Mozambique: Fernando Leite Couto literary prize for Gibson João, Óscar Fanheiro

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Mozambique: Fernando Leite Couto literary prize for Gibson João, Óscar Fanheiro

8:52 CAT | 06 Jul 2023

Photo: Fundação Fernando Leite Couto

Two writers from Mozambique Gibson João and Óscar Fanheiro won ‘ex aequo’ on Tuesday the Fernando Leite Couto Literary Award, created to promote young Mozambican authors, and will participate in the 2023 edition of FOLIO – International Literary Festival of Óbidos.

The jury’s choice fell, in this edition of the award, on the works “[Da casa]: o seu inclinado murmúrio” – [From the house]: its inclined murmur”, by Elvira Nhamane, pseudonym of Gibson João, and “Incêndios à margem do soon” (Fires at the edge of sleep), by Castigo Namussurize, pseudonym of Óscar Fanheiro, Óbidos town hall, and partner of the initiative, announced on Tuesday.

The jury considered that the work by 21-year-old Gibson João was “a book marked by a poetic maturity, which is tangled in a discursive mode in only one voice, rich and succinct”.

“The words stage an almost physical seduction in this book, or rather, the words seem to be incarnating in front of us, an artifice that clearly results from a continuous reading practice”, says a press release in which the jury sustains the reasons for awarding the prize.

As for Óscar Fanheiro’s book, it was considered a “visceral work, which reveals the author’s sobriety in the structuring of the verses and in the extension of the emotion of the word”. The jury highlighted the “disconcerting, incisive writing, in which the ‘pimp’ and the noble are mixed, the richest metaphors and the rudeness of the colloquial vigour, the dirty realism and some sublime images, in a polyphonic communication that, not being not always orchestrated with absolute adjustment, is of an undeniable aesthetic coherence and manifests itself in a freedom that should be an appanage of poets”.

The two books “are complementary to each other, given the solar character of “[Da casa]: its inclined murmur” and the nocturnal character of “Incêndios à margem do sono”, a reason that justifies the ‘ex aequo’ awarding of the prize”, explained the jury, composed of António Cabrita (poet, editor and critic), Francisco Guita Jr. (poet), Gilberto Matusse (literature professor at Eduardo Mondlane University and essayist), José dos Remédios (journalist and literary critic) and Lica Sebastião (poet).

The Fernando Leite Couto Prize, the father of writer Mia Couto, was established in 2017 with the aim of promoting and rewarding young Mozambican writers.

Since 2021, it has had the partnership of Camões – Portuguese Cultural Centre in Maputo, the Portugal Mozambique Chamber of Commerce (CCPM), Óbidos City Council and Moza-Banco, which made it possible to award 150,000 meticais (approximately two thousand euros) to the winner.

The winners of each edition also win the possibility of having their work printed by CCPM and will win a trip to Portugal to participate in FOLIO – International Literary Festival of Óbidos, which this year takes place from 12 to 22 October.

The authors will also perform in this town in the district of Leiria, a literary residence and, on their return to Mozambique, they will have the support of Camões – Portuguese Cultural Centre, to divulge their works and guide literary workshops, in one of its delegations in Mozambique.

The ‘ex aequo’ awarding of the prize also ocurred last year, with the victory of Maya Ângela Macuacua, with the novel “Black diamonds amid crystals”, and Jeremias José Mendoso with the collection of tales “When the owls hoot”.

The prize was, for the second year in a row, delivered at Folio – International Literary Festival of Óbidos, in a panel of authors in which the two young writers participated.

Previously the Fernando Leite Couto Prize had been awarded to Macvildo Pedro Bonde, with the book of poems “Description of Shadows”, in 2017, and Otildo Justino Guido, with the work “The Silence of the Skin”, in 2019.

Source: Lusa