The widow of the social intervention rapper and critic of the system, Mano Azagaia, is demanding a holistic and detailed investigation into the inclusion of an episode from the artist's life in the 8th grade Portuguese language textbook. She believes that Texto Editores has a say in the matter.
Rosa Cuna, who appreciated the government's recent pronouncements on the case, believes that there are grounds to investigate money laundering.
The "defamatory" text is included in the 2020 textbook. However, the Ministry of Education and Culture said yesterday that the book was produced in 2014, marketed in 2015 and ran from 2016 to 2022, but has now "been discontinued".
The artist's widow believes that this is a ludicrous argument, which does not exonerate the authorities from their guilt over slander and defamation. She said that the main reason for discontinuing the manual was not the text about Azagaia's arrest.
On the other hand, she considers a plausible justification to be the one put forward yesterday by the spokesman for the Council of Ministers, Inocêncio Impissa, according to which the book was not integrated into the system and had not even been authorized to circulate. But here it should be noted that the manual, according to Rosa Cuna, is available on the government portal. The same book was used in classrooms.
"We can't separate it when they say it hasn't been authorized to circulate, but it's on the government portal," he noted.
This is where other questions come from that Rosa Cuna wants clarified: why an unapproved manual was printed; what reasons led the manual's publisher to put it into circulation without prior ministerial authorization.
"You have to find out how the book came out, because it could bring up more issues, because in order for a book to come out there are funds: where did the funds come from to get the book out? There needs to be an investigation. So there could even be scenarios of money laundering. It's a very serious matter that needs to be looked into, because it's not just any publisher. Texto Editores is not just any publisher," said Rosa Cuna, in an interview with TV Sucesso. "As a family, we're waiting for answers."
The situation with the handbook involving Azagaia's name came to the family's attention in 2021, and in another development, the artist's wife said that stalking had been considered.
"Without a doubt, because the text, as it is presented, doesn't say how things ended. The arrest really happened. The case became final and Azagaia was acquitted, because he wasn't carrying any drugs that day," he said.
He understands that the presentation of that text was intended to deconstruct the artist's image in the eyes of a certain generation of Mozambicans.
"Perhaps they then discontinued it because they felt they had already achieved their objectives. Once again, the fact that it was discontinued doesn't take away the responsibility of what was written," he said.
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