Jose Luandino Vieira

Luandino Vieira, a master of modem prose fiction in the Portuguese-speaking world, embodies the non-racial character of Angola's African culture. Born in Portugal in 1935, and named Jose Vieira Mateus da Graça, he was taken by his father, a shoemaker, and his mother to Angola as an infant; he adopted the name Luandino from Luanda, the capital, where he grew up with poor whites, mestiços (people of mixed race) and blacks. This early experience made him a passionate opponent of racialism and colonialism, and provided most of the material he has poured into his stories and novels. In his twenties he clashed with the Portuguese colonial authorities who tried to suppress his work, but in the prison cells and camp he continued to write. When his work could not be published openly it was circulated clandestinely, and after the overthrow of fascism in Portugal in 1974 the writings of years of imprisonment could be brought without hindrance to an eager audience.