Pedro Rosa Mendes

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Pedro Rosa Mendes (born August 4, 1968 in Cernache do Bonjardim , Sertã County , Castelo Branco District , Portugal ) is a Portuguese journalist, correspondent , novelist , intellectual and travel writer . He is also a representative of the non-fictional adventure book.

With his numerous trips, especially to Africa , he has drawn a new kind of picture of the continent, which serves to break down prejudices and to try to name Africa in its entirety, i.e. the negative as well as the positive things.

Many books have been translated into numerous languages.

Life

Pedro Rosa Mendes was born in 1968 in a small community in the Castelo Branco district. As a student he was already active as a journalist. He graduated from the prestigious University of Coimbra with a degree in law . As an Africa correspondent for the Portuguese daily Público , he reported regularly from the Democratic Republic of the Congo , Rwanda , Sierra Leone , Zimbabwe , Angola and Afghanistan . In East Timor , he worked for several years as a correspondent for the Portuguese news agency Lusa .

His first book "Baia dos Tigres" (Tiger Bay) was published in 1999. As a journalist, he wrote for magazines such as El País Semanal (Madrid) and Grand Street Journal (New York).

Mendes is fluent in English, French and Spanish. He has two daughters and lives in Paris.

The mediator of the worlds

Mendes stands in the tradition of another great travel writer in his country, who insisted on adventure under dangers and wrote his picaresque novel with a lot of winking: Fernão Mendes Pinto . He sees himself as his successor. His books cannot be assigned to any direct literary genre: They are neither classic novels, nor classic reports, nor classic travel books. In his works, Mendes interweaves everything, fiction and reality into a fictional reality. And yet the reader is always informed of the present and the past.

His first book was the 1999 work "Baía dos Tigres" (Tiger Bay). He got into great trouble with the Angolan government, which officially - until today - declared him a " persona non grata ". In a three-month trip in 1997, the author sets out on the trail of the explorers Hermengildo Capelo and Roberto Ivens , who explored southern Africa in the 19th century. In it he describes the experiences in a country that had to suffer from the consequences of a decade-long civil war and that lacked material and mental infrastructure. His journey began in Angola and then via Zambia and Zimbabwe to his destination, Mozambique . The book has been translated into 13 languages, including German.

Another book that is also of international importance was created in collaboration with medico international and in collaboration with the German photographer Wolf Böwig . "Schwarz.Licht", so the title, was published in 2006 and goes back to travels through Sierra Leone , Liberia , Guinea-Bissau and the Ivory Coast .

The writer António Lobo Antunes praised the work "Peregrinação de Enmanuel Jhesus". He had published two more volumes with the French illustrator Alain Corbel . Together with the Portuguese photographers João Francisco Vilhena and Alfredo Cunha , further books were created.

The Mediator of the Worlds sees himself as a cosmopolitan bearer of the positive legacy of Portuguese culture. He also tries to present Europe's view of Africa outside of the tin works on the continent in its entirety and diversity. Through him, travel literature in Portugal experienced a new bloom.

Works

  • O Melhor Café (The Best Cafe), Short Stories, 1996.
  • Baia dos Tigres (Tiger Bay), essay novel and travel reflections, 1999. (Translated into German, Danish, French, Italian, Dutch, Spanish, Turkish, English).
  • Lenin Oil , Roman, 2006.
  • Ilhas de Fogo , (Islands of Fire), 2002, Sociological Considerations.
  • Atlântico - Romance Fotográfico , Roman, 2003.
  • Madre Cacau-Timor , short stories, 2004.
  • Mano- War and Survival in West-Africa , 2006, (German: Schwarz.Licht, Passagen durch Westafrika, 2006 by Brandes and Apsel Verlag).
  • Peregrinação de Enmanuel Jhesus , Essays on East Timor, 2010.
    • The pilgrimage of Emmanuel Jhesus , translated by Kurt Scharf. Edition Büchergilde, Frankfurt am Main 2017, ISBN 978-3-86406-080-9 .

Awards (selection)

  • Bordalo, 2000 (highest journalism award in Portugal).
  • Premium PEN, 2011.

swell

personal data
SURNAME Mendes, Pedro Rosa
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Portuguese journalist and author
DATE OF BIRTH 4th August 1968
PLACE OF BIRTH Cernache do Bomjardim, Sertã Municipality , Castelo Branco District , Portugal