Angolan Minister of Culture and Tourism, Dr. Filipe Zau, gives a lecture on Africanity, Angolanness, identity, respect for difference at the Universidade Internacional do Cuanza (Universidade Internacional do Cuanza, UNIC), a university promoted by the Iberoamerican University Foundation (FUNIBER).
The conference was attended by FUNIBER’s Director of Institutional Relations, Dr. F. Álvaro Durántez Prados; the governor of the province of Bié, Mr. Pereira Alfredo, together with some members of the government; the rector of UNIC, Dr. Carlos Jélvez Martínez; deans, professors, and students of UNIC; as well as the public from outside the university and the local media.
The lecturer emphasized the relevant aspects of African identity, supported by African thinkers, highlighting the great movements of Pan-Africanism and negritude that underpin Africanness.
The minister and university professor has presented a comparative analysis of the different meanings that human beings have instilled in relation to the color black and the place of birth. He has used thinkers such as Filipe Zau, who argued that color is not an absolute element of identity, relying on the idea of the African thinker Mia Couto who, in his statement, deconstructs the concept of race as an ethnic group: “My race is myself, the person is an individual humanity. Every man is a race. The human person is only a biopsychosocial being inserted in a specific cultural context”.
He also referred to Angolan constitutional law, which establishes that all human citizens are equal before the law, enjoy the same rights, and are subject to the same duties without distinction of ideology, religion, or level of education, and that no Angolan is inferior to any other.
Dr. F. Álvaro Durántez Prados, also the director of the Cátedra FUNIBER de Estudios Iberoamericanos y de la Iberofonía (FUNIBER Chair of Ibero-American Studies and Iberophony), has actively participated in this event by giving a speech highlighting the importance of a multinational space of Iberian-speaking countries —Spanish and Portuguese— from all continents without geographical exceptions, defined by Dr. Durántez as a pan-Iberian space. He has also presented his work for those who wish to delve deeper into the Iberian World, entitled “Iberofonía y Paniberismo. Definición y articulación del Mundo Ibérico” (Iberophony and Pan-Iberianism. Definition and articulation of the Iberian World).
