Conversation3: An Insight into the Cultures and History of Angola and Vietnam

Conversation3: An Insight into the Cultures and History of Angola and Vietnam

Palmira and I met the third time on November 13rd, at the Union Ground. As we talked about how our days had been going, we mentioned about food. I learned from Palmira that the traditional dish of Angola is the Feijoada. We looked it up together on the internet so that I could see how the dish looks like. The dish is a stew soup with bean, beef, and pork; it can be eaten together with rice. It has its origin from Portugal, since Angola was once colonized by the Portuguese.

When hearing about how the history had such an effect on the traditional dish of a nation, I immediate had interest in learning more about the history of Angola. Through Palmira, I learned that the Independence Day of Angola is 11/11/1975. On annual celebration of the Independence Day, the Angola people would parade, put on Angola songs and dance along; the ministry would give formal speeches in honor of this national day. There are also marching band, flag raising ceremony, and a lot of dancing. In general, the celebration of Independence Day of Angola is a big party for everyone. Various types of people of different professions can join the march: police, teachers, students in white uniform. On that day, students don’t go to school so that they can enjoy the holiday. If the holiday fall on Sunday, the students can take a day off on Monday. Otherwise, if it is on weekday, students can have that day off only.

I shared with Palmira that the Vietnam Independence Day is on 1975 as well. We recalled our history lesson together (I recalled what I read my history textbook in particular, even though I don’t trust the most part in that textbook) and figured out that many colonized countries gained independence around that period because of the chain reactions – the fighting for independence of one country catalyzed and empowered the fighting for freedom in many countries. They fought hard and succeeded at around the same period of time.

I asked Mira whether all the people in her country has to raise flags in their households. She said that they are not forced to raise flag and that they can raise flags on their house if they wish to. I then share that in Vietnam, each household is reminded constantly by the mayor of the town to pull up a flag in front of their houses until all of the houses have put up their flags. Thus, on the Independence Day, Vietnamese people will see the color red and yellow dominant all the streets. I told Palmira that the national flag of Vietnam is a red flag with a yellow star in the middle. The red color represents the bloodshed during the wars and the star represents the five groups of workers that were formed during the construction of socialism. Basically, my national flag is full of the sense of war and socialism. As I wanted to give Palmira a little more insight about my country through my personal viewpoint, I mentioned briefly about how I dislike the corrupting communist system in my country, and how the government have possibly contorted the history in the national textbook to present themselves in a better light.

We delved deeper into the culture of Angola. When I asked her about the dance culture of Angola, Palmira’s eyes brightened up! She exclaimed that Angola people LOVE dancing, just like the way Brazilians do. The free spirit is embedded in the souls of every Angolan. She even showed me some moves that I recorded using my phone. Nothing shows the spirit better than real actions! The video was about only 3 minutes long but contains several of Palmira’s confident dance move. As I watched her dancing, I saw clearly why even though we come from different nations and speak different languages, we still connected on some certain deep levels. It is because of our souls and our sprit yearning for freedom are alike.