“I am bringing old things such as houses made of wood and zinc”

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“I am bringing old things such as houses made of wood and zinc”

11:05 CAT | 20 Jun 2017

O País

Luís Bernardo Honwana shares essays, chronicles, depositions and testimonies published in newspapers and magazines

Starting Wednesday, Luís Bernardo Honwana will no longer be the writer of only a single published book. Fifty-three years on, “We Killed Mangy Dog” gets a companion volume.

It is not yet known if this is the end of the crisis of works on the writer’s shelf. What matters, he told reporters yesterday, is that his focus at this time is on ‘A Veha Casa de Madeira e Zinco’ [‘The Old House of Wood and Zinc’].

Honwana’s book brings together essays, chronicles, depositions and testimonies, some texts already published in national and foreign books, newspapers and magazines, and others still unpublished.

“These texts gathered in this book refer to various discussions: discussions with people, discussions that stem from presentations I have made at various times and discussions with myself,” Honwana said, adding that the discussions are about relevant themes, hence his bringing them into the light of day to fuel a wider discussion.

The author called “The Old House of Wood and Zinc” for a simple reason: “This book finally discusses things that happen to people who live in houses of wood and zinc or are things taken from the perspective of people who live in those houses. But it turns out that the houses of wood and zinc are already old. I’m bringing forth things that are as old as these houses.”

Asked why he no longer writes fiction, Honwana said that, in a nutshell, there was no particular reason. However, he did say that during the period he was absent from writing he devoted himself to other tasks.

Sharing the panel with Honwana was Calane da Silva, for whom the picture on the cover (the image of a wood and zinc house) has to do not only with history, with culture, with the rebirth of even proto-nationalist thought, then nationalist and then revolutionary. “A house of wood and zinc for us symbolises a lot. And these texts are extraordinary from the point of view of a whole set of questions and ideas for the whole country,” he said.

In addition to the book launch, CFM Central Station in Maputo hosts an exhibition also entitled ‘Madeira e Zinco’. The set of works, which accompanies the written narrative, will be shown in Kulungwana gallery.

Source: O País