Whites Can Dance Too by Kalaf Epalanga

Author:Kalaf Epalanga
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Faber & Faber
Published: 2023-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

‘Could there be any better way for you to say goodbye to Lisbon?’

11

When Quito Ribeiro and I arrived in Chiado, the sun had already set behind the buildings around Luís de Camões square. It was nearly dark and over the terracotta roofs the sky had turned a deep blue. The place was busy, all the tables at Benard and A Brasileira were full, and even the Fernando Pessoa statue had company, with a couple occupying the seat beside the author of The Book of Disquiet.

I had brought him there without thinking. This couldn’t be somewhere Quito Ribeiro didn’t already know, as it was the most visited hill in the city. You can’t be a tourist in Lisbon without coming through Chiado at least half a dozen times. If not for Bairro Alto right next door, then for the Fnac store in the Chiado shopping centre; if not for the theatre, then for an espresso at Brasileira, a distant, pale memory of the ones they used to serve. But hey! – how can you resist if they say that it was precisely inside a coffee cup that Chiado was invented?

I don’t remember the last time I stepped inside Brasileira. The place hadn’t changed a bit. The waiters still forced us to fight for their attention. I wondered if that was the case when men were wearing suits and ties at this counter, just like Fernando Pessoa. Those were the men who plotted cultural revolutions here. Nowadays, when I cross the Chiado square, I wonder who might step up and start a new cultural revolution like Pessoa and his generation did at the beginning of the twentieth century. The men and women who could do it no longer sit in cafés. Instead they occupy the squares dancing or playing music for the visitors sitting at the terraces, who savour their galão with gusto and are delighted to be experiencing the real Lisbon.

Standing at the counter of Brasileira, I stretched out my arm, calling out to the waiter whose gaze was fixed on the opposite side of the room.

‘Hey, boss! If you wouldn’t mind …’ called Quito Ribeiro and the waiter acknowledged him with a nod.

‘I learned to do that during our lunch breaks at Mário Patrocínio’s studio.’

‘Senhor Ludomir did say you were a fast learner.’ I laughed.

‘I’m going to start using it back home whenever a waiter ignores me.’

‘I’m sure you guys have a similar way of getting their attention.’

‘Yes, but it’s the way you do it.’

‘Is that so?’ I raised my eyebrow.

‘Don’t laugh.’ He giggled. ‘Best to do it assertively, but not too loud, because you don’t want to be aggressive, and not too quiet, so you don’t come across as too timid. The secret’s being firm while also showing reverence for the person serving us. It always worked,’ he said, waiting for my reply, but since I did in fact already know all the tricks, I kept quiet.

‘Depending on our level of familiarity or degree of regularity at the place

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