São Tomé and Príncipe / All works
Short stories
Rosa do Riboque e outros contos
Not translated into English
Albertino Bragança · 1985
Synopsis
The collection brings together four stories about the hard life of the poor and the workers on the outskirts of São Tomé, in the time of colonial rule. In “Rosa do Riboque”, Rosa Adriana and her friends from the Riboque district share their joys and resist repression together. “Reencontro” sets a father against his daughter, in love with a polygamous man, “Solidão” follows the torments of a polygamist and “Solidariedade” pays tribute to traditional medicine.
Context
The collection appeared in 1985 in a modest edition of the Cadernos Gravana Nova, a series that went no further, then was reissued in Lisbon in 1997 by Editorial Caminho. Inocência Mata regards it as a pioneering work of São Toméan fiction, which brings into the narrative the African life of the towns and the countryside, with its places, its proverbs, its songs and its dances. Lola Geraldes Xavier notes that it is the only book by the author published in Portugal.
Who it is for
For reading the town and countryside of São Tomé at the end of the colonial era, in the first book of a writer who became a minister.
Prizes and reception
Silvie Špánková sees in its stories a call to preserve the collective memory of the archipelago.
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The pages consulted to check this page.