by DIPTI BHATNAGAR
Thousands take to the streets of Maputo to celebrate the life and lyrics of Azagaia, one of Mozambique’s most beloved cultural icons.
In a corner of the world most people are unaware exists, a young man dared to use his love of hip hop and talent for rapping to speak truth to power and raise awareness among the youth about the need for social change. The Mozambican rapper, social activist, and revolutionary known as Azagaia was found dead in his home in Mozambique on Thursday, March 9th, 2023. He was 38 years old.
Azagaia was born Edson da Luz in May 1984, in Namaacha, less than 80 kilometres from the capital city of Maputo. Namaacha is a border town, in the area where the three countries of Mozambique, South Africa, and Eswatini meet. The first President of independent Mozambique, Samora Machel, was killed in a plane crash that landed some 20 kms from Namaacha, across the border in South Africa, the cause of which continues to be a subject of debate and suspicion.
Edson da Luz adopted the stage name “Azagaia” after an African spear. In true form, Azagaia’s music was a weapon urging the people of his country to consider social, political, and economic inequalities and their disproportionate effects on poor and vulnerable. Azagaia believed that his music could shed light on the evils of society that he saw around him and catalyse positive action. His lyrics critiqued colonialism and slavery, but also held our current African leaders’ feet to the fire.
Azagaia’s raps were all in Portuguese, the colonial language of Mozambique. There is very little written about him in English. This is a loss for those who don’t understand Portuguese (the vast majority of the world of course), but who appreciate the progressive roots of hip hop, who love the music of Dead Prez, Tupac Shakur, Michael Franti and Spearhead, the Roots, the Fugees, Public Enemy, Talib Kwali, A Tribe Called Quest, and so many other visionary rappers with a systemic critique.
This invisibilization is not surprising. Between and even within countries, there are clear hierarchies of whose lives matter and whose stories are told. So many people within our countries, especially in Africa, are invisible, evoking pity when a deadly cyclone hits, but forgotten a week later. But these stories are important. Many of our obscure places are lightning rods, harbingers of what is to come, the canary in the coal mine, lessons for the rest of the world.
In Azagaia’s song “As Mentiras” (The Lies), he raps (translated to English):
It’s a lie that you’re independent
That you take your continent forward
You didn’t break the chain
You’re nothing but an unconscious slave
500 years of slavery
And the Europeans took 36 million slaves and only 16 survived
Now you call the European, the American or god knows who
To suck your oil and set up their homes here
But they don’t set up factories here, they just buy the barrel
On the mainland or in the diaspora
Independent Africans who impoverish our Africa
Mozambique is one of the poorest countries in the world. The Portuguese colonial government held on to its colonies the longest. The country only gained its independence in 1975, the year that the Vietnam War ended. Data from the United Nations shows that Mozambique’s Human Development Index ranks at 180 out of 189 countries and territories. Over 60% of the people of Mozambique live under the poverty line, and 80% of the people are food insecure. It is also one of the most vulnerable countries to the climate crisis.
Colonialism robbed and impoverished the country, like so many in Africa. The current ruling political party found its own way to enrich themselves and continue looting the land and peoples, but there are effectively only two political parties in the country to choose from. Azagaia once said in an interview on Sob Pressão (“Under Pressure”): “nao existe democracia com apenas dois partidos politicos” (there can be no democracy with just two political parties). Readers in the US might find this sentiment familiar.
In the same interview, he was asked if he feared for his life because of his progressive music. He replied that he is not interested in material possessions, he is not taking any of that with him. Instead, it is important to him to make his life count, to focus on safety for his family and to leave his ideas behind. How many rappers speak like this today?
His other songs include “Quem vendeu a minha patria?” (Who sold my homeland?), about the leaders selling off the country’s land and other resources; “Os Vampiros” (The Vampires), denouncing those who profit off of the labour of the people; “As Mentiras da Verdade” (The Lies from the Truth), about how the media and the powerful control the narratives of truth and lies; and “Povo no Poder” (Put the People in Power), a call to action for the people of his country to organize themselves.
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