Africa-Press – Angola. The President of the Republic guaranteed, on Friday, in Lisbon, that efforts are being made to ensure that Angolans residing abroad are duly documented.
João Lourenço, who was speaking during a celebration dinner with members of the Angolan community in Portugal, admitted that there are citizens living abroad for decades but who remain undocumented, as they do not have the Angolan Identity Card or the Angolan Passport.
“Efforts are being made to ensure that anyone living abroad is properly documented to prove that they are truly Angolan citizens,” he stated.
The Head of State also promised to “increasingly shorten the distance that exists between the Angolan who resides in the territorial space called Angola and the Angolan who lives outside the country, who is still as Angolan as those who live in the national territory”.
João Lourenço said that this is the feeling he wants to convey to communities residing abroad, in this specific case in Portugal, to say that “we are all Angolans, with the same rights, the same obligations and that the only thing that separates us is this distance physical”. He argued that “there should be no other type of distance and separation”.
The President of the Republic recalled that during his last state visit, held a few years ago, he also had the opportunity to hold a meeting with the Angolan community residing in Portugal. But on that occasion, he said, it was in a different format than yesterday.
“It was a formal meeting, in a meeting room, in a question-answer format. This time I understood that we should change the format to be closer to each other, not in a meeting, but in an environment like this, without major protocols”, he said, when justifying this Friday’s dinner.
Yesterday, João Lourenço went from table to table, the first being the one where the musician Barceló de Carvalho “Bonga” was sitting, with whom he exchanged some impressions.
Angolans in Portugal express support for João Lourenço
The Angolan community in Portugal expressed, yesterday, in Lisbon, the purpose of “unconditionally supporting” the efforts of President João Lourenço in maintaining territorial cohesion, peace, national reconciliation and the well-being of all Angolans.
The support was expressed by professor Manuel Nzenza during a dinner hosted by the Angolan Embassy in Portugal, as part of the Head of State’s visit to Lisbon.
Manuel Nzenza highlighted, however, that, like any community, the Angolan community in Portugal also has “challenges” that sometimes require the direct intervention of State institutions or non-profit community associations, as is the case of students, sick and citizens in prison and others.
The Angolan community in Portugal, according to Manuel Nzenza, also feels the need for socio-cultural spaces where it is possible to promote and develop the country’s culture.
However, he said he was witness to the efforts and determination of President João Lourenço who, through representatives of the Angolan State in Portugal, has made efforts to, as far as possible, mitigate some of these challenges.
The Angolan community was grateful for the fact that the President of the Republic included a meeting in his visit to establish direct interaction with Angolans residing in Portugal, which, until last year, numbered around 56 thousand citizens.
João Lourenço, in turn, launched the challenge that one day the Angolan community abroad would organize an event of this kind, with the President appearing as a “mere guest”.
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