Alfredo Binda is the son of a civil servant in the Portuguese colonial administration (veterinarian). was born in Angónia, in Tete Province. Due to professional obligations, his father worked in several districts of the country and he spent his childhood between nampula, marrupa, ribaué and beira. talking about his rich childhood he told us that “our games consisted of hunting birds with slingshots and nembo traps; we made cattle ranches, fished and went to pick mushrooms. We lived on a farm and set traps to catch rabbits and other animals”.
He had many shepherd friends who taught him the secrets of living in the forest. With them, he learned to swim in the river. he settled on the shore where the preparatory cycle ended and, due to the obligations of the revolution, he came to Maputo where he joined the “March 8” Generation. took the technical accounting course. He started his professional life in Chimoio, in the company “Construtora Integral”, for 6 years. it was in that city where he started his artistic life as the main vocalist of a musical band called “Cripton”. got in trouble for being “rebel” and for refusing to be subservient. The situation got complicated and he went to live in Zimbabwe, where he met many artists, including david mafumo and oliver m'tunkunzi, famous local musicians.
“When the situation started to improve (political openness to multi-partyism) I returned to Beira and started working as an accountant in the 'Company of Pipeline Mozambique Zimbawe'. at that time I composed the song “So many people will die until they can live”, which served as a special effect in many programs linked to the process of Signing the Peace Agreement, in 1992. It was a mark of freedom of expression. Six years later I came to Maputo and worked in Financial Management at the Irish embassy. It was during this period that I met Marcelo Mosse”, explained binda.
It was Mosse who invited him to be a founding member of the Center for Public Integrity in 2005. In the initial phase, his role was to help set up the management system and select employees for this important pillar of the institution.
Over the 15 years of the institution he helped build, he told us that “CIP is a brand in Mozambican civil society. Today, because they have confidence in our work, people even confuse the ciP with a court: they prefer to come to the ciP to present their problems. The organization was instrumental in designing policies for transparency in the extractive industry”.
