Critical Perspectives on Lusophone Literature from Africa

320 Pages·1981·17.202 MB·English

by  Donald Burness

CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES
ON LUSOPHONE LITERATURE
FROM AFRICA
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CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES
ON LUSOPHONE LITERATURE
FROM AFRICA
Compiled and Edited by Donald Burness
An Original by Three Continents Press
©by Three Continents Press 1981
First Edition
ISBN 0-89410-015-7
ISBN 0-89410-016-5 (pbk)
LC 80-53348
Cover Art by Tom Gladden
Three Continents Press XP
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All rights reserved. No part of this book
may be used or reproduced in any
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mission of the publisher except for brief
quotations in reviews or articles.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I wish to thank the following individuals and publications for permission to print essays
which appear in this book. Every effort has been made to contact copyright holders,
but in a few cases this has proved impossible.
Richard Preto-Rodas and the University Presses of Florida for chapters from
Negritude as a theme in the Poetry of the Portuguese-Speaking World.
Russell Hamilton and the University of Minnesota Press for chapters from
Voices from an Empire: A History of Afro-Portuguese Literature.
Norman Araujo for parts of his book A Study of Cape Verdean Literature.
Gerald Moser and the Pennsylvania State University Libraries for “Castro
Soromenho, an Angolan Realist,” which appears in Essays in Portuguese-
African Literature.
The Gulbenkian Foundation for “Luandino Vieira: o anti-apartheid” by José
Martins Garcia and “Da dor de ser negro até ao orgulho de ser preto,” by
Manuel Ferreira, which appeared respectively in Coloquio-Letras no. 22 (Nov.
1974) and no. 39 (Sept. 1977).
Manuel Ferreira and Seara Nova for extracts from No Reino de Caliban - Vols.
land Il.
Ba Shiru for “The Art of Luandino Vieira” by Tomas Jacinto.
I would also like to give particular thanks to Manuel Ferreira and Gerald Moser,
who courteously provided me with necessary information.
Donald Burness (1) and Gerald Moser,in lobby of
Conference Hall for Sixth Conference of Afro-Asian Writers,
(Luanda, Angola: 26 June-1 July 1979)
For
Carroll Yoder
and
Jean Sarocchi
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INTRODUCTION
This collection of essays provides a variety of critical perspectives on Lusophone
African writing of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. There has been in recent
years, particularly in Portugal, the Soviet Union, and the United States as well as the
African countries themselves, a growing interest in the literatures of Angola, Cape
Verde, Mozambique, Guiné-Bissau and the twin islands of Sao-Tomé-Principe.
Scholarly books, articles, and bibliographies inform us of the development and history
of written African literatures in Portuguese and also focus on the achievements of in-
dividual writers. Nevertheless, because of limited translations and the fact that in non-
Portuguese speaking lands, the Portuguese language is not studied extensively,
Lusophone African writers have not reached as wide an audience both within and out-
side the African continent as their Francophone and Anglophone counterparts. Much
work remains to be done so that we can have a greater understanding and appreciation
of the contribution of Lusophone writers to the literature of sub-Saharan Africa.
The essays in this anthology are in English and Portuguese. | decided to include
some Portuguese essays so that readers in Portugal, Brazil and Lusophone Africa
might find the book useful. I have selected essays in Portuguese which for the most
part deal with themes or writers that have not been explored sufficiently by critics in
English speaking countries. This is particularly true of Manuel Ferreira’s studies on sun-
dry literary journals devoted to Angolan culture and literature. These Portuguese
essays (in part two or three), I believe, give a more complete picture of Lusophone
African writing. Each Portuguese language essay is preceded by a précis in English.
I have chosen to keep the essays in English separate from those in Portuguese.
This has presented a dilemma of sorts: The English essays on the literary journals
Claridade and Raizes might well have been placed with the essays on journals in Por-
tuguese.
Although most of these essays have previously been published, several of them
(including those dealing with post-independence writing) are appearing in print for the
first time. In this way this collection is not merely eclectic; it hopes to provide new
insights as well. Moreover, Professor Moser’s essay on Castro Soromenho includes
corrections (an errata section) for the originally published version reproduced in this
volume.
The first two essays in English are general in nature and provide substantial
historical information. The remaining essays in Part One are for the most part devoted
to individual countries and writers. There is a greater emphasis on Angolan and Cape
Verdean writing for two reasons: the quality and quantity of the literature from these
lands is superior to that of Mozambique, Guiné-Bissau and Sao-Tome-Principe; and
there have been considerably more articles devoted to writing from Angola and Cape
Verde than to the other Lusophone African countries. | have included, however, two
essays on Mozambican literature and another which is concerned with the negritude
poets of Sao-Tome-Principé. The literature of Guine-Bissau is discussed in two essays,
Gerald Moser’s “The Lusophone Literatures of Africa Since Independence” and
Russell Hamilton’s Cape Verdean Poetry and the PAIGC.”
The essays I have selected do not necessarily conform to a single point of view.
Particularly in the case of Cape Verde, there has been much criticism of the generation
of the thirties, the generation of Claridade, by the younger or New Generation. Both
sides are presented in this anthology. The essays on individual writers are devoted to
literary figures of particular import. I could not, of course, in a book such as this include
studies on all major figures, so 1 have had to limit myself to a few principal voices.
By selecting Mario Antonio’s essay on Cordeiro da Matta, the nineteenth century
Angolan poet, linguist and historian, I have chosen to pay attention to the important
contribution of Lusophone African writers and scholars of that time. Along with his
San Tomesian contemporary Caetano da Costa Alegre, Cordeiro da Matta’s influence
on African letters cannot be neglected. I have chosen Gerald Moser’s study of Castro
Soromenho and two essays on Luandino Vieira to illustrate not only the impact these
writers have had and the excellence of their art, but also to point out that in Portuguese
speaking Africa, white writers, white African writers, have articulated the aspirations
and the frustrations of Africans living under an oppressive colonialism. Antonio Jacin-
to, David Mestre, Joao Grabato Dias, Antonio Cardoso—these white voices, like
those of Soromenho and Luandino, do distinguish African literature of Portuguese ex-
pression from the literatures of Francophone or Anglophone areas. (Of course there
are major white writers in South Africa, but they have not been accepted as spokesmen
by the oppressed African peoples.)
The third part of this collection concerns itself solely with six literary journals which
have played an important part in the development of Cape Verdean and Angolan
literatures from the 1930's to the early 1970s. These journals have not only explored
and articulated literary and cultural goals; they also were forums where young,
unknown writers returned to their cultural roots in order to reassert their Africanness.
In the past two years new journals have been born. Gerald Moser alludes to several of
these fledgling journals in his essay “The Lusophone Literatures of Africa Since In-
dependence.” I have provided a list with addresses of contemporary journals at the
conclusion of the Selected Bibliography.
One final point: there are only a handful of recognized scholars who write in
English on African literatures in Portuguese. That explains the inclusion of two or more
essays by a single critic-scholar.
Donald Burness
August 20, 1980