Mama África, cultural ambassador of Angola and Africa

In her Casa Museu de Luanda, Aminata Goubel, alias Mama África, warmly welcomes all those who want to discover African and Angolan cultures. A “cause” which is the pride of this ex-journalist who has become a leading personality in Angola.

A respected former actress and journalist, Aminata Goubel, better known as Mama África, is today one of the most influential and respected women in Angola.

Mama África welcomes us to her house, the Casa Museu, on the beach, an idyllic place dedicated to Angolan culture, but not only. There are masks, works of art, musical instruments and a very special warm atmosphere.

“I defend a better, joyful Africa”

“People come, look and say to themselves: Is this a hotel, a restaurant, a house? Is this woman crazy?” having fun Mama Africa. “Come in and visit! I absorb and transmit culture every day of my life, I couldn’t live without doing this,” she says.

The Casa Museu lives and breathes the culture of Angola and Africa. “I defend a cause and this cause is Africa, Africanness,” she explains. “A better, joyful Africa, where there is no war, no hunger, an Africa where you see the beauty in the eyes of children, the smiles of joy, the eyes of women with their traditional clothes, their hair Natural,” she describes.

“A woman who preserves her Africanity”

A family cause because it includes his mother, a famous Angolan chef called Mama Kuiba whom Euronews had met during a previous episode, and her daughter who works for an energy company.

“I grew up with my mother, my grandmother, my great-grandmother and I was immersed in this culture where the women in my family had this power,” explains Mama Africa. “I grew up loving and wanting to be a woman who would preserve her Africanness, her Angolan identity,” she adds.

An Angolan identity which is also embodied by her daughter, including in her work. “What I can do is show young people, my generation and the next generation,” explains Fátiha Marlene Goubel Manuel, sociologist and entrepreneur, “that it is possible to be African, to look African, to have African hair and wear African clothes while remaining young, being a singer or a doctor. any job and continue to look like an African,” she says.

In her Casa Museu, Mama África strives to make visitors feel at home. “She set up this ritual: you have to play percussion before entering, take off your shoes,” describes his daughter laughing. “It’s a great experience and I’m really happy to see the reaction of my friends when I bring them here [à la Casa Museu],” she confides.

“It shows what the African continent is to the world”

After four decades as a journalist, Mama África still works on national radio. We accompany her as she interviews the Angolan artist Francisco Van Dunem.

“For me, she embodies the concept that a journalist is not only when they are working, they are every day,” considers Luisa Rogerio, journalist and president of “Accreditation Journalists”. “I would define her as someone who makes her daily life a way of defending, of showing what the African continent is to the world,” she adds.

“She defends what has to do with our identity, so it is a question of affirmation and identity that she manifests through her writings, through her work on the radio and we must not forget that Angola is a country where radio has a lot of influence,” she points out.

Hence the importance of the Casa Museu as a gathering place for all generations. “It’s a house where the spirituality is very strong, first of all, because we are near the sea,” assures Mama Africa. “Young people come to the Casa Museu to consult, discuss and integrate some of our experience and the maturity of the culture that we carry within us with great love: those who come to us play the batuque, for example.” she says.

“She’s an eternal student,” adds her daughter Fátiha Marlene Goubel Manuel. “She likes to learn, to feed on what surrounds her, to sit at the foot of a tree so that the tree transmits everything it knows to her,” she concludes.

Mama África, cultural ambassador of Angola and Africa