Narrative
Mestre Tamoda
Not translated into English
Uanhenga Xitu · 1974
Synopsis
Tamoda, a young man who has gone to Luanda, learns to write there and memorises words from the dictionary for their sound. Back in the sanzala, where people mostly speak Kimbundu, he poses as a scholar, gives improvised lessons and spreads a new language, Tamoda's Portuguese, mixed with invented words; pages of an old dictionary are sold to schoolchildren. His town clothes and the money that exempts him from forced labour establish his prestige, and the schoolteacher starts punishing the pupils who imitate him.
Context
The story appeared in 1974, then opened in 1977 the collection Mestre Tamoda e outros contos, in Lisbon; it was reprinted in São Paulo in 1984 and, in 2008, in Lisbon, at the head of Bola com feitiço. Its hero returns the same year, 1984, in Os discursos do Mestre Tamoda. One study compares it with a story by Lima Barreto about a man who claimed to know Javanese, and reads in it the social barriers of the colony and the near impossibility of assimilation.
Who it is for
A narrative in Portuguese in which Kimbundu, an oral register and invented words are mixed; no French or English translation.
Prizes and reception
Regarded as a peak and a classic of Angolan literature; its hero is the best-known character of its author.
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