Xitu, Uanhenga

Columbia. 1988. Readers International. 1st American Edition. Very Good in Worn Dustjacket With Some Tears. 0930523423. Translated from the Portuguese by Annella McDermott. Introduction by Antonio Jacinto. 158 pages. hardcover. Cover art by the Angolan artist, Francisco D. Van-Dunen - 'Carnaval I'. keywords: Literature Angola Africa Translated. FROM THE PUBLISHER - An ambassador of the government of Angola in Europe, Xitu conceived these stories while imprisoned in a Portuguese jail. Set in the 1940s, the tales in this book are divided into three sections: ‘Mestre' Tamoda' introduces us to the prolix Tamoda, who refers to a toothpick as a ‘wooden dental probe.' In ‘The Village,' Tamoda displays his ‘verbal dexterosity' at a funeral and a soccer match. ‘The Town the best in the collection centers on Maraja, a black tennis coach, and Arlete Pinto, the daughter of Portuguese parents. Social climbers, the Pintos are scandalized by their daughter's affair with a ‘bush black.' Once, on a visit to Johannesburg, they made Arlete stay in the hotel alone because her skin was ‘too dark' her great-grandmother, they are loathe to admit, was black. To protest the Pintos' racism, the town stages a mock wedding with Arlete and Maraja as bride and groom. One wishes that the three stories cohered as a novel, but they nonetheless provide a trenchantand comic insight into prerevolutionary Angola. - PUBLISHERS WEEKLY. inventory #9470 ISBN: 0930523423.