Border and Border Crossing in Lusophone Africa. Dislocation, Assimilation, Language, and National Identity in the Works of Abdul
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Border and Border Crossing in Lusophone Africa. Dislocation, Assimilation, Language, and National Identity in the Works of Abdulai Sila (1957-), Ondjaki (1977-), Rui Knopfli (1932-1997), and Mia Couto (1955-) Joseph Abraham Levi1 The University of Hong Kong I Spacing designates nothing that is, no presence at a distance; it is the index of an irreducible exterior, and at the same time a movement, a displacement that indicates an irreducible alterity.2 In this study I shall look at the images of border and border crossing, either strictly fictional, surreal, or factual, evoked in the works of a selected number of Lusophone African writers from Angola, Guinea-Bissau, and Mozambique, namely Abdulai Sila (1957-), Ondjaki (1977-), Rui Knopfli (1932-1997), and Mia Couto (1955-). Using as a springboard the literary and ideological settings that triggered and that are later found in some of the writings of these four African writers, I shall then proceed to an analysis of the deeper sentiments of belonging and dislocation, as well as the likewise deeper feelings of assimilation, integration, (or lack thereof), and national identity, including language issues, present in the works, thoughts, and actions of these selected four Lusophone African writers of the past and new millennium. 1 Associate Professor and Director of the Language Centre, School of Modern Languages and Cultures. 2 Jacques Derrida, Alan Bass, and Henri Ronse. Positions. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1981. 81, also quoted in Hein Viljoen. ―Borders and their Transgression in Recent South African Fiction,‖ in Proceedings of the XIIth Congress of the International Comparative Literature Association/Actes du XIIe congrès de l'Association Internationale de Littérature Comparée: München 1988. Eds. Roger Bauer, and Douwe Munich Fokkema. 5 vols. Munich: Iudicium; 1990. 2: 118-123. 2: 118. 1 II Since 1446, when the first Portuguese arrived in present-day Guinea-Bissau, until its independence, or rather, ―tanto antes como depois da sua independência em 1974, a história política e social da Guiné tem estado estreitamente ligada à de Cabo Verde.‖3 The first study on Guinea Bissau was in fact written by a Cape Verdean—the merchant, chronicler, and captain André Álvares Gonçalves de Almada (Santiago, sixteenth century) who wrote the Tratado breve dos Rios de Guiné do Cabo-Verde (Short Treatise of the Rivers of Guinea Cape Verde), (1594)4—whose work, notwithstanding the historical period in which it was written, contains a few attacks against the system, highlighting, within its limits, as well as what he was allowed to say, the local African cultures and societies: […] a importância da descrição de Almada, a meu ver, deve ser a leitura que se faz da sociedade africana que cria mecanismos para se defender do poder, e combater as suas formas discricionárias e centralizadoras, tentando, de uma forma extremamente interessante, combater as suas ―vertigens.‖5 3 ―Either before or after its independence in 1974, the political and social history of Guinea Bissau has been tightly linked to that one of Cape Verde.‖ [translation provided by the author]. Russell G. Hamilton. Literatura Africana. Literatura Necessária. 2. Moçambique, Cabo Verde, Guiné-Bissau, São Tomé e Príncipe. Lisbon: Edições 70, 1984. 2: 215. 4 André Álvares Gonçalves de Almada. Relação e Descrição da Guiné, na Qual se Trata de Várias Nações de Negros Que a Povoam, dos Seus Costumes, Leis, Ritos, Cerimonias, Trajos, da Qualidade dos Portos e do Comércio Que neles Se Faz. Escreveu o Capitão André Gonçalves de Almada; André Álvares Gonçalves de Almada. Tratado Breve dos Rios da Guiné do Cabo-Verde. 1594. Ed. António Luís Ferronha. Lisbon: Comissão Nacional para as Comemorações dos Descobrimentos Portugueses, 1994. 5 ―The importance of Almada’s description, in my view, should be his reading of African society, one that creates mechanisms to defend itself from power and fight its discretionary and centralized forms, thus trying, in a very interesting way, to fight its ―vertigos‖.‖ [translation provided by the author]. André Álvares de Almada. Tratado Breve dos Rios da Guiné do Cabo-Verde. 1594. Ed. António Luís Ferronha. Lisbon: Comissão Nacional para as Comemorações dos Descobrimentos Portugueses, 1994. 5. 2 However, we would have to wait until 1879 for the creation of the first printing press in Portuguese Guinea, a year later followed by the publication of the first local gazette, the Boletim Oficial da Guiné, (Guinea Official Bulletin), published for more than ninety years, namely, until 1974.6 As in other Portuguese-language literatures of the future Lusophone African countries, also in Guinea Bissau7 the first literary works—from 1886 to almost the first half of the twentieth century—were of colonial nature where the people and the land are narrated by Portuguese or assimilated/Portuguesized native people. By the way, this feature remained until Guinea Bissau eventually gained its independence. In fact, ―até antes da independência nacional não foi possível ultrapassar a fase da literatura colonial. E esta mesmo de reduzida extensão.‖8 In other words, given the sociopolitical obstacles, which hindered the birth and the flourishing of all art forms, ―durante a dominação portuguesa, não veio um poeta ou um romancista de mérito.‖9 Among the first literary productions on or of Guinea Bissau literature, even though still very ―European‖ in its nature, is the Litteratura dos negros. Contos, cantigas e parábolas, (Black Literature. Short Stories, Songs, and Parables),10 a collection of short stories, songs, and fables 6 Boletim official do Governo da Provincia da Guiné Portugueza (1884-1892); Boletim official da Guiné Portugueza (1892-1898); Boletim official da Provincia da Guiné Portuguesa (1898-1927); Boletim oficial da Colónia da Guiné (1927-1951); Boletim oficial da Guiné (1951-1974); Boletim oficial (1974-). Bolama (1884-1951); Bissau (1951-): Imprensa Nacional. 7 Guinea Bissau is divided in eight regions and an autonomous area, namely: Biombo (capital: Quinhamel), the autonomous area of Bissau (capital: Bissau), Bafatá (capital: Bafatá), Bolama (capital: Bolama), Cacheu (capital: Cacheu), Gabú (capital: Gabú), Oio (capital: Farim), Quinara (capital: Quinara), and Tombali (capital: Catió). 8 ―Until even before national independence it was not possible to overcome the colonial literature phase, which was already minimal in its production.‖ [translation provided by the author]. Manuel Ferreira. Literatura africana dos países de expressão portuguesa. vol. 1. Biblioteca Breve/Volume 6. Lisbon: Instituto de Cultura Portuguesa, 1977. 1: 89; 90. 9 ―During Portuguese domination, there were no poets or novelists of merit.‖ [translation provided by the author]. Manuel Ferreira. Literatura africana dos países de expressão portuguesa. vol. 1. Biblioteca Breve/Volume 6. Lisbon: Instituto de Cultura Portuguesa, 1977. 1: 89; 90. 10 Separate edition of the Tribuna and published in Lisbon in 1900 by the Typographia do Commercio. See: Carlos Cardoso, and J. Augel, eds. Guiné-Bissau. Vinte Anos de Independência. Bissau: INEP, 1996; João Dias Vicente. 3 gathered, translated, and edited by Marcelino Marques de Barros (1843-1929), a Franciscan friar born in Guinea Bissau, Vicar General and Superior of the Missions to Portuguese Guinea, professor at the Colégio das Missões in Portugal, member of the Geographic Society of Lisbon, famous storywriter,11 and author of the first Portuguese-Guinean Creole dictionary,12 published in five articles in the famous journal Revista Lusitana (Lusitanian Review), (1897-1906): […] nas primeiras décadas do nosso século não surgiu nenhum guineense que merecesse o designativo de continuador da obra do cónego guineense Marcelino Marques de Barros, figura importante do último quartel do século XIX que, em minha opinião, terá lançado os gérmenes duma identidade nacional verdadeiramente guineense, à qual está indiscernivelmente associada a sua opção de estudo do crioulo e algumas línguas nacionais. Nem mesmo o «escuro e obscuro português», como o próprio Honório Pereira se intitulava, foi tão longe em matéria de nacionalismo como foi Marcelino Marques de Barros, não obstante se deve àquele as constantes denúncias do racismo colonial, hesitante embora, dado aos cargos que desempenhou em colaboração com o sistema colonial.13 As for the presence of the Portuguese-based Creole language in Guinea Bissau, referred to as Kriol, and the ties with its Cape Verdean counterparts, the Kriolu languages—erroneously referred to as ―dialects,‖ or, even worse, as ―Portuguese dialects‖—it should be noticed that, Subsídios para a biografia do sacerdote guineense Marcelino Marques de Barros, 1844-1929. [Bissau]: Instituto Nacional de Estudos e Pesquisa, [1990?]. 11 Marcelino Marques de Barros contributed with stories, short stories, and many ethnographic accounts appeared in the Novo Almanaque de Lembranças Luso-Brasileiro, the Almanaque Luso-Africano, the Voz da Pátria, and the abovementioned Revista Lusitana. Of particular interest is the Litteratura dos Negros. Contos, cantigas e parabolas. (Separata da ―Tribuna‖). Lisbon: Typographia do Commercio, 1900, a splendid collection of Mandiga and Papeis stories, as well as traditional stories followed by their translation into Portuguese. 12 Marcelino Marques de Barros. ―O Guineense.‖ Revista Lusitana 5-6 (1897-1899): 74-317; Marcelino Marques de Barros. ―O Guineense.‖ Revista Lusitana 7 (1902): 82-96; 166-188; 268-282; Marcelino Marques de Barros ―O Guineense.‖ 9 (1906): 306-311. 13 ―In the