Joel Rufino dos Santos

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Joel Rufino dos Santos (born July 19, 1941 in Rio de Janeiro , Brazil , † September 4, 2015 there ) was a Brazilian historian , writer and human rights activist . He mainly wrote children's and non-fiction books. Santos was an important exponent of Afro-Brazilian literature in Brazil in the second half of the 20th century. He became known for his contributions to the history of Afro-Brazilian culture and literature in Brazil. At the same time he fought in his work for recognition of the minority and against racism. He was also a fighter for democracy in Brazil.

Live and act

Joel Rufino dos Santos was born in Cascadura , a district of Rio de Janeiro, in 1941. Even as a child and adolescent he read his way through the then thin but existing Afro-Brazilian literature and began writing his own texts as a child. He later studied history and began his career as an employee of various Brazilian history and cultural studies institutes, such as the Instituto de Estudos Brasileiro. His first book was published in 1963. In total, he has written around 50 books. As a co-author of the Historia Nova do Brasil (10 volumes), he made a decisive contribution to shaping modern history in Brazil. But he was also active as a novelist , non-fiction author and children's and youth book author.

He was nominated three times for the Hans Christian Andersen Prize , one of the most important children's and youth book prizes in the world, which is considered the secret Nobel Prize for children's literature.

During the military dictatorship in Brazil, the extreme left was subjected to severe persecution: after seizing power in 1964, he went into exile, first to Bolivia , then to Chile . He later returned to Brazil. He was arrested and tortured three times (1966, 1972 and 1974), and he also had to watch close friends being murdered by the military dictatorship. From then on, these experiences shaped the life and work of the author.

He later worked in the Brazilian Ministry of Education, was President of the Fundação (Foundation) Palmares and Professor of Literature at the University of Rio de Janeiro.

In his capacity as President of the Palmares Foundation, he was appointed by UNESCO to lead the A rota dos escravos ('The Route of the Slaves') project, an initiative to illustrate the crimes of slavery over the centuries by the Portuguese and the young Brazilian State in order to raise awareness among the population of the issues of slavery, persecution, racism, and discrimination (including other minorities) in the broader population of Brazilian society.

He provided important impulses for research into Afro-Brazilian theater with the book A historia do negro no teatro brasileiro , which deals with the history of Afro-Brazilian dramatists as well as subjects.

Rufino dos Santos was married and had two children. He died as a result of heart surgery.

Works (selection)

  • Cronica de indomaveis delinios, Roman, 1991.
  • O que e racismo? (What is Racism?), Non-fiction, 1998.
  • Paulo e Virginia (non-fiction book on the dangers of occultism, esotericism, mass literature and the mechanization of society), 2001.
  • Gosto de Africa, 2005, children's book.
  • Zumbi, biography of the Afro-Brazilian black leader, 2006.
  • O presente de Ossanha, 2006, children's book.
  • Quatro dias de rebelião, novel, 2007.
  • Carolina Maria de Jesus, biography of the Afro-Brazilian author who came from the favelas, non-fiction, 2010.

Awards

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Rufino dos Santos, Joel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Santos, Joel Rufino dos; dos Santos, Joel Rufino
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Brazilian historian, writer and human rights activist
DATE OF BIRTH July 19, 1941
PLACE OF BIRTH Rio de Janeiro
DATE OF DEATH 4th September 2015
Place of death Rio de Janeiro