Abstract
Journalist and Index on Censorship award-winner
Writer Rafael Marques de Morais receiving his Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Award for journalism in London, March 2015
Credit: Index on Censorship/ Alex Brenner
“I haven’t talked about this for a long time,” he told Index on Censorship, when we discovered he had written a 1998 poetry book called In the Heart of the Enemy. The collection, published in Portuguese, was removed from Luanda’s primary bookstore as soon as it came out, mostly down to assumptions based on the title. Marques said there was nothing deliberately inflammatory about it; it was addressing general themes of conflict, as the country geared up towards war again after three years of relative peace.
There were fears that the verses would offend the country’s leaders, but mostly the publication just provoked confusion, especially after state television – the country’s only channel at the time – dedicated eight minutes of a transmission to the book’s launch. “Most of the TV guys had been my classmates, and they just wanted to be good friends. There was no political mischief,” said Marques. “But the authorities could not understand the long coverage of a poetry book on state television. So, some zealots decided to take action. A number of individuals from the ruling party approached the bookstore manager to have it removed from view. They must have been allergic to poetry and did not care to read it.”
Marques said the book was written with peaceful intentions having grown up during civil war. “My early memories are of war. I was four, and I remember very well how my grandmother, who was such a big women, struggled to cover me with her body as bullets were whizzing past us in the street. She was afraid I would try to run and be hit.”
Forests Dance
Forests dance With the passing wind Which takes in its steps A message to the sleeping soul Of memories shared And the windows and the doors Shall open up To deliver the secrets That have shaken them There shall be no tears But transparency And hatred will sing Anthems of love
Infinite
The earth Keeps its doors open To shelter its dead And their experiences Forever
Ballerina
From the dreams you come With rhythm As a feather dancing in the air Without a rush to touch On the ground The heart of things
Butterfly
The butterfly is also born in a chaotic country It celebrates its flight and its short existence Its cycle of life rests on the flowers Beautiful and short-lived it seduces one’s vision of space and brings a rebirth of hope in its ultimate flight
In the Heart of the Enemy
I want to be the word the smile in the heart of the enemy I want to be the freedom at the very edge of limits and rights Listening to the whispering of evil vanishing little by little in the heart of the enemy
Men search for diamonds outside the north-west Angolan town of Nzagi. Rafael Marques de Morais’ book about abuses against workers in the diamond trade has led to a court case on defamation charges
Marques was awarded an Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Award in March for his resilient reporting on human rights and his refusal to back down despite increasing pressure and the threat of jail.
After coming to London to pick up his award and spending a week on the new Index on Censorship fellowship programme, which sees award winners attend various workshops and meetings to support work in their homelands, Marques returned for the first day of his trial in Luanda on 24 March. When he turned up at the court, he was hit with 15 new defamation charges. He described the twist as a “nightmare”. During the adjournment, his computer and website were also hacked. This wasn’t the first time: he previously found a hacker had been taking screen shots of his computer every 10 seconds.
The case appeared to have been suddenly dismissed on 21 May, but then the public prosecutor called for a 30-day sentence. As we went to press, it remained unresolved.
The Heart of the Enemy is not officially banned in Angola, but Marques had difficulties finding shops to stock it and it is no longer available. He recalled how after the manager of a major bookstore had removed it from the shelves, following “advice”, but had then received a visit from a member of the leading party. The manager proceeded to read one of the poems aloud in a bid to reassure them that the verses were neither subversive nor anti-regime. “It worked!” said Rafael. “The leader understood that there was no mischief in the poem, and he actually liked it.” The poem he chose to read was the title poem, In the Heart of the Enemy, published overleaf alongside other verses from the book, including Butterfly.
© Rafael Marques de Morais
