Mosaic, beach, guitar, conga, Jesuit

Angola is a beautiful country with interesting cultures; a mixture of Latino-Catholic traces (Portuguese colony), native cultures, and modern diaspora influences.

Across the Atlantic you see Rio de Janeiro, a melting pot that has led to some of the greatest pools of artistic expression and musical creativity.

Eventhough there are already deep Brazilian-Angolan ties, this idea is aimed at making them more explicit, albeit in a subtle manner, and without pushing things.

The project is very simple: parallel to a sunny, deserted Angolan beach (of which there are many) we create a large but non-intrusive walkway made out of a mosaic, like the famous Copacabana promenade that was designed by Roberto Marx [link]. I have something very white, with a streak of vivid purple-red in mind. An abstract, light mosaic. Palm trees.

That's it. Nothing special.

Now we add a few locally available resources:

1. several percussion instruments, guitars, saxophones and some other musical instruments. Dotted on our walkway are cozy benches, where you can gather to do whatever you want. Playing music for example.

2. another ingredient is a Jesuit teacher-priest: disciplined but just. His (traditional) motto: "there is more in you" ("plus est en vous"). He just walks on the promenade.

3. the last thing is a small group of volunteers (everybody's welcome, from Angola itself, or from the US, Europe, Asia) who prepare food, and who keep an eye on the musical installation, the internet connection (a few PC's dot our walkway) and the dormitories.

Voilà. This is all very discreet, light, a minimalistic intervention on that beach somewhere south of the capital.

Now comes the crucial part: bring in the kids. Kids from the favelas of Luanda, that is. Poor street kids, the beach kids [link]. The kids of which it can be said that "there is more in them". In fact, they already showed this because they helped design and build the mosaic of the walkway (a small, fun, side-project).

Our army of kids gets a meal every day, can listen to music, and will be kindly watched after by our Jesuit and the volunteers. For the rest they are entirely free.

I can guarantee you that:

-within 5 to 10 years time this beach will have produced several music bands with an international impact; at least one mega-hit will emerge from it, to which the entire world will dance, longing for the tropics

-within 10 years it will have become a hotspot for passionate beach goers and tourists who like to dance away the night on the fire of the fantastic and unique music that is being played live each night

-within 15 years the place will begin to resemble a kind of infant Rio, but with its own identity and creative expressions; not a clone; the mosaic was only a trace, a sign, a sign of saying hello across the Atlantic...

-within 20 years it will have become a center of culture, with music, fashion, design schools, known for new styles of dance, of artistic expression and of new forms of sociality that amaze the world

All this can be predicted with a 100% certainty.

No hard discipline, our school is an open air school, where the spontaneity of creativity gets a place. Sun, beach [link], sea, music... are just environmental factors that stimulate particular processes in parts of the brain. The kids have nothing to lose. Some will become great musicians, designers, others will go into dance, fashion and other arts.

The entire project starts with a minimal fund obtained from donations. I guarantee that it can sustain itself from year 5 onwards. From year 10 on it is highly profitable.

It's a small development project that goes beyond the tragic utilitarianism that is often so typical of NGOs who work in the Global South. There's more than food. Like the Germans say: "erst die Moral, dann das Fressen" ("culture first, then food").