The fictional production of João Paulo Borges Coelho currently represents an important contribution to the rethinking of identity issues in the Mozambican space, through the recovery of collective memory, both pre- and post-independence. In Água. Uma novela rural - Water. A rural novel (2016), the author resumes the representation of rivers as a central metaphor in the construction of the narrative, presenting a pertinent reflection on the construction of identities, in a complex relationship between tradition and modernity, countryside and city, native and foreign, young and old. The situation of extreme drought in the village aggravates latent social conflicts, and the novel unfolds in a dialogue punctuated by perplexity and contradictions, similar to the water itself, which is not to be trusted, as the narrator warns, early in the novel. Scarce at first, then torrential, water punctuates the lives of the people and signals the arrival of a time when the borders are crumbling and blending becomes necessary.

Through a historical-sociological analysis of national identity, nation and processes of identification in Mozambique from the implementation of Portuguese colonialism in Africa in the twentieth century, in this article I seek to establish a critical dialogue with some studies that address these same themes about the Mozambican reality. Thus, through historical essays, interviews and some literary works by João Paulo Borges Coelho, and in communion with other authors, I try to demonstrate the complexity and plurality of elements that shape individual and collective identities in independent Mozambique.

The present text points out the possible intersections between the work of historian João Paulo Borges Coelho, especially the research carried out in the province of Tete, culminating in his doctoral thesis on the processes of forced displacement in the province, and his first fictional work As Duas Sombras do Rio (2003), set in the same region. In this sense, it is argued that the consistency of the historical data he collected through an unrestrained desire to experiment with writing, or to reinvent / retell other stories more intuitively and comprehensively, has boosted his literary project.

Campo de Trânsito (2007), novel by the Mozambican author João Paulo Borges Coelho, fictionalizes the facts and abuses lived in the feared “reeducation camps”, institutionalized in the post-independence by the Mozambican State, aiming to withdraw from the society those who were not prepared to be a part of the new nation system and reeducate them so they could become productive citizens aligned with the government model of socialist Marxist-Leninist orientation. This text goes from fictional to the History of Mozambique, tracking the abuses committed against citizens, such as the denial of the fundamental rights of the human being, restricting the freedom from a good part of the civilians, creating a society divided by fear, in the implementation of a totalitarian regime. From what they called “Cleaning Operation”, the ideal of liberty for all that was defended in the anti-colonial struggle was postponed, giving place to a fearful nation, frightened by the ghost of the so called reeducation camps. The memory issue is emphasized in the rebuilding of the social structure transposed to the fictional, reflecting, on the historical past, the present postcolonial time.

This article aim to define the state of the art of João Paulo Borges Coelho’s literary translations published to date (which, at this moment, are just three, and the three of them in Italian language), positioning JPBC’s fictional work in the field of literary reception critical studies of African Literature inside and outside the Portuguese-Speaking world. It proceeds with a brief analysis of this field of study, making an attempt to put together some instances coming from the Translation Studies field into the general analysis of literary reception and circulation, so that this will encompass also literary translations to other languages, their paratexts and contexts and their reception in the target literary systems. It proceeds then with a brief analysis of JPBC’s literary translations published to date, trying to consider the translators and publisher’s agenda, the texts, their paratexts and their context, trying to identify a possible working model for future research works of this type.

The essay discusses the critical reception of the literary work of João Paulo Borges Coelho in Brazil. The material analysed is the production of academic articles in Brazilian publications. The essay is organized in four parts. In the first one, I present the notion of literary work as the conquest of the production of Borges Coelho. In the second part, I discuss some issues of the critical reception in Brazil of Mozambican literature, proposing a different framework from the notion of world literature. In the third, I analyze characteristics of the critical reception of Borges Coelho in Brazil. Finally, I propose new research fronts.

Digital interview conducted with the Mozambican writer Pedro Pereira Lopes on September 25, 2017. He completed his undergraduate degree in Business Administration, master’s degree in public policy from the Beijing University Governance School, and is currently a research professor at the Higher Institute of International Relations in Maputo (Mozambique). In addition to his academic and professional background, he draws his attention as a storyteller and poet, an exercise that interests us specifically. He has five titles published in Mozambique, four for childhood and youth, such as O homem dos 7 cabelos (2012), Kanova e o segredo da caveira (2013), Viagem pelo mundo num grão de pólen e outros poemas (2014), A história do João Gala-Gala (2017) and for the adult audience O mundo que iremos gaguejar de cor (2017). Two of his titles Kanova e o segredo da caveira (2017) and Viagem pelo mundo num grão de pólen e outros poemas (2015) were published by the Brazilian publisher Kapulana, located in the city of São Paulo, in partnership with the Portuguese School of Mozambique.

It is our intention, based on the novel Campo de trânsito, by Mozambican writer João Paulo Borges Coelho, and in the film Virgem Margarida, by Licínio Azevedo, Brazilian filmmaker who lives in Mozambique, to discuss how these literary and cinematographic texts represent the oppressive action of the reeducation camps in Mozambique and not only. The state of exception and the theatricality of the absurd.

Livro resenhado: HONWANA, Luís Bernardo. Nós matamos o cão tinhoso! São Paulo: Editora Kapulana, 2017. 148 p.

In this article, based on the analysis of the book Rainhas da Noite by JPBC, I reflect on the importance of women, from diverse colonial elites, in the perception of the colonial situation, its injustice and the formation of its political conscience. I will briefly approach the paths in which they have moved from the private space of the house and family to the public space and of their essential contribution in the spaces of struggle.

The article deals with the writing of João Paulo Borges Coelho in the light of Material Ecocriticism, the latest trend in Ecocriticism, centered on exploring and illuminating the expressive and narrative potentialities of human and nonhuman agents: bodies, objects, landscapes, organic and inorganic substances, as well as their configurations in artistic and literary productions. We will analyze in particular two texts by the Mozambican author: the short story “Casas de Ferro,” included in Índicos Indícios – Setentrião (2005) and the novella Água (2016).

Based on five books of this author, one tries to understand the coexistence of different writing modalities as a way of reading a present that overcomes the limits of his country. Focusing the relations between romance and other literary genres, the article tries to approach certain singularities of João Paulo Borges Coelho’s works and its connections with the recreation of the genre in the context of contemporaneity.

Introduction to Mulemba 18.

In 2003 João Paulo Borges Coelho published his first novel, As duas sombras do rio, based on true events occurred on the banks of the Zambezi river between 1985 and 1989. Being a historian, specializing in security and defense issues, the author has a privileged position regarding access to information, which would initially lead one to perceive it as a historical narrative or documentary. Nevertheless the univocal reading of the narrative as a report is avoided, and the perception of the exposed violence is brought to a field of uncertainty and questioning – which was developed by the author in his subsequent novel Campo de Trânsito, whose action takes place in a prison camp. One can draw analogies between those two narratives through the philosophical perspective provided by Emmanuel Levinas.

The main objective of this reflection is to problematize the figure of the narrator of the novel Rainhas da noite, 2013, by the Mozambican fiction writer João Paulo Borges Coelho. Based on the analysis of the specificity of the narrative structure of this novel, consisting of two narrative lines, one in colonial Mozambique and the other in contemporary Mozambique, this text will point out some aspects of the relation of the contemporary narrator of the novel to the historical and social environment that surrounds him. A narrator that is in an ambivalent attitude towards his analytical subject: on the one hand, stimulated by the possibility of historical investigation, on the other, in conflict with the social and political environment of contemporary Mozambique.