Manuel Rui 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 who has authored poetry, novels, theater plays, and short stories.

Biography

Manuel Rui, whose full name is Manuel Rui Alves Monteiro, was born in 1941 in Huambo

Huambo

Huambo, formerly Nova Lisboa , is the capital of Huambo province in Angola. The city is located about 220 km E from Benguela and 600 km SE from Luanda. The city's last known population count was 225,268...

 (then Nova Lisboa). Rui studied at the University of Coimbra, in 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 received a law degree there in 1969. He practiced the law in Coimbra

Coimbra

Coimbra is a city in the municipality of Coimbra in Portugal. Although it served as the nation's capital during the High Middle Ages, it is better-known for its university, the University of Coimbra, which is one of the oldest in Europe and the oldest academic institution in the...

 during the nationalist struggle for independence in Angola. He belonged to the editorial board of Vértice, the journal of the Center of Literary Studies in Coimbra, where he published his first prose fiction works in the early 1970s. In the aftermath of the Portuguese military coup on April 25, 1974

Carnation Revolution

The Carnation Revolution , also referred to as the 25 de Abril , was a military coup started on 25 April 1974, in Lisbon, Portugal, coupled with an unanticipated and extensive campaign of civil resistance...

, Rui returned to Angola to serve as the MPLA Minister of Information in the transitional government established by the Alvor Agreement

Alvor Agreement

The Alvor Agreement, signed on January 15, 1975, granted Angola independence from Portugal on November 11, ending the war for independence while marking the transition to civil war...

. He then served as Angola's first representative to the Organization of African Unity and the United Nations

United Nations

The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...

. He also directed MPLA's Department of Revolutionary Orientation and Department of Foreign Affairs. He wrote Angola's first national anthem

National anthem

A national anthem is a generally patriotic musical composition that evokes and eulogizes the history, traditions and struggles of its people, recognized either by a nation's government as the official national song, or by convention through use by the people.- History :Anthems rose to prominence...

 and the Angola's version of The Internationale

The Internationale

The Internationale is a famous socialist, communist, social-democratic and anarchist anthem.The Internationale became the anthem of international socialism, and gained particular fame under the Soviet Union from 1922 to 1944, when it was that communist state's de facto central anthem...

.

Theater Plays

• O Espantalho (The Scarecrow, 1973)
• Meninos de Huambo (Children of Huambo, 1985)

Prose

• Regresso Adiado (Delayed Return; short stories, 1973)
• Sim, Camarada! (Yes, Comrade!; short stories, 1977)
• Quem Me Dera Ser Onda (I Wish I Were a Wave; novella, 1982)
• A Crónica de um Mujimbo (The Chronicle of a Rumor; novel, 1989)
• O Manequim e o Piano (The Mannequin and the Piano; novel, 2005)