José Luandino Vieira
Encyclopedia
José Luandino Vieira is an Angola
Angola
Angola, officially the Republic of Angola , is a country in south-central Africa bordered by Namibia on the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the north, and Zambia on the east; its west coast is on the Atlantic Ocean with Luanda as its capital city...

n writer of short fiction and novels.

Vieira was born in Lagoa de Furadouro, Ourém
Ourém
Ourém is a municipality in Portugal with a total area of 416.6 km² and a total population of 49,269 inhabitants. The city itself has a population of about 12,000.The municipality is composed of 18 parishes, and is located in the district of Santarém...

, Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

 and was Portuguese by birth and ethnicity, but his parents immigrated to Angola in 1938 and he grew up immersed in the African quarters (musseques) of Luanda
Luanda
Luanda, formerly named São Paulo da Assunção de Loanda, is the capital and largest city of Angola. Located on Angola's coast with the Atlantic Ocean, Luanda is both Angola's chief seaport and its administrative center. It has a population of at least 5 million...

. He wrote in the language unique to the musseque, a fusion of Kimbundu
Kimbundu
North Mbundu, or Kimbundu, one of two Bantu languages called Mbundu is one of the most widely spoken Bantu languages in Angola, concentrated in the north-west of the country, notably in the Luanda Province, the Bengo Province and the Malanje Province...

 and Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...

. He was devoted to Angolan independence, resulting in his arrest in 1961 after an interview with the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 in which he disclosed secret lists of deserters from the Portuguese army fighting in Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

. He would remain in jail for eleven years.

Vieira's works often followed the structure of the African oral narrative and dealt with the harsh realities of Portuguese rule in Angola. His best-known work was his early short story collection, Luuanda
Luuanda
Luuanda is a book by the Angolan writer José Luandino Vieira published in 1963 by Edições 70 in Lisbon, Portugal. The book is a collection of three stories, "Grandma Xíxi and Her Grandson Zeca Santos," "The Tale of the Thief and the Parrot," and "The Tale of the Chicken and the Egg."Luuanda is a...

(1963), which received a Portuguese writers' literary award in 1965, though it was banned by the Portuguese government until 1974 due to its examination of the oppressiveness of the colonial administration in Angola. His novella A vida verdadeira de Domingos Xavier ("The Real Life of Domingos Xavier"; 1974) portrayed both the cruelty of the Portuguese administration and the courage of ordinary Angolans during the colonial period. Other works include Velhas estórias ("Old Stories"; 1974), Nós os do Makulusu ("Our Gang from Makulusu"; 1974), Vidas novas ("New Lives"; 1975), and João Vêncio: os seus amores ("João Vêncio: Regarding His Loves"; 1979).

Vieira turned down the 100,000 Euros Camões Literary Prize awarded to him in May 2006, citing personal reasons.

Vieira also served as secretary-general of the Union of Angolan writers, and in that capacity helped get the works of other Angolan authors and poets published.

Works

  • Luuanda
    Luuanda
    Luuanda is a book by the Angolan writer José Luandino Vieira published in 1963 by Edições 70 in Lisbon, Portugal. The book is a collection of three stories, "Grandma Xíxi and Her Grandson Zeca Santos," "The Tale of the Thief and the Parrot," and "The Tale of the Chicken and the Egg."Luuanda is a...

    , 1963
  • A vida verdadeira de Domingos Xavier ("The Real Life of Domingos Xavier"), 1974
  • Velhas estórias ("Old Stories"), 1974
  • Nós os do Makulusu ("Our Gang from Makulusu"), 1974
  • Vidas novas ("New Lives") , 1975
  • João Vêncio: os seus amores("João Vêncio: His Loves"), 1979
  • Lourentinho, dona Antónia de Sousa Neto e eu ("Lourentinho, Antónia de Sousa Neto and I"), 1981
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