Journalist Rafael Marques de Morais is facing nine
separate trials in Angola for his reporting on human rights abuses and
corruption. He delivers a tribute to slain colleagues and a plea for
press freedom
An edited version of the Carlos Cardoso memorial lecture
delivered at Wits University by Angolan journalist Rafael Marques de
Morais
First, I would like to share with you a
personal experience I had with Carlos Cardoso, the great friend I never
had the chance to meet personally.
Back in 1999, when I was jailed in Angola
for calling the president, José Eduardo Dos Santos, a dictator and
corrupt, Carlos Cardoso was instrumental in mobilising lawyers,
journalists and concerned Mozambicans to lend their support to me.
Upon my release we began a regular email correspondence that went
beyond my legal battles, conviction, political persecution and travel
ban. We broadened the conversation on teaming up to chiefly expose the
scourge of corruption in both our countries. We believed in conquering
the public space for the freedoms of speech and of the press to take
root.
We made the struggle for that public space ours. While Carlos was
breaking ground as a full-time journalist, I was running an
international organisation providing, among others, support to the
emerging independent media. I kept writing to affect public opinion.
I promised Carlos that once I was allowed to travel I would first go
to Mozambique, to finally meet him; thank him in person, and take our
“conspiracy” to another level. I did keep my promise, but only to pay my
respects to his widow. I was finally allowed to travel two months after
he was brutally murdered, in November 2000.
Although I had received much international support, Carlos’
solidarity was the most inspiring for me. He was a professional, whose
very work of exposing corruption and the ills of the Mozambican rulers
as well as their business proxies, had put his life in the firing line.
Yet, he was my brother-in-arms in the same trench as I was and he
watched my back. I could not watch his. But today, his legacy is
embedded in my work, as an investigative journalist. So is the legacy of
my late compatriot Ricardo Melo, whose life was also cut short by bullets in his prime, in 1995, for investigating corruption and the ills of the Angolan rulers.
Today I am here to talk about freedom of expression as a struggle in
countries in which the powers that be have been operating above the law.
These are the ones for whom the law is a tool of personal power. These
are the strongmen who thrive on their ability to keep people in fear.
I am here to talk about the courage, the leadership, and the
solidarity that are required to bring down the walls of fear, and with
them the fear-mongers.
The struggle
As I learned from Carlos and those fellow prisoners who welcomed me
in jail, being more concerned with others’ well being is the most
expressive form of being concerned with our own humanity.
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