Licínio Januário
WHAT DO YOU DO?
“I’m from Angola and I’ve lived in Brazil for the last 12 years. ”
I used to study civil engineering and when I was about to graduate I quit because I realized I would contribute better in Brazil being an artist than a civil engineer.
I’ve traveled to countries like South Africa, Namibia, Portugal. I’ve been in Black in a few countries. When I came to Brazil it was crazy because I didn't know that 56% of the Brazilian population was Black. I grew up with Brazilian television because of Portuguese. Brazilian television is the mainstream in Angola and in all the Portuguese countries. We grew up with Brazilian television but watching that we didn't know it's a Black country. When I came here to Brazil I was like, ‘Whoa there's a lot of stuff to work on here because there's a big Black community that can build a big project to build strong rights for the next generation’. I quit civil engineering to work with all the information I’ve learned from Angola and other countries to introduce here in Brazil as an artist and as an entrepreneur.
I'm working as an actor in the main TV channel here. Three weeks ago, I had my premiere on Netflix as an actor and I have a lot of projects in Brazil. I’ve been working as an actor on the Disney Channel too - all those big channels. There’s a documentary with Kevin Hart where he says “As an actor, I'm okay- but as the CEO, I have a long way to go”. It’s like that here in Brazil. It’s a big struggle.
Black culture is the passport of Brazil and the system here is like every other country. We have to put our Black culture in White companies and they get control or everything. Brazil is not ready to see Black people like Beyoncé, like Jay Z changing all the structure here. I've been working to change that. We realized we’re not going to have the tools to change that in Brazil and we have to go and ask for help from countries because we don’t have the investment and the support here. I realized that if we don't change that, this country is never going to change.
In Brazil, a young Black person is killed by the police every 23 minutes. This is real. The world doesn't know that. We aren’t going to change this reality if we don't get millionaire companies to change the politics and to change the media. It's up to our generation to change that and this is our struggle right now. I'm working with my team and we want to use the technology and media which is what connects us most in the last 5-10 years with Instagram, Facebook…we want to use it to change things here.
What kind of programming would you like to have on your future network, WoloTV?
In Brazil, we have to live what you lived through in the U.S. in the 80s and the 90s. You built up a strong base towards what you are living right now- mainly in the audiovisual industry. Ryan Coogler wrote the Black Panther movie and it’s because Spike Lee did Do The Right Thing in the late 80s. Movies that directly speak with the people. In our company for the first 10 to 20 years, we just want to do commercial projects like the sitcoms the U.S. used to produce. If you go to the catalog of the main Brazilian streaming called Global, if you go to the capital of Brazil, you’re going to see Everybody Hates Chris, The Fresh Prince of Bel Air and My Wife and Kids. They’re more than 10 years old but you’ll still see them now because this is what the people want to see. We want to use that formula using open culture, putting them in positions like Tupac used to be in movies, like Oprah. We want to use this same format because we have a lot of digital influencers making their own businesses.
Some companies in the U.S. announced funds to Black entrepreneurs, like SoftBank. Here in Brazil, not even one company did that. Not even one. We have the same struggle and with our Black Lives Matter movement, not even one company announced that kind of an effort. There was news just this week that one company will accelerate Black entrepreneurs but accelerate means I’ll help you create the company but when it comes time to invest, they run.
Now they’re trying to speak to Black influencers to put them on their TV channels and platforms. With this quarantine we’re living through, the Black social media influencers have grown their numbers. Now those companies are running to pick those social media influencers to put them on their platforms. We are trying to run with that because our strategy was to pick all of the Black influencers and musicians and put them on our platform. They are a few steps in front of us because they have the money so we’re trying to accelerate this process.
What was it like moving to Brazil from Angola as a teen?
When I decided to quit civil engineering, I already started creating and producing. It's funny because I use the basis of being a civil engineer in everything I do. I won't say that it's been easy or it’s been difficult because my mother died during the civil war in Angola and I decided I’m going to achieve everything I want. When I have a goal, I do everything to achieve that goal.
My father went to the war too. He didn't finish high school. He’s an entrepreneur in Angola. Angola was devastated and he opened a civil engineering company. I grew up with these references- people who don’t quit no matter what. They do everything to achieve their goals.
Sometimes it’s difficult because of what is happening with these companies, etc. but at the same time those negative answers led me to what we are doing now. If I didn't experience those negative answers, I would be working as an actor saying ‘Yes, okay, no sir…”.
Our crowdfunding campaign didn’t work but it was good for us because many people know us right now and we have a Brazilian VC with a base in the U.S. and maybe they're going to invest in our content. Right now, we’re in the writers’ rooms and finishing the script of the series. We have a month to achieve our goal to make the series. We don’t have the chance to not change what we want to achieve. We're not going to have another chance like this.
WHAT IS FRUSTRATING YOU RIGHT NOW?
Seeing that we have a lot to work, to produce, to give. Like me, you’ll find a lot of Black artists with a lot to give and we don't have investments. They boycott us. One main channel told me “Your content is not for my channel because my channel is only for middle class and high class [viewers]”. We have a big problem here. The companies run by White people like to compare the Black people from the U.S. and the Black people from Brazil like the Black people from the U.S. are above the Black people from Brazil. That's why they pick the content from [Black American creators] and not from ours. This is a strategy to not let the Black people from here achieve seats on the boards of those companies.
We are 56% of the people in Brazil. If we empower our people, if we get to speak with our people, we’re going to change Brazil and they are afraid of that. They're not giving us power because they're afraid of us. They’re afraid of guys like Licínio who say ‘you’re wrong, you’re racist and we want to change that’. We still live in slavery right now because they kept our people in a certain condition to empower themselves to get rich. For example, Brazilian beer company owners are billionaires. Black people drink beer every day and every weekend when we barbecue. They are afraid for us to get together and boycott to support Black-owned businesses instead.
IF YOU COULD HIRE SOMEONE FOR $20/HR, WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE THEM DO TO MAKE YOUR DAY EASIER?
I would probably hire somebody for our marketing strategy because it’s all about marketing. What we’re trying to create here in Brazil isn’t new. In the U.S., you have BET, TV One, O, Oprah’s Channel, Kevin Hart…
I know that when we achieve our goals and launch our platform, everyone will try to eat us in Brazil. There is a natural beauty and hair company called Belleza Natural, that was created by a Black woman when everybody here was trying to change Black women’s hair. This brand was trying to empower them through hair and in the last 5, 10 years, all the brands that were creating products to try to change Black women’s hair started to create similar products. Now we don’t see the Black companies anymore. First, they didn’t have the investments to compete with those brands and their marketing didn’t make them strong.
LET'S BRING OUT THE TIME MACHINE. WHAT DO YOU WISH YOU COULD HAVE TOLD YOURSELF, WHEN, AND WHY?
Whoa. I changed a lot when I came to Brazil. My dreams were to graduate, return to Angola and work with my father or in a big company. To get married and have five kids- get rich and travel the world. Right now, I’m on a big mission to build a legacy for the next generation. It’s like the Drake song where he says “started from the bottom now we’re here”.
I’m a guy who was born during the civil war. I’m in Brazil right now and I passed through a lot but I know I will pass through a lot more. It’s only the beginning. Get ready because we’re going to build a legacy. Right now I'm a citizen of the world because I have a big mission to connect the Portuguese diaspora.
IF YOU COULD TALK TO AN EXPERT TO GAIN MORE INSIGHT ON SOMETHING, WHAT WOULD IT BE ABOUT?
I would enjoy talking with Spike Lee because I think he made a formula with his movies. They connect people in the West and in the entire world and that's a formula we would like to have for WoloTV. He also came to Brazil several times. He knows the reality of Brazil, our artistic potential and it’s time for him to make a base in Brazil to work with us.
I want to be like Spike Lee, direct movies a little bit in a small charter. I talk a lot about Spike Lee but there’s another guy, a producer named Charles D. King. He just realized a new movie called Judas and the Black Messiah about the Black Panther Party starring Daniel Kaluuya, one of the producers of Fences starring Denzel Washington and Viola Davis. Charles D. King is our main goal because he’s doing the same thing we want to do. He has a venture capitalist firm, MACRO, focused on entertainment. They recently invested in Blavity. These are two people we would love to connect with someday.
HOW SHOULD SOMEONE APPROACH YOU ABOUT WORKING TOGETHER?
I’m on LinkedIn. There’s a religion in Brazil called Candomblé, in Nigeria it’s called Ifá. We have our gods and I’m the son of the god of communication. If you reach out to me on LinkedIn, I’m going to answer! We also have a landing page for the WoloTV project. You can email me through there.
Thanks a lot to for this interview. We’re making history and we’re going to break some barriers if we can connect.
HOW DO YOU STAY CREATIVE?
I like to walk. I like to observe the people and hear them. I am an actor and my career is launching but I’m pausing because with this new reality of social media, people see you and think you’re always okay, that you have a lot of money, you have a lot of projects…you become a reference. People kind of start to see you as a superhero and I don't like that- I’m from Angola. Even when my father started to get rich and we would travel, because my aunts and uncles didn’t have money to travel, when we would go to my grandmother’s house, we would talk without this distance as if we’re superior or something.
Being an actor puts us in this position and I don't really like that. Right now I'm only trying to work as a producer and director because I would get to continue to be free to walk in the streets and see the people, go to the Black neighborhoods, see what our community is talking about, hear the new stories….
This member profile was originally published in October 2020.