Pepetela

Arthur Pestana called "Pepetela"

Pepetela - actually Artur Carlos Maurício Pestana dos Santos - (born October 19, 1941 in Benguela , Angola ) is an Angolan writer, politician and freedom fighter of Portuguese descent. The artist name Pepetela means " eyelash " in Umbundu , based on his last name Pestana, the Portuguese word for eyelash.

life and work

Pepetela studied engineering and sociology at the Universities of Lisbon and Algiers from 1958 . In Algiers he founded the Centro de Estudos Angolanos (Center for Angola Studies) together with Henrique Abranches . He fought for Angola's independence and in 1969 joined the guerrillas in Cabinda province . After Angola's independence, Pepetela was Vice Minister for Education and has been a sociology professor at the Faculty of Architecture and Art at the State Universidade Agostinho Neto in Luanda since 1982 . As part of the DAAD's Berlin artist program, he lived in Berlin in 1991/92, where the novel A Geração da Utopia was written. In 1997 he received the Prémio Camões , the most important literary prize in the Portuguese-speaking world.

Works (selection)

• A Revolta da Casa dos Ídolos (1979)
• Ngunga , Der Kinderbuchverlag, Berlin (1981)
• Mayombe , People and World, Berlin (1983)
• Yaka (1985)
• O Cão e os Caluandas (1985)
• The dog and the people of Luanda , edition southern africa, Bonn (1985)
• Creation rain of the Yaka , people and world, Berlin (1988)
• A Geração da Utopia (1992)
• A gloriosa Familia (1999)
• A Montanha da Água Lilás (2000)
• Jaime Bunda, secret agent , ISBN 3-293-20354-X , original title: Jaime Bunda, Agente Secreto (2001)
• Jaime Bunda ea Morte do Americano (2003)
• Lueji. O nascimento de um império (2004)
• Predadores (2005)
• O Planalto ea Estepe (2009)

Awards

• 1997 Prémio Camões
• 1999 Prince Claus Prize
• 2002 Rio Branco Order , Brazil

Web links

• Literature by and about Pepetela in the catalog of the German National Library