

“The celebrations of June 10 in South Africa began more than 50 years ago with the founding of the Mother Academy of Cod, which is the Johannesburg Cod Academy, which took place on June 10, 1958. Therefore, the academy, which it is a gathering of Portuguese people who gather around a glass of red wine and a dish of cod and in which part of the lunch funds revert to charities, to help the most disadvantaged, it is the starting point ”, explains -we.

José Contente, who chaired the Academy for four years, explains that the idea of ​​the foundation was “to help those who can least, to collaborate with those who have more difficulties and to be able to come together and speak our language. 50 years ago, there were not the facilities that exist today. It was all through the newspapers, so it was the way to get together and find out what was going on in the country ”.

As the foundation of the Academy started to beat Portugal Day, the celebration became even greater and culminated, on 10 June, with a gala dinner “with a maximum of 500 compadres and comadres” in which “the Reverse funds are always for solidarity funds ”.

This is the epicenter of the celebrations, where the medals of merit of the 10th of June are attributed to young people who stand out in Portuguese society, in which the consul and the ambassador speaks and in which Portuguese gastronomy is also the headliner.

“In order to avoid a collision of dates and to be able to participate in all festivities, the celebrations begin before and each day there will be a different event. For example, on the 10th there is an official reception at the embassy in Pretoria to which a number of people are invited, mainly the foreign diplomatic corps. Everything goes from there to the Portuguese association in Pretoria where there is a big gala dinner, the next day there is, for example, a reception here at the consulate in Johannesburg or at the consul’s house, the LusoÁfrica arraial usually takes place on the weekend. follow the 10th of June. All Portuguese churches say mass, make processions and there are stingrays too. It is the evidence of our culture, gastronomy, religion, family values ​​and the pride of being Portuguese for several days ”, says Michael.

The distance virus

Joaquim Melo, president of Lusoclube, listens to Portugal on this side of the phone and reacts immediately. “Portugal? Love. There is only one country bigger than the one where I was born, Portugal. If I ever have to leave here it is for Portugal, our land ”, he says with a smile in his voice.

“I was born in South Africa. I was born here in 68, I went to Portugal with my parents in 76 and I returned in 79. I have a sister in Portugal, we are from Vila da Feira, Espinho, my father is both here and there , I really like going to Portugal ”, he stresses.

Melo is responsible for organizing the great festival, one of the most anticipated moments of the days when Portugal is celebrated. “We invite all the other clubs, associations, federations, we organize a festival, we have a stage, we invite Portuguese singers, the ranches all around here. We have the abundance that our scouts make, then we eat and drink, all in Portuguese, ”he explains.

The party this year gives way to discouragement. The pandemic has led to South Africa establishing a lockdown aggressive on March 26 leading to the closure of these spaces and the impossibility of organizing all events. “Clubs need this to survive,” sighs Michael. It is he who gives us an overview of a country that faces a disease that has not yet reached the Portuguese community – “as far as I know there are no deaths or infections among us”.

“The lockdown in South Africa started at level 5 where you could only leave the house to go to the doctor, the pharmacy and the supermarket. We couldn’t walk on the street exercising or walking dogs. Now we are at level 3. At level 4 things have relaxed a little, but everything is still closed, shopping centers, restaurants, shops. Now at level 3 the shopping centers’ stores have reopened. In several places, they take the temperature from us, ask us to fill out a symptom form so that if there is any case they will soon detect it and know who the contacts were, ”he explains.

It exemplifies the times lived with what happened a few days ago with a group of people “who joined the Portuguese association in Pretoria and after half an hour the police appeared there and they were all arrested.” “The club was open illegally. According to the orders of the lockdown they couldn’t, they were all together and less than a meter and a half away, they had no masks, they were consuming alcohol – the sale of alcohol and tobacco in South Africa during the lockdown it is prohibited… ”

At LusoClube the facilities were closed on March 26th. “It was a shame, clubs today are already having a certain difficulty. Youth are not very interested … In our association we use sport to push for them, football and cycling, but now they are Portuguese descendants. The reasons why the guys used to come to clubs in the past are not the same nowadays ”, says Joaquim Melo, who says that the financial repercussions in the club will be great in the face of these months of lockdown.

At the Center for Art and Culture, a Portuguese association that is 33 years old, one of the youngest, the difficulties are not minor. It is directed by Joaquim Coimbra, born in Portugal, more precisely in Vila Nova de Gaia, came to South Africa at the age of two, – “I am 55, so I have spent my whole life here. I have always lived here, I am in the computer business, I took my 12th year by equivalence, my Portuguese is not the best, but I am very Portuguese. I did folklore for 25 years, I danced, I am a lover of roller hockey, football and our community ”- and, in what“ was supposed to be the year of the years ”, it is“ really by a thread ”.

“We launched an appeal to our members to update the dues, we asked for financial assistance from friends and supporters of the club in terms of sponsorship, but it is very complicated. It will be three months since we are in lockdown and it’s only now that we’re reaching the peak of the pandemic here, so I have no idea what the next months will be like ”, he laments,

At the center there is roller hockey and futsal and, “from time to time” the folkloric ranch. “We already had a theater, we have a bookstore called Almeida Garrett, we have a restaurant on the premises to serve the community, we host Portuguese events with greater emphasis and we also try to help the community. We have an annual charity event where we get the means to help Portuguese descendants. We also have a day center that is now five years old. We already have eighty or so users, we all call boys and girls. So, the club tries to have these different activities to support the community ”, he explains.

“We try to reach different ages, although it is very difficult because in the third generation here in South Africa, I am part of the second, my parents of the first, Portugueseism is getting away a little”.

In Pretoria, in the capital, Casa da Madeira shares the difficulties. Without parties there is no money to pay the fixed expenses and the bills increase.

“We never spoke to the consul again to see if we could receive any help from Portugal or Madeira just to pay the expenses, but if they never helped in the past, will they help now?”, Says the president.

Without the usual recipes for the June 10 celebrations that this year were expected to be greater, given the scale of the events, Portuguese associations in South Africa are at risk. At the date of publication of this article, none of the interviewees had been informed of the possibility of receiving any support from the embassy, ​​consulate or Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Something that, however, does not surprise José Contente.

“We in South Africa have been very forgetful, we have had no support at all. I know that Europe is a little more benefited in this aspect because European emigrants know how to do a little politics and we here are more dedicated to work, politics has been left aside and as such we have been forgotten. Virtually none, ”he says.

As president of the Portuguese Union, you feel like you are playing the role of the association’s difficulties. “We live by renting the pavilion, a sports pavilion, football fields, rooms where wedding parties and baptisms were held. All that rental income has died. We are practically at zero, there are no capital inflows. The Union restaurant that served many of our Portuguese during the week closed, expenses do not stop because we have employees in it, we have employees that we have maintained, we have security, we have alarms, we have water, lights, taxes. There is a sum of expenses for which we have not received any funds at present. No wonder the collectives are, therefore, very shaken and if this does not stop soon I do not know what it will be ”, he laments.

The result is in sight, he says, “a poor community”. “Many are going to be unemployed and there are many old Portuguese here who have been here for a long time and who have difficulties. We have a home for the elderly that was created by the Academia do Bacalhau and that we as Portuguese will all support as much as we can. These same parties that we had for these homes, this year are not going to be held. People are also not economically collaborating, let’s see how we managed to unfurl our flag ”, he says.

What celebrations are left over?

“In the nucleus, we usually hold a camp celebration. The priest from our parish goes there and we always have a small celebration. We have a statue of Vasco da Gama and, on Wednesday, I already spoke with the priest, with some guests and with the authorities, I am waiting for the green light to have maybe 40 guests, friendly people from the club to have a simple ceremony and solemn and celebrate the 10th of June ”, says Joaquim Coimbra, from the Nucleus.

The Nucleus and the Academy have celebrated Portugal Day as much as possible, helping the most disadvantaged. “There are many Portuguese people helping not only the community, but also the locals. It is a community that works for everyone. When problems like this arise, it is a community with a lot of unity ”, says Joaquim.

But for today, Dia de Portugal, Camões and the Communities, the main objective of each of these associations is to raise the flag. Making the colors of Portugal emerge in the sky will be all they have after being promised the world. They ask not to fall by the wayside. All they have left this year is the flag and the hope that, in a year, they will meet their country here, in South Africa.

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