Three Angolan artists in the Netherlands

Das Primeiro, Antognoni Brunhoso and Carlos Monteiro are three Angolan artists. They have lived in Amsterdam for many years now. It is remarkable that they all ended up in the Netherlands by coincidence. After arriving in Portugal they came into contact with artistic circles in Amsterdam and they decided to stay.

Das Primeiro is the stage name of rapper Rui Henriques Fragaso da Silva who was born in Luanda. When he was 16 he moved to Portugal with a few family members. For two years Das Primeiro performed in Portugal with the Soweto Boys hip-hop band. In 1993 Das Primeiro visited friends in the Netherlands. He decided to stay there and learned Dutch and English while, at the same time, doing a course in social and legal services. His musical talent resulted in the single ‘Liberdade’, or ‘Freedom’, which was released in 2002. The video of this single was shown on Dutch, Angolan and Portuguese TV. In 2005 Das Primeiro released the CD Terapia (‘Therapy’). Apart from hip-hop this album is influenced by various other music styles, for instance Cape Verdean morna, Angolan semba, Brazilian samba and bossa nova, jazz, reggae and other styles.

Antognoni Brunhoso has lived in Amsterdam since 1988. He is a painter. He fled from Angola when he was 16 because of the civil war. He went to Portugal, where he studied at the academy of arts in Oporto. As did Das Primeiro Brunhoso went to the Netherlands to visit friends and decided to stay.

Carlos Monteiro is a musician and a painter although music is closer to his heart. He usually works on a freelance basis. He organises performances, composes and makes musical arrangements. He also does a lot of studio work. Besides, he is founding a band which is to accompany Das Primeiro. As a painter he paints portraits of Angolans, but also abstract paintings. Before he came to Amsterdam Monteiro lived in Portugal for a long time. ‘I actually wanted to go to the States at the time. I wanted to study at a music school and I had heard that the best music schools were in Berkeley. Unfortunately I did not have the money to go to the States. When I heard that there was a very good music school in the Netherlands I came here. So that is how I came to study at the Rotterdam Conservatoire. Here in the Netherlands I fell in love with a Dutch girl and my love for her combined with my love for music made me stay here’.

As an artist Das Primeiro tries to represent his nation in the Netherlands. Therefore, during his performances he always has symbols such as the Angolan flag with him. Das Primeiro is also president of an organization of Angolans in the Netherlands, the União Angolana. The União Angolana organises activities which paint a positive picture of Angola. The activities are intended for Dutch people as well as Angolans. Das Primeiro considers it important that people have a positive view of Angola, because in his opinion a negative view of a country always negatively reflects on the people of that country. ‘By propagating a positive picture of Angola, I provide my audience with the opportunity to discover that Angola is more than a third-world country with a war history’, says Das Primeiro. The influence of Dutch culture on Das Primeiro is expressed mainly in his way of thinking: ‘Since my arrival in the Netherlands, common sense has started to pervade my way of thinking. Now, I can put things into perspective. I also have become much more direct, to the point. I have an opinion of my own and I am not afraid to make it known. This directness reflects in my music and in my work as president of the União Angolana.’ This influence makes that Das Primeiro considers his music Angolan with a Dutch flavour.

Brunhoso too notices the major influence of the Netherlands on his work. ‘My work is definitely influenced by the Netherlands. The Netherlands is traditionally a country of painters; centuries ago painters already lived in Amsterdam. That is why there is space for painters in Amsterdam. People here are more open to new things, so I can try new things faster too. It is also easier to buy painter’s equipment than for instance in Portugal. An additional advantage for me is that I have easier access to other North European countries such as Denmark and Sweden.’ Brunhoso does not consider his work typically Dutch or typically Angolan art. ‘I rather consider my work ‘modern art’. I consider painting a natural way to express myself.’ His African cultural background is directly linked by his admirers to the African elements in his paintings, because Brunhoso was born and bred in Angola’s interior. ‘My admirers consider much of my work ‘truly’ African. So there are discrepancies in how I view my work and how it is perceived by others.’ Brunhoso describes his work as painting paradoxes. Paradoxes are pictures which look like what they express, but which are something else in reality. That is why it takes a while before someone looking at a picture figures out what the painting really depicts, and that it is something unexpected. Another theme regularly recurring in his work is the metamorphosis. By means of metamorphosis Brunhoso pictures the evolution of human life. The message in his work is that what seems real today, may be a lie tomorrow.

Carlos Monteiro feels partly Dutch. ‘The Netherlands has a cultural influence on my work, but I find it hard to tell how this can be recognised in my work’, says Monteiro. He considers his music 70 % Angolan and the other 30 % jazz and world music; mainly Cuban and Latin-American music, which he studied at the conservatoire in Rotterdam. ‘So I cannot say that I consider my music Dutch, because jazz and world music are not Dutch. When it comes to music I actually think that there is very little tradition in the Netherlands: what actually is ‘typically’ Dutch music?’ The Dutch influence on his painting is much bigger. ‘In my paintings one can clearly recognize Dutch characteristics, because I adore Dutch painters such as Van Gogh.’ The most obvious ‘typically Dutch’ characteristics influencing him in general are ‘austerity, being on time, discipline and, last but not least, he has also embraced Dutch openness.