Chiziane is next after “delivery of Camões prizes unblocked”

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Chiziane is next after “delivery of Camões prizes unblocked”

8:53 CAT | 25 Apr 2023

Photo: Lusa

Buarque was awarded in 2019 the Camoes Prize, which every year recognises an author from a Portuguese-speaking country. Three more followed him, in 3030, 3032 and 2022. All awarding ceremonies were pending because of Jair Bolsonaro’s refusal to sign Chico Buarque’s Camões Prize diploma.

Portugal’s minister of culture, Pedro Adão e Silva, promised this Monday morning in Lisbon, before the awarding of the Camões prize to Brazilian Chico Buarque, that he would announce “very soon” the awarding of the same prize to Mozambican writer Paulina Chiziane.

Adão e Silva was speaking on the sidelines of an event with his Brazilian counterpart at the headquarters of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP) in Lisbon.

The Camões Prize is a literary award established by the governments of Portugal and Brazil in 1988 with the aim of strengthening cultural ties between the various Portuguese-speaking countries and enriching the literary and cultural heritage of the Portuguese language.

“Today is a cause for great satisfaction because we have unblocked the delivery of the Camões prizes,” said Pedro Adão e Silva, recalling that “there were four Camões prizes to be delivered because of the non-delivery of the prize to Chico Buarque.”

Because of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s refusal to sign Chico Buarque’s Camões Prize diploma, the three winners who followed him did not have an awarding ceremony. Portuguese writer Vitor Manuel de Aguiar e Silva, who won the 2020 Camoes prize, died on September of last year, therefore the awarding ceremony to Aguiar e Silva will not take place, This is why Mozambican writer Paulina Chiziane , who won the 2021 Camões Prize will follow Chico Buarque. The awarding ceremony to Brazilian Silviano Santiago, winner of the 2022 Camões Prize. should come after Chiziane’s.

Therefore, for Pedro Adão e Silva it was a day of “great emotion and great significance, which corresponds to a turning of the page in this relationship [between Brazil and Portugal in the field of culture] and a factor of hope”.

But also because the ceremony was not “not only the award of the Camões prize to Chico Buarque, with what this means for the Portuguese language,” he underlined, but it will also unblock the awarding of other prizes given in the years following that of the Brazilian musician and writer.

Thus, said Adão e Silva, the next one will be given to Paulina Chiziane, “which is very significant, that we have a black, Mozambican writer receiving the Camões prize”.

But he did not want to advance the date for the delivery, guaranteeing only that it will be announced “very soon”.

READ: Brazilian legend Buarque receives prestigious literary award…four years late – Watch

Of the contacts with the minister of culture of Brazil, Margareth Menezes, the Portuguese minister said that “there were four days of many contacts and resumption of bilateral relations between Portugal and Brazil in the field of culture”, which for him “is a reason for great joy and satisfaction”.

“Language is what unites us, but there is not one Portuguese language, as in the postcard they have just given us of José Saramago [a Portuguese writer], there are Portuguese languages and I think that this diversity and plurality is a factor in the richness of Portuguese and what makes it a universal language. And this is fundamental”, he stressed.

In the future, the Portuguese minister of culture defended the return of contact between the ministries of culture of Brazil and Portugal, to promote “this diversity and this plurality and this richness”.

“We had the opportunity, in a more formal meeting we had on Saturday [the day of the Luso-Brazilian summit], to talk about various matters and to sign an agreement that in addition to that which exists in the framework of the CPLP, which Brazil also now joins, allows support for cinematographic co-productions between Portugal and Brazil, which already existed in the past and since 2018 ceased to exist and has not supported any new co-productions,” he pointed out.

But he also guaranteed that he explored “many other ideas of sharing experiences, but also of initiatives [with his Brazilian counterpart], also taking advantage of the fact that Brazil will preside over Mercosur next semester and also thinking about what will be the Ibero-American congress of culture, which will take place towards the end of the year.”

Therefore, he concluded: “These have been very productive days”.

As for the agreement for cinematographic co-productions signed at the Portuguese-Brazilian summit, which took place on Saturday, Pedro Adão e Silva stressed that it is “700 thousand euros/year” for co-production projects, joining the efforts of Portugal and Brazil and that it will allow the promotion and stimulation of these initiatives.

Source: Lusa ( Folha de Sao Paulo