Short stories
O regresso do morto
Not translated into English
Suleiman Cassamo · 1989
Synopsis
O regresso do morto (The Return of the Dead Man): ten short stories, set in the rural south of Mozambique in the years following independence, amid poverty, war and departures for the mines of South Africa. Several stories follow women caught in customary marriage and the lobolo, under the authority of their in-laws, like Ngilina, married against her will at sixteen. In the title story, a migrant worker in South Africa comes home to his people. The language mixes Portuguese and Ronga, with devices of the oral tale.
Context
The collection appeared in 1989 in Maputo, in the Karingana series, then was taken up in Lisbon by Caminho in 1997. Isabel Vale Ferreira and Annick Moreau translated it into French in 1994, for Chandeigne, in Unesco's collection of representative works, with a preface by Robert Bréchon; a bilingual edition followed in 2012. The author claims kinship with Guimarães Rosa, Juan Rulfo and García Márquez, and studies note his dedication to the magaíça, the miners returned from the South African mines.
Who it is for
For discovering, in French or Portuguese, the Mozambican short story of the countryside and of the condition of women.
Prizes and reception
A study in the review Boitatá places it in the phase of Mozambican literature that reconnects with African culture.
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The pages consulted to check this page.