She lived in Portugal for 19 years, although her home is Luanda. The daughter of a mother from Lubango and a father from Kwanza-Sul, Alexandra Simeão is the product of her experiences and learning, having been born into a family that always aspired to do more and better for the people of its country. Multifaceted, she has held several respected positions, having served as Deputy Minister of Education for 11 years. Today, she is a different woman, «deeper and less tolerant of the absurd and the unessential». Stay with us, in a moving interview that raises hard-hitting reflections on Angolan women and the education in effect in the country.
Tell us about your roots. We know you were born in Luanda...
I was born in Luanda. The family of my mother, Anália de Victória Pereira, is from Lubango and the family of my father, Manolo Simeão, is from Kuanza-Sul. I grew up in Luanda and in 1975 I went to Portugal. I lived there until 1994.
You have a degree in Artistic Studies, but between 1997 and 2008 you served as Vice-Minister of Education. How did this transition into the world of politics come about?
I was born into a family who would question everything, of decent people who always thought about the country and became involved in building a happy place, for everyone. So, ever since I was a child, I would hear my parents, uncles and their friends talking about politics, about conspiracies that would bring about good and ways of making power universal. So, looking at the country became a priority, a second skin, an interest that overlapped with the others, with the exception of literature. Therefore, it was not being dropped into a new world, it was just the honing of a consciousness that was born in childhood, became adult and found a voice. I joined the Government of Unity and National Reconciliation because I was a PLD militant, as a reward for having participated actively and contributed single-mindedly to the election of three MPs in 1992.
How is education faring in the country today? And how did you leave it before you left?
In 1997 war was still waging in Angola, and only ended in 2002. During the six years of conflict, education did not have much of a chance of changing, because the main concern was to rebuild the more than 10,000 classrooms that had ceased to exist. At that time, there were three shifts for day pupils, which prevented children from fulfilling the requirements of a programme. So, building new classrooms and rebuilding schools that had been destroyed was the priority.
My area dealt with School Social Action, which never had a budget in 12 years. So, we had to use our imagination and personal credibility to make projects happen that were supposed to improve pupils’ quality of life. The first was the School Food Programme, which I presented to the WFP (the UN’s World Food Programme) and which was accepted, provided we started in the refugee camps. From there, we brought in children from the villages surrounding the camps and gradually we moved out of there and concentrated the operation in areas where the war was still waging. The children’s mothers would cook and were given food to take home with them and, as if by magic, thousands of families started having a decent meal a day. The children who took their younger siblings to school with them were also fed there. It was my greatest creation and was done with a tremendous sense of belonging. I became pregnant with my first child in 1998 and would go on the WFP planes to visit all the places where the programme was being implemented. Motivating people and being a shoulder to cry on and an ear to understand their pain builds courage to unite everyone around a project. The programme lasted until 2006, when the WFP no longer considered Angola a country with emerging requirements, seeing as the war was now over. In addition to this, I developed programmes in the field of school health, school libraries and school sports, as well as several programmes to improve the school environment, such as «One Desk, One Smile».
«The country grows as islands»
What urgently needs to be improved in the sector still?
Today, the problem of education is the lack of timeliness and direction. A path has yet to be laid out that would allow us to understand what country we intend to be in 20 or 30 years, and so the concern with education lies solely in building classrooms and buying textbooks. But having schools, in the sense of social institution, is not happening. Most Angolan schools do not have water, bathrooms, libraries or even a playground which would allow for educational play or sports. The educational content itself does not fulfil any function that strengthens children’s skills beyond the traditional; it is obsolete. In short, education in Angola is sick and bereft of anyone to make it the main social institution of the country.
Has your arts background given you a different political outlook?
Art always sees the world with love and, therefore, politics must have this premise as a mode of action: to look at others, feel their pain and resolve it. The ultimate goal of politics is to build collective happiness and well-being. It is to build a country for everyone. A life without art is a lesser life in every sense.
As an entrepreneur, what projects are you currently developing?
At the moment, I am part of an organisation called HANDEKA, which in the national Nganguela language means «giving voice to the voiceless», and serves to give voice to causes that are not beingheard, despite being priorities. Among them is education. I was also invited by professor Alves da Rocha, director of the Centre for Studies and Scientific Research of the Catholic University of Angola - CEIC, to help them as a researcher on issues related to education in the Social and Economic Reports that CEIC produces every year. In addition, I write a weekly column in Novo Jornal, in Angola, on political and social issues. I take part in many lectures and conferences and I have my own writing project with my books.
Do you consider yourself the same Alexandra Simeão today as you were 25 years ago? If not, what has changed?
Of course, I am not the same Alexandra. Thank goodness. I would be shocked if I were to look at myself and see the same person, because life puts us on a different level in every way. We see things differently and from another angle, based on another maturity, resulting from new experiences. I am more sensitive, deeper and less tolerant of the absurd and the unessential. I am much more of an altruist, conscious of the duty to leave the world better than I found it. I am much more rigorous in managing the usefulness of my time and space. I read in a new direction. I write with my heart. And I am sure that in ten years’ time I will be able to surprise myself with new interests and new paths and with the way I will look at the world, which is changing at an astonishing speed. In short, being the same all my life would have been agony. I wouldn’t have had the free rein I’ve enjoyed.
«Education in Angola is sick»
With 56 years of experience, tell us how it is to be a woman in Angolan society.
In Angola, we have many women. Unfortunately, the majority of them are not in any place of comfort. These women, who are responsible for family farming, which is only subsistence farming, and those who sell in informal markets, who are often the father and mother of several children, are never a priority. They fight every day for a plate of food. The rest is incidental, as it they have it. They are also tortured by their lack of schooling and the harshness of their work, which does not build any safeguards for old age, as they will have no retirement. Then there are women who went to school, with professions and better paid, who fit into public, liberal and intellectual positions. None of these worlds intersect. And the country grows as islands. But all these women lack a country that protects them from domestic violence, from women’s diseases due to lack of screening (in the case of oncological disease, due to lack of local capacity to ensure they receive proper treatment) and from a safe motherhood that saves their children who die due to lack of effective hospital care. There is still a long way to go to guarantee happiness and security for Angolan women.
Has the country made great strides in terms of gender equality?
If we are talking about the presence of many women in top positions, such as in the courts, in government, in the presidency and in public and private companies, yes, there has been progress. But the country is not only about these women. Women who have less, and who are the majority, remain invisible and abandoned.
«All these women lack a country that protects them»
Who is the female figure you most admire?
My mother. She was a true example, from whom I have learnt to have courage, not to give up, to believe in my dreams, to feel the pain of others and to listen with my heart. It was from her that I learnt that there is always a solution, that humility is a tremendous tool in this life, that there is no limit to what we can do as long as we believe in it and commit ourselves. She was the first woman in Africa to run in a presidential election. She was the first female leader of a parliamentary group in Angola and the first female president of a political party. But it was through her that the best smiles were always formed, through the abundance of her solidarity. Crowds could fit on her lap and in her pot. The nostalgia will be eternal, but the gratitude for all that I am is daily.
If you could leave a message for the women of Angola and the whole world, what would it be?
We are like the baobab trees; we break but we do not bend. We are resilient, honest, hard workers and excellent mothers. My advice would be: never allow anyone to make you feel inferior or prevent you from spreading your wings on the way to your dreams or to your peace.
We are celebrating the 13th anniversary of Villas&Golfe magazine, in Angola. What have these past years represented for you in your life and in the country?
I would like to congratulate Villas&Golfe magazine for the quality of your work, which introduces the most beautiful images of Angola to the world, for your awareness, which gives voice to plurality, and for defending nature. Villas&Golfe is a magazine that makes art an integral part of its editorial policy and that speaks of and shows Angola with a great deal of love. Thank you and congratulations.
Tell us about your roots. We know you were born in Luanda...
I was born in Luanda. The family of my mother, Anália de Victória Pereira, is from Lubango and the family of my father, Manolo Simeão, is from Kuanza-Sul. I grew up in Luanda and in 1975 I went to Portugal. I lived there until 1994.
You have a degree in Artistic Studies, but between 1997 and 2008 you served as Vice-Minister of Education. How did this transition into the world of politics come about?
I was born into a family who would question everything, of decent people who always thought about the country and became involved in building a happy place, for everyone. So, ever since I was a child, I would hear my parents, uncles and their friends talking about politics, about conspiracies that would bring about good and ways of making power universal. So, looking at the country became a priority, a second skin, an interest that overlapped with the others, with the exception of literature. Therefore, it was not being dropped into a new world, it was just the honing of a consciousness that was born in childhood, became adult and found a voice. I joined the Government of Unity and National Reconciliation because I was a PLD militant, as a reward for having participated actively and contributed single-mindedly to the election of three MPs in 1992.
How is education faring in the country today? And how did you leave it before you left?
In 1997 war was still waging in Angola, and only ended in 2002. During the six years of conflict, education did not have much of a chance of changing, because the main concern was to rebuild the more than 10,000 classrooms that had ceased to exist. At that time, there were three shifts for day pupils, which prevented children from fulfilling the requirements of a programme. So, building new classrooms and rebuilding schools that had been destroyed was the priority.
My area dealt with School Social Action, which never had a budget in 12 years. So, we had to use our imagination and personal credibility to make projects happen that were supposed to improve pupils’ quality of life. The first was the School Food Programme, which I presented to the WFP (the UN’s World Food Programme) and which was accepted, provided we started in the refugee camps. From there, we brought in children from the villages surrounding the camps and gradually we moved out of there and concentrated the operation in areas where the war was still waging. The children’s mothers would cook and were given food to take home with them and, as if by magic, thousands of families started having a decent meal a day. The children who took their younger siblings to school with them were also fed there. It was my greatest creation and was done with a tremendous sense of belonging. I became pregnant with my first child in 1998 and would go on the WFP planes to visit all the places where the programme was being implemented. Motivating people and being a shoulder to cry on and an ear to understand their pain builds courage to unite everyone around a project. The programme lasted until 2006, when the WFP no longer considered Angola a country with emerging requirements, seeing as the war was now over. In addition to this, I developed programmes in the field of school health, school libraries and school sports, as well as several programmes to improve the school environment, such as «One Desk, One Smile».
«The country grows as islands»
What urgently needs to be improved in the sector still?
Today, the problem of education is the lack of timeliness and direction. A path has yet to be laid out that would allow us to understand what country we intend to be in 20 or 30 years, and so the concern with education lies solely in building classrooms and buying textbooks. But having schools, in the sense of social institution, is not happening. Most Angolan schools do not have water, bathrooms, libraries or even a playground which would allow for educational play or sports. The educational content itself does not fulfil any function that strengthens children’s skills beyond the traditional; it is obsolete. In short, education in Angola is sick and bereft of anyone to make it the main social institution of the country.
Has your arts background given you a different political outlook?
Art always sees the world with love and, therefore, politics must have this premise as a mode of action: to look at others, feel their pain and resolve it. The ultimate goal of politics is to build collective happiness and well-being. It is to build a country for everyone. A life without art is a lesser life in every sense.
As an entrepreneur, what projects are you currently developing?
At the moment, I am part of an organisation called HANDEKA, which in the national Nganguela language means «giving voice to the voiceless», and serves to give voice to causes that are not beingheard, despite being priorities. Among them is education. I was also invited by professor Alves da Rocha, director of the Centre for Studies and Scientific Research of the Catholic University of Angola - CEIC, to help them as a researcher on issues related to education in the Social and Economic Reports that CEIC produces every year. In addition, I write a weekly column in Novo Jornal, in Angola, on political and social issues. I take part in many lectures and conferences and I have my own writing project with my books.
Do you consider yourself the same Alexandra Simeão today as you were 25 years ago? If not, what has changed?
Of course, I am not the same Alexandra. Thank goodness. I would be shocked if I were to look at myself and see the same person, because life puts us on a different level in every way. We see things differently and from another angle, based on another maturity, resulting from new experiences. I am more sensitive, deeper and less tolerant of the absurd and the unessential. I am much more of an altruist, conscious of the duty to leave the world better than I found it. I am much more rigorous in managing the usefulness of my time and space. I read in a new direction. I write with my heart. And I am sure that in ten years’ time I will be able to surprise myself with new interests and new paths and with the way I will look at the world, which is changing at an astonishing speed. In short, being the same all my life would have been agony. I wouldn’t have had the free rein I’ve enjoyed.
«Education in Angola is sick»
With 56 years of experience, tell us how it is to be a woman in Angolan society.
In Angola, we have many women. Unfortunately, the majority of them are not in any place of comfort. These women, who are responsible for family farming, which is only subsistence farming, and those who sell in informal markets, who are often the father and mother of several children, are never a priority. They fight every day for a plate of food. The rest is incidental, as it they have it. They are also tortured by their lack of schooling and the harshness of their work, which does not build any safeguards for old age, as they will have no retirement. Then there are women who went to school, with professions and better paid, who fit into public, liberal and intellectual positions. None of these worlds intersect. And the country grows as islands. But all these women lack a country that protects them from domestic violence, from women’s diseases due to lack of screening (in the case of oncological disease, due to lack of local capacity to ensure they receive proper treatment) and from a safe motherhood that saves their children who die due to lack of effective hospital care. There is still a long way to go to guarantee happiness and security for Angolan women.
Has the country made great strides in terms of gender equality?
If we are talking about the presence of many women in top positions, such as in the courts, in government, in the presidency and in public and private companies, yes, there has been progress. But the country is not only about these women. Women who have less, and who are the majority, remain invisible and abandoned.
«All these women lack a country that protects them»
Who is the female figure you most admire?
My mother. She was a true example, from whom I have learnt to have courage, not to give up, to believe in my dreams, to feel the pain of others and to listen with my heart. It was from her that I learnt that there is always a solution, that humility is a tremendous tool in this life, that there is no limit to what we can do as long as we believe in it and commit ourselves. She was the first woman in Africa to run in a presidential election. She was the first female leader of a parliamentary group in Angola and the first female president of a political party. But it was through her that the best smiles were always formed, through the abundance of her solidarity. Crowds could fit on her lap and in her pot. The nostalgia will be eternal, but the gratitude for all that I am is daily.
If you could leave a message for the women of Angola and the whole world, what would it be?
We are like the baobab trees; we break but we do not bend. We are resilient, honest, hard workers and excellent mothers. My advice would be: never allow anyone to make you feel inferior or prevent you from spreading your wings on the way to your dreams or to your peace.
We are celebrating the 13th anniversary of Villas&Golfe magazine, in Angola. What have these past years represented for you in your life and in the country?
I would like to congratulate Villas&Golfe magazine for the quality of your work, which introduces the most beautiful images of Angola to the world, for your awareness, which gives voice to plurality, and for defending nature. Villas&Golfe is a magazine that makes art an integral part of its editorial policy and that speaks of and shows Angola with a great deal of love. Thank you and congratulations.