About us

The Marimba project has the goal of valuing music production in Angola, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique and East Timor, with undirect influence on the remaining Portuguese-speaking African Countries and East Timor (PALOP-TL). The naming of the project was inspired in the marimba, a worldwide spread musical instrument that originated from african xylophones (up until today can be found in Angola, Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau) that come from the 1st century Gamelans in Indonesia, which the rythms also influenced the East Timor music. The project acknowledges that innovation and artistic creation are based on intangible heritage, and that its knowledge and dissemination are an essential contribution to the countries' artistic, cultural and socio-economic development. Focusing primarily on the music area, the project has the intention of promoting, in different levels, the knowledge and the valuing the musical heritage of the participant countries: its research (based in any pre-existing collections - namely the ones produced between 1945 and 1986), either in field recordings, digitalization, promotion and international distribution. On the other hand, it intends to encourage the artistic creation of young artists from the participant countries, as a way to play a role in the rescuing of their cultural identities, in dignifying their artistic status, releasing their work and promoting their careers on a international scale, encouraging namely young women from the participant countries to becoming professional in the creative sector. Due to its uniqueness, values and comprehensiveness, Marimba is an innovating and transforming project in the context of the PALOP-TL. It challenges public and private entities to develop a wide and solid collaboration as way of rediscovering their musical heritage, its research, its knowledge, its international dissemination and commercialization, as well as providing a powerful incentive to young contemporary artists and their creation, and to developing creative businesses. This incentive comes from the existing contrast between the extreme quality and diversity of the musical heritage and creation on the participant countries and their lack of expression and recognition in the international markets, which prevents the young creator from pursuing a career in the cultural and creative sectors, resulting in a high unemployment rate, particularly in young women. The situation became an emergency after the Covid-19 pandemic that has led to a general paralysis of the sector and a drastic increase in social emergencies in the context of cultural and creative activity. In order to demonstrate the potential of this approach, interventions in two different territory profiles were considered: On the one hand, Angola and Mozambique, where there is a relevant musical heritage recorded, particularly in radio archives (although at accelerated risk of loss); and Guinea-Bissau and East Timor, where the work should be carried out upstream in the music value chain, opting for a priority focus on fieldwork to collect musical expressions. In any case, the cultural and creative sectors have common characteristics: low business sustainability, low levels of technical training, high levels of professional precariousness, and institutional disarticulation.