Book SynopsisIn 1975, after much resistance, Portugal became the last colonial power to relinquish its colonies on the African continent. The tardiness of Portuguese decolonization in Africa (Cabo Verde, Angola, Mozambique, Guinea Bissau, São Tomé e Príncipe) raises critical questions for the emergence of national literary and cultural production in the wake of national independence. Bringing together the works of poets, short story writers, and journalists, this book charts the emergence and evolution of the national literatures of Portugal’s former African colonies, from 1975 to the present. The aim of this book is to examine the ways in which writers contended with the process of decolonization, forging national, transnational, and diasporic identities through literature while grappling with the legacies and continuities of racial power structures, colonial systems of representation, and the struggles for political sovereignty and social justice. This book will be the first of its kind in English to include canonical, emerging, and previously untranslated authors of poetry and short-form fiction to a new public.Trade Review“Lusophone African Short Stories is an important reading for all of those who are interested in the Portuguese colonial Africa and the emergence and evolution of the national literatures of Portugal’s former African colonies.” —Sandra Sousa, Assistant Professor of Portuguese, University of Central“Enhanced by a detailed introduction and biographical notes, this solid and inclusive anthology fills a mounting research and pedagogic need. The collected material ranges from the late colonial period to contemporaneity, comprising 25 writers from 5 Portuguese-speaking African countries. Notably, most selections are available here in English for the first time.” — Luís Madureira, Professor, African Cultural Studies, University of WisconsinThe present volume of Lusophone short stories and poetry in English translation is a welcome addition for diversity and inclusion studies generally, and for Lusophone literary studies specifically. Portuguese colonial societies were structured around white supremacy, patriarchal dominance, and coupled with a general contempt–if not outright dehumanization–of the indigenous peoples, their cultures, and their societies. In fact, the editors provide an interesting rebuttal to renowned Brazilian sociologist Gilberto Freyre’s theory of Lusotropicalism, which argued for a more humane racial relational system in the Portuguese colonies— Steven Eric Byrd, University of New England; Hispania Volume 105, Number 4, December 2022, pp. 615-616Table of ContentsIntroduction; PART I. ANGOLA; Chapter 1. Boaventura Cardoso; Chapter 2. Ana Paula Tavares; Chapter 3. Ana de Santana; Chapter 4. Amélia da Lomba; Chapter 5. Ondjaki; PART II. CABO VERDE; Chapter 6. Onésimo Silveira; Chapter 7. Vera Duarte; Chapter 8. Rosendo Évora Brito; Chapter 9. Orlanda Amarilis; Chapter 10. Silvino Lopes Évora; PART III. GUINEA-BISSAU; Chapter 11. Domingas Samy; Chapter 12. Agnelo Regalla; Chapter 13. Félix Sigá; Chapter 14. Tony Tcheka; Chapter 15. Odete Semedo; PART IV. MOZAMBIQUE; Chapter 16. José Craveirinha; Chapter 17. Mia Couto; Chapter 18. Paulina Chiziane; Chapter 19. Tânia Tomé; Chapter 20. Nelson Saúte; PART V. SÃO TOMÉ E PRÍNCIPE; Chapter 21. Alda Espírito Santo; Chapter 22. Tomás Medeiros; Chapter 23. Olinda Beja; Chapter 24. Conceição Lima; Chapter 25. Albertino Bragança; Further Reading; Bibliography.
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