Scholars give talks on African countries, cultures at UM

Africa may be a mysterious place for students living thousands of miles away in Macao. Therefore, the University of Macau (UM) Research Centre for Luso-Asian Studies invited four guest scholars from Portuguese-speaking countries in Africa to share their experiences and provide some information about their home countries. The event took place at Chao Kuang Piu College (CKPC).

The sharing sessions were conducted in Portuguese, so CKPC arranged several master’s students of Portuguese-Chinese translation to provide simultaneous interpretation into Mandarin. Besides geographic and demographic information, each speaker told the audience some interesting facts about their home countries. The four scholars come from Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, and São Tomé and Príncipe.

Prof Rosa Cruz e Silva comes from Agostinho Neto University, the first public university in Angola. She told the audience about the importance of the Portuguese language in Angola and the country’s marine products and wood resources.

Prof Crisanto Barros, who comes from the University of Cape Verde, said the situation is the opposite in Cape Verde. Although Portuguese is the official language, Cape Verdean Creole is more widely used in people’s daily lives. Barros also pointed out that there are more Cape Verdean living abroad than home, with an estimate of 1 million living overseas (including Macao).

Prof Odete Semedo comes from Amilcar Cabral University in Guinea-Bissau. She provided some geographic and demographic information about her home country, with a detailed explanation on its administrative division. She added that Guinea-Bissau used to be two separate countries.

Fernanda Pontifice, rector of the Lusiada University, São Tomé and Príncipe, told the audience about São Tomé and Príncipe, the smallest Portuguese-speaking country. He said that the country is consisted of two main islands and four creole languages coexist in the country despite its small size.