Portuguese rapper Valete is willing to perpetuate the message and spirit of his "brother Azagaia", the Mozambican artist who died in March and was "the voice of anguish" for young people and the African people who idolized him.

"Much more than a musician, Azagaia was the great voice of the Mozambican citizen, of Mozambican youth," Valete, the stage name of Keidje Torres Lima, one of the promoters of Thursday's show in Lisbon, which will bring together 22 musicians in a tribute to the Mozambican rapper and activist, told Lusa.

For the Portuguese artist of São Toméan origin, friend and partner of Azagaia, with whom he recorded six songs, the rapper represented "the restlessness of the Mozambican people, the anguish of the Mozambican people".

"We're probably talking about one of the most important figures in Mozambique this century," he said.

Valete attributes to Azagaia "true intervention music, a music of combat, militant, a music that doesn't compromise, a music at all levels committed to the people".

"Azagaia was an island because he was genuine, because he really believed in the ideas he was passing on to the world and for him there were things that were bigger than the ambitions of artists" and "this is a kind of position and posture that few musicians have", he observed.

Valete defended looking at Azagaia as "an exception, as a guy who gave up many things to portray the Mozambican people, at great cost".

In his opinion, Azagaia's main message was "love for Mozambique and Africa", and in the lyrics he has composed over the last ten years he has marked his "strongly pan-Africanist position".

"Azagaia believed in a united Africa," he said, adding that "Azagaia's ultimate utopia was Africa as one country".

The colonial issue has always been very present in the Mozambican artist's compositions, which Valete considered "relatively normal in African countries that came from a very recent past of colonialism", where "there are still many traces of that colonialism".

"Forty to fifty years in history is almost nothing from a civilizational perspective," he said, noting that one of Azagaia's objectives was to combat this and for Mozambique to "get beyond this stage".

"There is a lot of racism in Africa. There are white and mulatto elites who still control a lot of political power in many African countries and oppress black people. There is a lot of it in Africa and Azagaia was talking about it."

In one of his most famous songs (cães de raça) Azagaia wrote: "I expelled settlers, but never colonialism; I saw the shit, I put the lid down and didn't flush the toilet; That's why my house smells bad; Black exploits black, it smells like colonial times".

Willing to perpetuate the message of his colleague and friend, Valete is committed to Thursday's show, which will feature 22 artists, although many others would like to take part.

Regarding this response, he said: "The artistic class is a sensitive, politicized class, they understood very well who Azagaia was."

As well as Valete, Sérgio Godinho, Paulo Flores, Maria João and Karyna Gomes are some of the musicians who will be performing at the show, which will take place at Casa Independente in Lisbon and is already sold out.

Azagaia died on March 9, saddening thousands of fans and especially young people who saw themselves in his messages.

After the rapper's death, demonstrations were organized in his honour, but were repressed by the police, which led to criticism from national and international organizations.