Índico Magazine - On The Shoulders Of Giants

There are magazines that are larger than the pages that compose them. They carry a history, a legacy, a flag even, which far exceeds the confined format of an A4 page. And there are magazines that are an expression of love. Love for the readers, love for the art of editing, love for the text, the image, the layout that unites everything in an intangible harmony that often can’t even be qualified. One can only breathe it.

Índico magazine, created in 1988, represents all of this. And to top this 32-year trajectory marked by the personal stamp of so many collaborators, it has just been voted “Africa’s Leading Inflight Magazine-2020” by the World Travel Awards (WTA), better known as the “Oscars of Tourism”.

After being a finalist in 2019, this year, the official publication of Mozambican Airlines won, first the jury’s vote, and subsequently the public’s vote. “For us as a company, it is a great honour, a matter of pride and cause for satisfaction to receive this recognition from our customers, passengers, friends and readers of our inflight magazine,” LAM’s Director, João Pó Jorge, stated.

Produced since 2016 by Executive Moçambique, the current editorial project was born out of a creative process where the excellence, talent and dedication of a vast team prevail. “Our first objective was to show what isn’t known about Mozambique, which today, four years later, we know is even better than what appears in tourist brochures around the world,” explains Ana Filipa Amaro, Executive Group’s Editorial Director.

Recalling the selection process for collaborators, Photography Director Vasco Célio comments: “After a lengthy process, we found that Mozambique has some of the best photographers in Africa, and today we can proudly say that some of them are by our side embracing this project.” For Inês Maia, responsible for the magazine’s graphic design, “our mission is to show details. Details that present us with new places, cultures and people, and that transport us to all kinds of sensations. They show us and remind us of the good in life and often the simplest things!” Reflecting on the WTA award, Mia Temporário, Executive Mozambique’s Director, considers that it represents, above all, “the fulfilment of a sense of duty”. “For all that LAM has done for Mozambique, this award is hugely well-deserved. It makes all Mozambicans and us editors proud,” she adds. When Executive Moçambique took over the production of the magazine

in 2016, it faced the enormous challenge of honoring the heritage of some of the greatest names in our culture: Calane da Silva, Joaquim Salvador, João Costa, Artur Ferreira and Nelson Saúte. “The magazine leaves a mark on many generations and, throughout all its trans- formations, was always a microcosm of Mozambican society itself,” reflects Adam Yussof, LAM’s former communications director and, in that quality, the magazine’s director. As Isaac Newton said: “If I have seen further, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants.”

However, what makes a magazine is, above all, its readers. It was them who, over these past three decades, gave Índico its “cult” status, becoming for many a collector’s item. For Frederico Jamisse, who was the magazine’s editor between 2016 and 2019, Índi- co “always served as a guiding compass for nationals and foreigners, for no matter how little they knew the country and its wonders, once inside an aircraft of our flagship carrier, they have access to vast in- formation about some of the country’s endless heritage”, says Jamisse, for whom editing the magazine was “a learning process, a sharing of knowledge and, above all, deepening my knowledge of the country”. And Índico is also made up of the thousands of faces that, in dozens of editions, paraded through its pag- es, composing the portrait of a country with a mosaic soul. Among these faces, Paola Rolletta, one of the oldest collaborators of the publication, recalls Judite Macuácua, owner of the agro-processing company Wissa, who very recently sent her a selection of products accompanied by a handwritten letter to thank her for the article that Paola did during a trip to Nam- pula with photographer Mauro Pinto. “I was moved by the kindness of the products and the beauty of the words,” Paola recognizes. “It wasn’t Dona Judite who should have thanked me for the article that made her known outside Nampula, but rather I should thank her for the kindness and the gift.”

Returning to the closing moment of the first edition of the current series of the magazine, Ana Filipa re- calls: “We had almost 100 pages of the magazine taped to the walls of the room where we were working. Each person who entered the room had a differ- ent reaction, and one morning I saw it on the face of a company: pride, awe, admiration, happiness, hope, trust and love… I won’t forget neither that day nor those people.” For all these reasons, Índico is more than a magazine – it is a national symbol that we are now proud to present as “Africa’s Leading Inflight Magazine”. Thank you, dear reader, for joining us on this journey.