José Luandino Vieira

Portrays the cruelty of white "justice" and the courage of African men and women in preindependent Angola. It is the story of a tractor driver with nationalist sympathies who is arrested, tortured and murdered by the colonial police.

The real life of Domingos Xavier

Our Musseque is a tale of growing up in one of the vibrant shanty towns (musseques) of Luanda during the 1940s and 1950s. Weaving back and forwards through his half-remembered childhood, the narrator draws us into a close-knit world of labourers, shopkeepers, drunks, prostitutes and determined women battling to bring up their families, as Angola hurtles towards the beginning of its armed struggle against Portuguese colonial rule. Meanwhile the children laugh, play, squabble and fight, puzzle at racial taunts and move rapidly through adolescence towards sexual awakening and a greater awareness of political realities around them. Written in prison in 1961-62 but not published until over 40 years later, the novel is shot through with a sense of nostalgia for the lost innocence of childhood and a community swept away by the encroaching city, together with the exhilaration, hopes and fears for what is about to come.

Our Musseque

José Vieira Mateus da Graça

These three stories are set in the slums of Angola's capital, Luanda, during the 1940s and 1950s. Originally published in Portuguese, this book won the Writers' Society's Grand Prize for Fiction in 1965.

Short Stories of Angola

Luuanda

A vida verdadeira de Domingos Xavier

Een jongen uit Portugal komt met zijn ouders in Luanda aan die zich daar willen vestigen, en verwondert zich over de veelkleurige maar broeierige samenleving.

romance

Nosso musseque

The Real Life of Domingos Xavier

As três narrativas aqui reunidas retratam a dura realidade dos musseques angolanos - os bairros pobres de Luanda, onde o próprio autor viveu. Essas histórias curtas, buscam na oralidade inspiração para recriar a linguagem e nos fazem lembrar da nossa própria trajetória literária.

Luuanda: estórias

Chaque fois qu'il s'agit de poules et d'œufs, on a tendance à se poser toujours les mêmes questions : qui était là en premier ? Est-ce que la poule a pondu l'œuf ? Ou est-ce que l'œuf a donné la poule ? Ici, pas du tout. Dans cette histoire qui se passe dans un musseque, un misérable bidonville de Luanda, capitale de l'Angola, la question est : à qui appartient vraiment Cabiri, la poule, et à qui le bel neuf tout chaud qu'elle vient de pondre en chantant ? Et la réponse ne va pas de soi. Car si Cabiri est à dame Zefa, elle a néanmoins pondu dans le jardin de dame Bina. Et c'est Monsieur Zé, le marchand blanc, qui a vendu le grain pour la nourrir. Et de toute façon, c'est Monsieur Vitalino qui possède toutes les cases et tous les terrains du musseque, donc tout ce qui naît dessus. Pendant que les deux commères se crêpent le chignon, tout le monde se mêle de leur querelle : le curé, la prostituée, le propriétaire, le vieux juriste, le premier de la classe, les enfants du quartier... Qui tranchera ? La loi ? La justice ? L'armée ? Et si c'étaient plutôt la malice et l'humour ?

extrait du recueil Luuanda

Histoire de la poule et de l'oeuf

o pássaro-serpente de José Luandino Vieira

Katubia Ufolo

While awaiting his sentence in an Angolan jail for attempted murder, Joao Vencio relates the story of his life and the three loves that have meant the most to him

José Luandino Vieira

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