Germano Almeida

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Germano Almeida

Germano Almeida , also Germano de Almeida , (born July 31, 1945 on the island of Boa Vista , Portuguese Cape Verde ) is a Cape Verdean writer, publisher and lawyer.

Life

Youth and origin

Germano Almeida was born on July 31, 1945 on the island of Boa Vista in the Portuguese colony of Cape Verde as one of ten children to parents Anacleto Dias Almeida and Eugenia da Cruz Almeida. His father, Anacleto, worked as a carpenter, his mother as a housewife. His father Anacleto died when Germano Almeida was 16 years old, so he started working as a carpenter to support the family. He was considered an ambitious student, although it was difficult for the family to continue to support Almeida in his education. After completing primary school on Boa Vista, he attended various secondary schools in the capital Praia (on the island of Santiago) and on the island of São Vicente .

Studied and worked as a lawyer

At the age of 18, Almeida was drafted into the Portuguese military and did his military service in the Portuguese colony of Angola . Thanks to his ambition, he won a scholarship to study in the Portuguese capital, Lisbon. In 1972 he moved there to study law at the University of Lisbon ( Universidade Clássica) . After completing his studies, he returned to Cape Verde.

After Cape Verde declared itself independent from Portugal in the course of the Carnation Revolution in 1975, Almeida was appointed Attorney General of the archipelago in 1976. He held this office until 1979, after which he moved to Mindelo (São Vicente Island) to practice as a lawyer.

Literary work

Despite his practice as a lawyer, Almeida also developed a love for writing. In 1983 Almeida founded the magazine Ponto & Vírgula and in the same year published his first work Estórias (Stories) under the pseudonym "Romualdo Cruz". In 1989 Almeida joined the publishing house Ilhéu, through which he then published most of his works. In the same year he published his first and to this day most famous novel, O testamento do Senhor Napomuceno da Silva Araújo (German: "The Testament of Mr. Napumoceno"). A film based on this novel by the Portuguese director Francisco Manso received first prize at the largest Brazilian film festival Festival de Cinema de Gramado in 1997 .

In 1990 Almeida published his second novel, O Meu Poeta ("My Poet"), about the political life of Mindelo. In O Meu Poeta, Almeida consciously criticized the political system of the island state and the widespread opportunism in Cape Verdean society.

Numerous other works came in the course of the 1990s. Almeida's works have been translated into numerous languages. He is one of the most famous writers in the Portuguese-speaking area outside of Portugal and Brazil. He is known for his unique writing style, in which he interweaves real or autobiographical elements with fictional and humorous elements.

In 2010, the then Cape Verdean President Pedro Pires honored him with an award for literary excellence.

In 2018, Almeida was the second Cape Verdean author after the poet Arménio Vieira to receive the annual Prémio Camões , the most important literary prize in the Portuguese-speaking region .

Works

literature

  • Maria Manuela Lopes Guerreiro: Germano de Almeida ea nova escrita cabo-verdiana: um estudo de O Testamento do Sr. Napomuceno da Silva Araújo. Centro Cultura Português, Praia / Mindelo 1998.
  • Paula Gândara: Construindo Germano Almeida: a consciência da desconstrução. Vega, Lisboa 2008, ISBN 978-972-699-875-4 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Terza Silva Lima-Neves: Almeida, Germano de . In: Emmanuel K. Akyeampong and Henry Louis Gates, Jr (Eds.): Dictionary of African Biography . Oxford Press, Oxford 2012, ISBN 978-0-19-538207-5 , pp. 183 f .
  2. ^ Johanna Puyol: Entrevista con Germano Almeida: Cabo Verde, entre el humor y el compromiso. In: La Jibarilla. La Habana, Vol. 5, No. 271, 2006. , Spanish, accessed May 17, 2011
  3. ↑ João Carlos: Germano Almeida: A escrita nicht é ganha-pão, é prazer | DW | 06/13/2018. In: DW Português para África. Deutsche Welle, June 13, 2018, accessed June 13, 2018 (Portuguese).
  4. ↑ Isabel Lucas: Prémio Camões. O escritor cabo-verdiano Germano Almeida é o Prémio Camões 2018 . In: PÚBLICO . ( publico.pt [accessed May 21, 2018]).
personal data
SURNAME Almeida, Germano
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Cruz, Romualdo (pseudonym); Almeida, Germano de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Cape Verdean writer, publisher and lawyer
DATE OF BIRTH July 31, 1945
PLACE OF BIRTH Boa Vista , Portuguese Cape Verde