President (PR) Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who today hands over the key to the Belém Palace to his successor, António José Seguro, became an African at Lourenço Marques run by his father, Baltazar, between 1968 and 1970, a period in which he was Governor-General (GG) of Mozambique, having also been the only GG to recite the Surat al-Fatihahon Emissora Nacional, at the beginning of Ramadan in 1968.
This was how the new GG, Rebelo de Sousa, introduced himself to the Muslims of Mozambique. For the so-called “Mozambican Mohammedan community”, overwhelmingly of Indian origin, the war was “a matter between whites and blacks” and it was necessary to win their hearts, these “Indians”. This Surat al-Fatihah Upon arrival, it is the recognition of “after all, we exist”, and the Muslims surrendered to this kindness, the Portuguese psychological action of war.
This was the school of Portuguese PR that today hands over the torch, which began by being trained in political realism, in these corridors, between Salazar’s ‘Necessidades’ and Eusébio’s Mafalala! And, just starting here, we understand the perfume with which “Ti Célito” sprayed Angola in 2019, wherever he went, on his “trip of affections”, whose objective was to resolve an “irritant” between brothers, who, like everyone, “have days”!
In Lusofonia, he applied the “school of Lourenço Marques”, contributing to the permanent debate on reconciliation and colonialism, plus the appreciation of the glue that the Portuguese language represents.
He was Machiavellian, as Nicolau taught, he was present in the 50 years of independence of Angola and Mozambique, but he avoided the celebrations of Guinea-Bissau, which had proclaimed itself independent in 1973.
It is also in Guinea-Bissau that the last CPLP Summit fails, in July 2025, in likely protest against the presidency that will follow, of Equatorial Guinea, between 2027 and 2029. “No there was nexexidade Xenhor Persidente”!
And it follows from this that the African cannot resist the European exotic and, when he visited Cameroon, in June 2019, the republican Marcelo was received with traditional honors and enthroned “King Amor”, or “King of Kings”, based on the Moossou tradition.
In conclusion, we had a “President-Prince”, educated at court and whose social changes during the 1960s/70s forced him to go down to the streets and jump over bonfires in Santo António, creating the necessary layers to also learn to play cheating in Queluz, or Massamá!
And so, between vichyssoise and one Santini raspberry, another ten years of solid democracy have passed.
Congratulations, Mr President, long life, these are the wishes of this commoner!
Write according to the old spelling
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