Helder Macedo

Calling on the hero of his Mozambican childhood dreams - Namonocolo, a rabbit who is more astute than the hyena itself - to help him, Helder Macedo offers us a dual vision of his language - that of the speaker and that of the writer. After being taught to read and write by a black teacher in a "native" primary school in Mozambique, he came to Portugal when he was twelve years old, then attended the fifth grade in Bissau and spent some time in São Tomé before returning to Lisbon to go to university. The first poem he remembers reading was by a Portuguese author, but the first fiction was a work by Jorge Amado and Helder admits that among its characters he recognised the people who surrounded him in Africa. Inversely, living as he has in London for many years now and dedicating himself to teaching the language and cultures of the Lusophone world, he says that his own tongue is an "(...) African, Brazilian and European" Portuguese which takes on a "Portugality" that "(...) includes being African and Brazilian".

Providing us with a valuable insight into the existence of a Portuguese Diaspora, he also says that the first time he went to Brazil he recognised all his biographical and cultural roots, expressed in new shapes which were entirely familiar to him. "(...) I also discovered", he writes in this article, "that the linguistic differences between the Algarve and Trás-os-Montes, for example, are greater than those between Lisbon and Rio de Janeiro, but substantially smaller than those between Funchal and Coimbra, or Luanda, or São Luís do Maranhão, or Maputo". Affinities and differences, which, according to the author, mean that to write in Portuguese is to "participate in all the various Lusophone cultures".

A Few Aspects of the Arts and Elites in Mozambique

Feliciano de Mira

The author begins with the assumption that the aesthetic is the expression of the poetic quality of a work of art. The application of this principle to Mozambican society leads him to look at the relationships between artists, intellectuals and the ruling elite - be it an essentially political body or one composed of influential individuals - as though they form part of a journey which in historical terms can be said to run from the dark days of the sixties to the peace agreement signed in Rome in October 1992.

When it comes to African art in general, "western ethnocentric preconceptions magnify the interdependencies. (...) It was necessary to achieve the independence of the new African states for the art produced in Africa to reaffirm itself and come to be understood outside its anthropological contexts". Given that in Africa ruling elites consolidate their economic power when they manage to governmentalise the machinery of State, the author also considers that whether they possess real or purely symbolic influence, they are characterised "by their capacity to foster trends". This is true of the traditional chiefs, whose primacy and authority result from religious or spiritual beliefs and from the millenary relationship that exists between works of art and religious rituals - a factor which "conditions the position of the artist within his community group and determines his status in the ranks of society".

During the 1960's and up until the country's independence, Mozambique's aesthetic tendencies were composed of a mixture of neo-realism, surrealism and negritude. One of the main methods employed by the political opposition to the colonial regime was precisely that of a cultural contestation embodied by an "influential counter-elite which needed to integrate itself within a broader social movement - nationalism (...)". After independence, and more specifically between 1975 and 1987, "poetry walked the streets and art and politics seemed to go hand in hand (...) it was a utopian period, but also a time for settling scores". It was only from 1992 onwards, with the appearance of a politico-economic elite and the re-emergence of the traditional and religious elites, that the rules of the market once more started to provide new incentives for artistic expression.

"Prospero's Island" by Rui Knopfli
or the Island of "Caliban" in Mozambican poetry
notes on the updating of a myth with a cultural origin

Ana Mafalda Leite

Basing herself on the fact that the original myths arose not only in order to conserve a common memory but also as a result of the "need to invent, in the etymological sense of the word, an exemplary past in order to guarantee the present and confirm the future", the author begins by calling our attention to the literature of the struggle and the poetry with a social theme that were produced during the period before and after the independence of Mozambique - a period which is seen as a "semantic time of heroism and conquest".

Within the context of this mythical literary imaginary world, the theme of the island - particularly that of the Island of Mozambique - is a clear form of literary regionalism. "(...) in other words, it provides a structure for the concept of "Mozambiqueness" as the representation of a space for crosses between cultures of diverse origins, such as those of the Bantu, Arab, Indian and European peoples". Literary Historiography, History and Myth are areas that are woven together in a recurrent palimpsestic dimension which transforms that concept into "one of the matrical regions of the cultural field". Writers, especially poets and essayists, call for the "umbilical recognition of this geo-mythical space (...)".

Such a strong maritime inference finally leads Ana Mafalda Leite to project the theme of Insularity onto her own country: "(...) if the island does indeed constitute a mythical region, then the country itself can be seen as a long, thin Indian Ocean isle".

Living stages, Imaginary stages

António Loja Neves

According to the author, the theatre in Mozambique is an authentic mass movement. Going to the theatre is a habit which is ensconced not only among the country's elites, but also among a broad swathe of the populace. The spectator "interacts, retorts, lives the action, applauds, objects, works out plots and adopts some characters while repudiating others. (...) The audience join in happily and unconditionally. Returning again and again, (...) they become used to the ritual; mould themselves to it; and create yet more".

According to António Loja Neves, thus it is that although Mozambican theatre companies possess no written dramaturgical tradition but rather adapt existing, mostly Mozambican, works, they constitute a space filled with a creativity and an innovation that are allied to an experimentalism and a deep-rooted relationship with daily life. This phenomenon, which is linked to the African oral tradition, is present in some companies more than in others (clearly analysed in this article) and gives rise to a circular motive force which flows "from the people to the theatre and from the theatre to the people". Nonetheless, the article calls our attention to a certain amount of concern that is beginning to be voiced at the moment. "While on the one hand Mozambican theatre is experiencing a crisis due to high work-rates which is go so far as to threaten the cohesion of the country's companies and the engendering of new ideas, (...) at the same time certain options which immediately lead to a full house and success may also be threatening the continued existence of the delicate and intelligent balance between the really populist branch of the theatre and the "démarche" which is executed with more effort and detail".

The author concludes by saying that everyone who has come into contact with the Mozambican theatrical world singles it out as an important experience.

Luso-Mozambican Cinema

José de Matos-Cruz

The author sets out to give us a panoramic view of the cinema in Mozambique and begins by mentioning the fact that the country is thought to have been "(...) historically, one of the first places to appear in a colonial context in the Portuguese filmography (...)". Over the years Mozambican cinema has been enriched until it has become "(...) an expressive gallery of current affairs and documentary works which set out multiple aspects of the country's political life, peoples, customs, culture, economy, landscapes and social development".

Beginning in 1928 with the film "Através de um Portugal Maior" (Through a Greater Portugal) in which João Fernandes Thomaz resorts to a whole brigade of cameramen in order to produce propaganda about the way in which "Portugal has made good use" of the lands between Madeira and India, the article goes on to list and briefly refer to films that were produced and co-produced in the 1930's, 40's, 50's and 60's. It pays particular attention to the transition to independence in the 70's and 80's before ending with two films made in 1997: Solveig Nordlund's Portuguese-Swedish co-production entitled "Comédia infantil"; and Fernando de Almeida e Silva's "A Tempestade da Terra".

The text is followed by an interesting "Essential Chronology made up of Short Films" - a fascinating list which covers the period between 1897 and 1977 and in which the presence of Mozambique manifests itself "in an exemplary and parallel manner (...) which envelops life in the two countries that were in a process of reciprocal and mutually decisive evolution".

Mapiko Masks: past and present

Miguel Costa Nkaima

The art historian who wrote this article begins by rejecting the theory adopted by some students of art in Africa, according to whom Eastern and Southern Africa are relatively poor in artistic expression compared to the Western and Central regions of the continent. He argues that "since the time of the European occupation," Eastern Africa in particular "has never been the object of research or studies which are sufficiently broad and wide-reaching enough" to enable us to reach that conclusion. In his text Nkaima takes a special look at the long tradition of the Makonde people, who live on the banks of the Rovuma River where they share territory in both Mozambique and Tanzania. They possess an artistic style which is related to one which originated in the Congo and are great carvers of masks and other wooden artwork.

"Makonde tradition considers life to be a series of phenomena which exist in parallel with man's socio-economic organisation and his connection to the world of the ancestral spirits. (...) Since the earliest days of their people, the Makonde have used masks, figurines and other shapes carved out of wood to cultivate a tradition that represents their imaginary world in a way which relates to the existence of the supernatural plane and to their conviction that there is a logical connection between the latter and the tribe. This conviction (...) gives the Makonde artist the ability and the power to employ the rich symbolism available to him to recreate various different spirits in his art ".

The masks are divided into two types: facial masks and those of a helmet or helm type. The author provides a concise explanation of the specific characteristics of the different varieties which exist within each type and highlights the fact that the masks are intimately linked to the dance of the same name. The latter possesses a religious and ceremonial significance connected with the male initiation ritual, which is itself made up of "a set of elements comprising the Mapiko mask, the dance's choreography, the rhythmic and cadenced step of the dancer and the accompanying music, which is played on special instruments".

The author concludes that while from the 1970's onwards the Makonde carvers made a deep commitment to the struggle to affirm the existence of culture in Mozambique, socio-cultural change and above all the uncontrolled commercialisation that has made their masks one of the main elements in the so-called "airport art" are warranting fears that their quality and genuineness are deteriorating.

Regional co-operation within the ambit of the relationship between the EU and Africa

João de Deus Pinheiro

The author begins by clarifying the fact that his work as a European Commissioner embraced the whole of Sub-Saharan Africa and also included a number of islands in the Caribbean and the Pacific which were parties to the Lomé Convention. The text clearly illustrates the fact that the most recent version of this international agreement forms part of a "dynamic force of focussed solidarity". The term "partnership" particularly stands out as an important and innovative concept for both the 15 signatory countries from the North and the 70 from the South, uniting them around a number of common objectives.

The Lomé Convention constitutes a real North/South solidarity contract and takes on a special significance in the fight against exclusion in its most diverse forms. Within this context there are three fronts that deserve the EU's highest attention: the fight against poverty; the need to take gender (male/female) issues into consideration; and the degree of attention we need to pay to minorities. João de Deus Pinheiro adds that in the more recent past the donor countries have developed "a special sensitivity towards autochthonous peoples, who are often subject to traumatic experiences involving political and social exclusion (…), including aspects that represent a degree of economic marginalization and even cultural denial. This issue also possesses an environmental connotation to the extent that those same peoples very often play a crucial role in the preservation of biodiversity (...)".

Lastly, João de Deus Pinheiro underlines the fact that the Lomé Convention clearly reveals the need to develop the cultural heritage, values, lifestyles, ways of thinking and styles of the world's local populations and that a change in mentalities is currently under way on the part of both the donors and the recipients, whereby it is possible to foresee tangible progress towards a time when Europe will take on a solidary and not a solitary identity.

The "Ithaca Complex" in Island Literatures
The Azores, Madeira and Cape Verde

João de Melo

The writer begins by evoking the three archipelagos as "places from which people leave, homelands and yet springboards to 'the big wide world' (...)", but he argues that the motive for a return to the islands has never been the same as that for the initial departure and journey: "Our literatures are exit doorways leading from the 'island' to the 'world'; on the other hand, very few of those same doors ever close on people's new homes or at the end of a return to their birthplace". Nonetheless, there are some movements working in the opposite direction, such as the feeling of the homeland as a cradle, a certain resistance to the temptation to leave in the first place, or the lyricism inspired by distance, all of which constitute ways of mentally or emotionally returning to one's island. João de Melo also refers to those who "(...) stay, leave and then come back again (...), who write, not so much of the theme of leaving, but rather of staying and of day-to-day life (,,,)" He mentions "the Greek myth of Ithaca, Ulysses' return to awareness, a renewed awareness of the island as the origin, destiny, identifying element and identity of insular man, and the idea of the island as a place of refuge, incarceration or prison. (...)". The author speaks of a concept of the island as a "mythical and exemplary projection of Literature and the world".

As portrayed in the poetry of Herberto Helder and Antero de Quental respectively, Madeira and the Azores are "the expression of insularity (...), something as remote and diffuse as a voluntary extinction (...), an express and even obsessive insular perception, lying behind a poetic curtain. (...) they are poets of the vast worlds inside (...)". In the Azores in particular, "the florilegium of literary allusions to the theme of the homecoming, seen from the point of view of reality, symbolism or even myth, is clearly visible (...), but I repeat, I do not know of a single work from the Azores that is entirely devoted to the question of the 'return' ". However, that which is expressed in the literature of Cape Verde is precisely a longing for one's homeland, "(...) allusions to an ideal homecoming, to meeting one's family again and to the happiness that does not exist at a distance".

The Babel Islands: creolization in the Gulf of Guinea

Tjerk Hagemeijer

The article looks from an historical and linguistic perspective at the appearance of the four creole languages based on a Portuguese lexicon that are spoken in the Gulf of Guinea: São-Tomense and Angolar, both of which are spoken on the island of São Tomé; Principense, from the island of Principe; and Fa d'Ambu, which is spoken on the island of Ano Bom (it explains that the latter, although it now forms an integral part of Equatorial Guinea, belonged to the Portuguese Crown until 1778, at which time it became a Spanish possession).

The author begins by providing us with an historical background going back to 1471-72,when the island was discovered. He places special emphasis on the fact that SãoTomé was the first to be populated, while the other two were colonised from there. He then says that: "The arrival of the colonists, most of whom were Portuguese, was accompanied by the first influx of African slaves into São Tomé (...). At the same time there were the so-called 'bondslaves', who were imported from the coastal areas of the African mainland and were generally shipped as merchandise to the Mina trading agency, located in what is now Ghana, near the mouth of the River Pra (...). São Tomé and Principe are thought to have gradually gained in importance as entrepôts in the slave trade from 1500 onwards", only to decline again over the course of the XVI century as the trade started to move southwards.

The author is convinced that the four creole languages from the Gulf of Guinea share a common root, which he calls 'Proto-Creole from the Gulf of Guinea', and that the birthplace of this proto-language was the island of São Tomé. One of the main reasons he invokes for this is the fact that each coloniser was entitled to a female slave by royal decree, and that children of mixed blood are often mentioned in old documents. "The black women themselves and the children who were born to the wives and concubines of Europeans were officially declared free as of 1515 and 1517 respectively". They formed a community made up of 'foros' (from the term 'carta de alforria', or letter of manumission), who enjoyed their own identity and socio-economic rights, thereby creating conditions that favoured first the appearance of a creole language and then its rapid diffusion via the creolization of other communities.

Stolen Tongues

Adriaan Van Dis

"In the discussion about the threatening clash between cultures, in which the cultures of the poor countries from the South either dig themselves in or use verbal weapons against the arrogance of the rich countries from the North, translators can play a role which is as useful as it is prudent (...)". So says the author, who, in this context, considers the translator to be a builder of bridges between the rich and the poor worlds.

Evoking his stay on the island of Gorée, which is located on the Dakar coast and was bought from Portugal by Dutch slave traders, Adriaan Van Dis remembers that when he told the islanders that he wrote in Dutch, they all laughed heartily because none of them ever wrote in his or her native tongue. "Just like English and Portuguese in the other ex-colonies, in the French-speaking countries French is the language of the intellectual. Few if any writers publish works in their mother tongue. (...). This is why the people who read the African writers are to be found either in the cities or above all abroad - most authors find their audience in London or Paris. They are writers who have exchanged the sounds, the melodies and the rhythms of their youth for a language which the colonisers forced on them". The thing Adriaan Van Dis finds even more odd is the fact that it is the Africans themselves who offer the greatest resistance to attempts to stimulate literatures in their mother tongues. This contrasts with the growing feeling of resentment among the African youth, who complain about the lack of attention and respect paid to their own cultures. Indeed, the universities in the USA are inundated with Afro-centric theories which say that the peoples of Africa would be able to reacquire their balance and self-esteem if only they enjoyed a "feeling of pride".

It is against this background that, rather than just a builder of bridges between one language and another, the translator can also become " (...) a herald who trumpets the words of a smaller language out into the vastness of the world, enriching a small country with the literature of a great land. He or she can put a country back on the map; ransom a civilisation from isolation and help it to rediscover its pride and its identity".

A look at a voice

Gabriel Baguet Jr.

The article recalls a day in 1997 when the journalist remembers having been entrusted with the task of accompanying Cesária Évora (who two years later, on the 15th of July 1999, was to be honoured with the title of Grand Officer of the Order of Merit by the President of the Portuguese Republic) from breakfast at six in the morning near the hotel in which she was staying up until the show she gave at the Coliseum at ten that evening and her subsequent nocturnal outing to the Cape Verdian discotheque B.Leza ('Beauty').

The journey included visits to and photo sessions at some of the historic sites around Lisbon, a ritual stop to do her hair in Rua Poço dos Negros, lunch in Cascais and back to the hotel to rest before the show. "During the time in which I was privileged to be in direct contact with this lady, listening to her stories, there developed inside me the intimate record left by someone who awakens a deep feeling of enchantment within us". But it is not just the woman and her notable way of being and life story that the author highlights. He also reveals the enthusiasm inspired by her show: "Cesária grabs the audience, transforms it and leaves it with the desire to see her again. (...) I noticed that the distance between the stage and the audience was very small".

It is with exaltation and joy that this "suffering creole", whom the French were the first to call 'The Barefoot Diva', finally obtained international recognition, now formally confirmed by Portugal and thence by the whole of the Lusophone world and culture as well.

Afro-Lusophone music out to conquer the world

Ariel de Bigault

The author starts by noting that the spread of the fame of African artists from Paris gave birth to the cultural and commercial 'world music' movement and consecrated the month of February 1990, which was marked by the Festival at Praia da Gamboa, as the beginning of what was to become "one of the most beautiful stories of the so-called 'world music': the success enjoyed by Cesária and the diffusion of the songs of a poor, unknown archipelago all around the world".

Cape Verdian music possesses unrivalled qualities that guarantee its success. First of all its mestizo aspect: "melodies in a minor key sustained by a suave and cadenced swing, sensual dances born of a unique cross (...) between Africa, Europe and the Americas. The harmonies and the instrumentals come from Brazil and Portugal. Its distant African origins have been revitalised by the influence of Angola and São Tomé. The great diversity of styles (...) reflects both this intercontinental background and the archipelago's geography". The fundamental commercial mainstays of this musical production are the Cape Verdian communities scattered around the world, numbering more than double the population that remains in the archipelago itself (quite apart from the fact that they enjoy greater buying power).

Angolan music, however, is unfortunately in an extremely precarious situation. The war, the destruction and the looting are threatening the country's cultural and musical wealth, when only half a century ago it was the Angolan composers and musicians who were the pioneers of urban music in Africa. At the moment Luanda is the only centre of cultural activity. A third of the national population survives there, isolated from the rest of the territory, "but the popular songs of Angola, which expressed the diverse facets of the Angolan people even during the dark times of colonialism, have not died out. (...) Paradoxically, the musical landscape, which has been devastated by the war which is affecting everyone, has become more diversified. The hundreds of thousands of refugees have brought their dances and traditions to the outskirts of the capital. (...) In Umbundu, Kimbundu and Portuguese, they tell of the violence of the war and the suffering of the people".

Longing for the Island of Luanda and some Angolan delicacies

Afonso Praça

Reading a curious book entitled 'A Alimentação do Muxiluanda' (The Dishes of Muxiluanda) by Ana de Sousa Santos left the author of this article feeling "a terrible longing for the island". After telling us that it was once known as the 'Island of the Goats' (Ilha das Cabras), because there were a lot of them there, 'Money Island' (Ilha do Dinheiro), because it was where the whelks that were used as currency were collected, and Cape Island (Ilha do Cabo), the reason for which may either have been the fact that "it formed the far end of the coastal chain counting from the south, or, according to others (...) because that designation was inspired by the image of a saint with that name which had been taken there by some devote expatriates from the Algarve (...)". (The fact is that the island is home to the Chapel of Our Lady of the Cape.)

After outlining the history of Luanda and of the island that bears the same name, and having taken a few brief looks at the diet of its natives and the origins of its European, Euro-African and Brazilian inhabitants, Afonso Praça says that he considers that the island forms part of the city and that the beach there is among the city dwellers' favourites. He recalls the landscapes, the people and the places where they go to eat. The menu is mainly fish and the two essential dishes of Angolan cuisine - 'mufete' and 'muamba' - and the author leaves our mouths watering with his detailed description of the local recipes.

Cruz e Sousa
Black Brazilian poet and the author of "Broqueis"

Alexei Bueno

João da Cruz e Sousa died on the 19th of March 1898 at the age of 36. The story of his life is one of the most tragic experienced by any Brazilian literary figure. The son of married slaves, "he was named after the saint's day on which he was born - St. John of the Cross - and was given the surname of his father's master" - Field Marshal Guilherme Xavier de Sousa. "(...) A pure Negro, (...) he left three children and a pregnant widow. One by one, the three children succumbed to the same tuberculosis as their father. Their mother followed them. Only the posthumous child, who was given his father's name, escaped the family hecatomb before himself dying of the same disease in 1915, when he was seventeen years old. He left a minor, Francelina Maria da Conceição, with child. After bearing the poet's grandson, (...) she was knocked over by a tram and died".

Considered the greatest poet of Brazilian Symbolism, Cruz e Sousa was protected and educated by the Field Marshal's wife and rapidly revealed great intellectual aptitudes which led him to feel entirely out of place in the milieu of his birth and to a violent confrontation with racial prejudice.

The troubled life of this great figure of Brazilian literature also serves as the pretext for a discerning selection of some of his best and most beautiful poems, chosen by the critic who wrote the article.

African Magic

Rosabela Afonso

This is one woman's testimony. "Africa cannot be explained. You feel it. You feel it in your soul - it touches the inner of anyone who visits it (...). Nor can Africa be shown to someone else (...)". The raison d'être of the latter statement is the fact that in this article the author has tried to some extent to use words and photographs to portray the land and its peoples, above all the women and children. "(...) the Portuguese were masters of the art of truly loving Africa and its peoples. One proof of this among many is the beautiful city of Maputo - wide and open, facing the future and the Indian Ocean (...)".

Barra beach, the island of Mozambique, Marracuene and the magnificent African sunsets are just a few more of the places and moments passionately evoked by the author in this article.