Mozambican jazz artist wins prestigious international award
File photo: Macau Daily Times
Poet Luís Vaz de Camões, the greatest exponent of the Portuguese language, lived on the Island of Mozambique from 1568 to 1570.
The story goes that it was there that Camões undertook the final revision of his epic ‘Os Lusíadas’. He arrived on a caravel that moored at the island on its way to Mombasa and remained there until Diogo Couto took him back to Lisbon.
This is one of the earliest remembered associations between the Island of Mozambique and the man who, many years later, would become the guiding light of many a Mozambican poet. This is how the first Mozambican capital, bathed by the Indian Ocean, would become the “Isle of the Poets”, because they took ownership of the place and there produced works that have joined the pantheons of national and world literature.
It is because of this relationship between the Island of Mozambique and Mozambican writers that the Camões Portuguese Cultural Centre in Maputo has organised an exhibition entitled “Ilha dos Poetas” [The Island of the Poets].
Open from today until March 30, the exhibition also marks the 200th anniversary of the island’s elevation to city status.
The exhibition brings together texts by Alberto Lacerda, Calane da Silva, Eduardo White, Gloria de Sant’Anna, José Craveirinha, Luís Carlos Patraquim, Luís de Camões, Luís Filipe Castro Mendes, Mia Couto, Rui Knopfli, Tomás António Gonzaga and Virgílio de Lemos.
The poems in the exhibition, which is curated by the writer and essayist Nelson Saúte, stand in juxtaposition with photographs by João Costa (Funcho), José Cabral, Martinho Fernando, Moira Forjaz, Ricardo Rangel and Sérgio Santimanoç
The exhibition is made in collaboration with the Mozambican Historical Archive and the Centre of Photographic Documentation and Training.
“It is not here intended to present a historical or chronological view of the Island of Mozambique, but to launch a challenge to revisit the poetic mythology of the island, evoked in verse, in texts and in photographs of its most illustrious residents,” the accompanying press release explains.
The exhibition’s introductory text describes the island as “a cultural mosaic, a meeting place where Arabic, Swahili, Macua and Portuguese were spoken”.
The Island of Mozambique is located in the province of Nampula, and gave its name to the country of which it was the first capital. Its rich history and architectural heritage saw the island declared a World Heritage site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) in 1991.
Its name, which many natives claim originally to be Muipiti, is also said to be derived from the name Mussa Bin-Bique, a personage about whom very little is known.
Architecturally, the Island is divided into two parts: the “Stone City” and the “City of Macuti”. The first has about 400 buildings, including the main monuments, and the second, in the southern half of the island, has about 1,200 ‘macuti houses'( mud houses with roofs consisting of dried palm leaves). Many of the stone houses, however, are also covered with macuti.
Leave a Reply
Be the First to Comment!
You must be logged in to post a comment.
You must be logged in to post a comment.