Africa-Press – Cape verde. Yesterday, in Praia, at the Várzea cemetery, Lídia da Conceição Caldas Pimentel Pimentel Anahory Silva, affectionately known as “Professora Lídia”, was buried. History teacher, Lídia died at the age of 81, in Praia, last Monday, the 13th. On social media, messages of condolence multiplied in honor of this who was an unavoidable figure in teaching and education in Cape Verde, having contributed to the training of several Cape Verdean cadres, who had the “honor” of being her students .
“Professora Lídia”, as she will be forever remembered by all, was an unavoidable figure in teaching and education in Cape Verde, a reference, as several of her students distinguished and honored, with messages of condolence on social networks.
He was 81 years old and died in the city of Praia, the same city where he taught History, having passed through his hands several students at the Lyceums Domingos Ramos, Plateau, in Várzea, and Pedro Gomes, in Achada de Santo António.
The Taste for History
Among the various “goodbye” messages to “dear teacher Lídia”, one of the former Minister of Foreign Affairs, National Defense and Culture, Jorge Tolentino, her student, stands out, as he wrote, more than 40 years ago, in the Complementary Course at the then only high school on the island of Santiago, “Domingos Ramos”.
“In these times of various challenges, especially in the fields of Education, Professor Lídia knew how to convey a taste for History, universal history for sure, as required by the curricula, but above all for the History of Cape Verde in the rudiments of which she started us. The scarcity of didactic material was real, but she had the dedication and commitment necessary to guide us through some polycopied texts, essentially collected from António Carreira’s reference work. And the motto was, with all the simplicity and pedagogical involvement, ‘let’s discover the History of our Cape Verde’”, she wrote.
This figure, who “always embraced these islands”, recalls Tolentino, “gave the best he had to give, on the front of combat that was his, that of Teaching”.
At that time, she continues, “one felt that the classroom was the world into which she renewed herself at each class, always in a good mood”.
In the platoon of teachers who helped to write the first pages of Education
“Professor Lídia is part, without favours, of the platoon of Teachers who helped to write the first pages, very remarkable indeed, of Education in independent Cape Verde. From those times at Liceu, the friendship continued and, whenever we met, sometimes at the Plateau, sometimes at Achada de Santo António, sometimes at a play at the Centro Cultural Português, the conversation flowed freely and with good-humoured tirades. . He knew how to laugh and laughed heartily ”, she praised.
Also the former Minister of Education, Fernanda Marques, in reaction to this post by Jorge Tolentino, who is currently Chief of Staff of the President of the Republic, wrote: “What a beautiful tribute! To a warrior woman I had the privilege of meeting in the 1980s on a COFORPALOP course in Tarrafal.
The former Inspector General of Education, Clara Marques, also recalled the “conversations” that “were long” whenever they met, in which “the theme was always the same, Education of yesterday and today … of student learning” .
In its list of students, there were also journalists. Luís Carvalho, from Inforpress, was another who left a tribute to teacher Lídia, when she attended Liceu Domingos Ramos, the only one in the Sotavento Region at the time.
“Whenever we met, she found a little time for us to exchange two-thirds of conversation to remember that the students of my generation have nothing to do with those of today, she recalls, to quote the former history teacher. “You were more studious and better behaved”, said teacher Lígia, recalling, as Luís Carvalho wrote, that, at that time, “there was no internet and students made more effort”.
The last goodbye to teacher Lídia took place yesterday, in Praia, at the Várzea cemetery, surrounded by family and friends, in the certainty that her legacy and contribution to teaching and education in Cape Verde will live on.
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