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In July 2010, I decided to make a fourth trip to the African continent. This time I’d go to Angola, a country with which Portugal is historically and culturally connected.

The journey began in Luanda, the capital and one of the most effervescent cities across the continent. This was my last destination, the town further south, I travelled through the intermediate provinces, one by one: Bengo, North Kwanza, South Kwanza and Benguela. Then a small shift to the interior: Malange and Bié, through the central plateau to Huambo. The Huila province and the city of Lubango followed. Only then the final destination: a coastal province further south, Namibe.

The old Moçâmedes now gives place to the city with the same name as the province. A tribute to the oldest desert in the world and also the residence of a unique plant sui generis, which can last over a hundred years, the Welwitschia mirabilis. The Namibe Desert, which means “vast place” in one of the languages of the region, stretches for 1600 km along the coast, from southern Angola and Namibia.

When I arrived to the city I met the Kuvale. This people share with other ethnic groups this region of Angola. However, they are distinguished by their clothing, props and its way of life closely linked to pastoralism.

In the streets of Namibe I experienced an unusual event: two women began to chase the car in which I was travelling, speaking a language that was not the Portuguese. These two women, dressed in an unusual way were trying to sell a liquid that I later discovered it was called ‘mupeke’ oil, are ethnic Kuvale. I realized that in addition to these women, all over the city there were Kuvale people, or more commonly called Mucubals, who concentrated mainly near the market to sell oil and other small objects such as baskets or sandals — the Mucubals’ sandals, known by their peculiar fitting of the toe.

I felt compelled to learn more, to investigate and to seek explanations for the different issues that were raised during the interaction with this scenario: How the Mucubals live in Angola? What has kept its traditions preserved? What is the reason for the use of certain objects and body adornments so different from other Angolans? How do they relate to the rest of the community? What links their traditions to the increasingly globalized society of the city of Namibe? From their concrete example, here it is the wider issue: which factors contribute to the increase of westernization of traditional cultures?

Under my eyes stood another form of visual, strokes and colours. I was impelled to analyse visually and plastically the theme, with the purpose of creating a work which led to the reflection on the issues that were raised. It meant the visual freezing of this scenario, as the motto to a very special experience’s representation. That experience, guided by the authorial identity and by the spatial-temporal horizon where I was.

I realized that people, specifically the Kuvale, were the centre of everything, the hinge between two worlds: the location, referring to traditions and the 'woods' where they lived, and the global, the city where they moved frequently. So, if people were the centre of everything, I had to go to them, talk to them, found them... Through their testimonies, I might know their thoughts, their ideas, their vision of the world and things.

It was in this context that I met several Women (as we did not speak the same language, I could not know their names) Mr. Samuel, the Soba José Buni and Mebai Fernando: all of them Kuvale and the protagonists of this project.

The project Kuvale, built on a non-linear narrative, outlines the passivity of the spectator, leading him to research and to look for himself. It is the user that from its numerous reading combinations joins their contents according to its use criterion of the interface. These videos and audios synthesize the essential studied themes — globalisation, contamination, tradition, communication, trade school, soba, marriage, characters — and they interrelate themselves.

The journey that led to this project continues and carries out its circulation on network, accessible from anywhere in the world. This digital tool allows us to deliver the project in a comprehensive way, without conventional boundaries.

KUVALE

HYPERMEDIA EXPERIMENTAL DOCUMENTARY by SALETE FELíCIO

 

The Kuvale or Mucubals as they are called in Angola, living between the sea and the hills of Chela, are practitioners of transhumance shepherds.

The work comes from the discovery of the other that is strange and reflection on the increasing globalisation of traditional cultures.

Can the local be global?

EXPLORE >>

CREDITS
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DIRECTOR
Salete Felício
 
IDEA & DESIGN of INTERFACE
Salete Felício
Design
Salete Felício
Technical assistant
Joaquim Rosa
 
WEB NAVIGATION
Salete Felício
Programming
Virgolino Almeida
Implementation and optimization
Virgolino Almeida
Technical assistant
Virgolino Almeida
 
Hosting
Luís Vieira
Register web domain
Luís Vieira
Technical assistant
Luís Vieira (Bitline)
 
EDITING AND WRITING OF CONTENTS
Salete Felício
Assistant editor
Joaquim Rosa
Translation
Mª Cidália Bréu
Subtitling
Salete Felício
Trailer narrator
Salete Felício
 
FOTOGRAPHY
Salete Felício
 
Márcia Mansos
 
AUDIOVISUAL RECORDING
Salete Felício
 
Márcia Mansos
PRODUCTION
Salete Felício
POST-PRODUCTION
Salete Felício
 
SOUND RECORDING
Salete Felício
 
Márcia Mansos
 
Joaquim Rosa
 
PRODUCTION
Salete Felício
POST-PRODUCTION
Salete Felício
 
SUPERVISION
Claudia Giannetti
TECHNICAL SUPERVISOR
João Mesquita
 
PARTICIPATION
Fernando Mebai
 
José Buni
 
Mr. Samuel
 
Kuvale women
 
Children of Mandume neighbourhood
 
MUSIC (trailer):
Angolan band music Next
'Desert Blue Sky', 2010
'Kaputo Mwangole', 2010
 
THANK YOU
Angolan Embassy in em Portugal (Porto)
 
Music Band Next
 
Márcia Mansos
 
Mª Cidália Bréu
 
Kâmia Cunha
 
Lara Alvar
 
Liliana Gonçalves
 
Luís Vieira
 
Manaça Senguluka
 
Yuri Cunha
 
Pedro Paulo
 
Teresa Mesquita
 
Antónia Mansos
 
Joaquim Felício
 
Special thank you
Fernando Mebai
 
José Buni
 
Mr. Samuel
 
Kuvale Women
 
Children of Mandume neighbourhood
 
Produced by Salete Mansos Felício as master project in Visual Arts - Hypermedia,
Department of Visual Arts and Design, University of Évora.
Year 2013
Copyright © 2013, Kuvale by Salete Felício | saletefelicio@yahoo.com
w w w. k u v a l e . n e t
Biographies
Salete Mansos Felício is the author of Kuvale. Her master's project in Visual Arts - Hypermedia-digital, University of Évora (UÉ). Develops public and media art projects. Sculptress and visual artist. She has a degree in Fine Arts - Sculpture from the Faculty of Fine Arts of Lisbon.
Joaquim Rosa is a consultant and assistant coach and editing of Kuvale. He is a graphic designer and multimedia. Has a degree in Visual Production and Design, IADE - Institute of Visual Arts, Design and Marketing. Develops projects in the area of video, visual design and multimedia
Virgolino Almeida is responsible for HTML5 and JavaScript programming and the implementation and optimization of Kuvale’s interface. “With 16-year career in several companies with titles and credits affirmed, that I believe are of professional pride, we mean having consecrated as the best format to respond to our minuteness which we call life.”
Luís Vieira is responsible for the hosting and register web domain of Kuvale. Is technical programmer for 14 years. Responsible for management consulting domain and hosting projects.
Mª Cidália Bréu is responsible for the translation of all Kuvale contents to the English language. She has a degree in modern languages and literatures from the University of Lisbon.
Márcia Martins Mansos is co-responsible for the collection of audio-visual materials of Kuvale. She has a degree in Painting from the University of Évora. Currently, she works as an Agent of Development Cooperation in Angola - Namibe.
Next is Angolan band music, with Ricardo Celso, Divaldo Cardoso, Ivo Mingas and Nuno Mingas, Fernando Alvim and Marita Silva Faria. Presents a repertoire which highlights the fusion of classic national music, '60s and '70s, with songs of 1910, from singers of R. D. Congo, as well as mixtures of blue and jazz, with the U.S.A and European styles. In 2009 has made a survey on the sounds and rhythms of Mucubals people.
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