Manuel Rui

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Manuel Rui Alves Monteiro , better known as Manuel Rui , (born November 4, 1941 in Nova Lisboa , Portuguese West Africa ) is an Angolan poet and writer . Due to his literary work, he is one of the most important intellectuals in Angola and a great pioneer of the Angolanidad .

Life

Manuel Rui was born on November 4, 1941 in Nova Lisboa, today's Huambo, in what was then the Portuguese colony of Angola. After finishing school, Rui moved to Coimbra to study law at the university until 1969 . He then practiced as a lawyer in Coimbra and Viseu.

During his time in Coimbra, Manuel Rui was very politicized, among other things he lived in the all-Angolan student residence Kimbo dos Sobas and got to know Ruy Mingas and Gabriela Antunes . He published his first writings in various magazines, including the Vértice . In his first collection of short stories, entitled Regresso Adiado ( Belated Return), published in 1973, Rui Manuel complained about Portuguese political and cultural hegemony in five short stories. In the same year he was briefly arrested on charges of supporting the Angolan independence movement MPLA .

After the Carnation Revolution in 1974, Rui Manuel returned to Angola, where he was appointed Minister of Information for the transitional government consisting of MPLA, FNLA and UNITA in January 1975. After the MPLA declared independence unilaterally in November 1975, the MPLA appointed him head of the party's foreign relations department. The following year he was appointed public prosecutor at the Revolutionary People's Court. In 1977 he was given the post of head of the Revolutionary Orientation Department, which was established after the Ministry of Information was dissolved.

In the later years Manuel Rui distanced himself increasingly from the MPLA and worked as a lawyer as well as a writer. He also worked at the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Lubango (today Universidade Mandume ya Ndemufayo ) and at the Instituto Superior de Ciências da Educação in Huíla . To this day he is considered one of the most important intellectuals in the country.

Act

Manuel Rui is considered one of the most famous intellectuals in independent Angola. In particular, he is regarded as a pioneer of the Angolanidade (in German about "Angolanity") both politically and culturally - an approach that should create its own Angolan identity, independent of Portugal. In many of his works, Manuel Rui searches for what it means to be "Angolan".

In 1977, shortly after Angola's independence, Manuel Rui published his collection of short stories, Sim, Camarada! (Yes, comrade!), In which he describes his euphoria about the independence and the socialist future of Angola. In addition to his prose, Manuel Rui is also known for his poetry, in particular for his collection of poems 11 Poemas em Novembro (11 poems in November), which appeared annually from 1976 to 1980 , in which he paid tribute to Angola's struggle for independence. The poetry collections were published by the Angolan Writers' Union, of which Manuel Rui was co-founder.

Another important work is his novel Quem me dera ser uma onda (I wish I was a wave), published in 1982, in which a middle-class family in the Angolan capital describes Luanda. The main theme of the novel is the hypocrisy of the Angolan bourgeoisie, which only pretends to follow revolutionary ideals.

Furthermore, Manuel Rui created the national anthem of Angola with the title Angola Avante! . He also wrote hymns such as the Hino da Alfabetização (Hymn of Alphabetization) and the Hino da Agricultura (Hymn of Agriculture) as well as the Angolan version of the International .

Works (selection)

  • Regresso Adiado (Late Returns), Short Story Collection , 1973
  • Sim, Camarada! (Yes, comrade!), Collection of short stories, 1977
  • 11 Poemas em November (11 poems in November), collection of poems published annually, 1976–1980
  • Quem me dera ser uma onda (I wish I was a wave), Roman, 1982
  • Maninha: Cartas Optimistas e Sentimentais (Maninha: Optimistic and Sentimal Letters), collection of essays, 2002
  • Manequim eo Piano (The Mannequin and the Piano), Roman, 2005
  • Janela da Sónia (Sonia's Window), novel, 2008

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g Ana Catarina Teixeira: Rui, Manuel . 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. 220 ff .
  2. ↑ a b c d e Manuel Rui Alves Monteiro. União dos Escritores Angolanos, accessed September 2, 2019 (Portuguese).
  3. ^ Joana Simões Piedade: Fazer nascer uma nação. In: Buala.org. November 14, 2014, accessed September 2, 2019 (Portuguese).
personal data
SURNAME Rui, Manuel
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Alves Monteiro, Manuel Rui (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Angolan poet and writer
DATE OF BIRTH November 4, 1941
PLACE OF BIRTH Nova Lisboa , Portuguese West Africa