Boaventura Cardoso, "one of the best prose writers in the History of Angolan Literature (...), builds a novel that is fundamental for anyone who wants to know the Angola of the last half century", declared the jury, about the choice.
The jury for this edition of the award was chaired by Professor Irene Guerra Marques and made up of Professor Manuel Muanza and journalist Carlos Ferreira.
"The award of the prize to author Boaventura Cardoso is essentially based on the fact that it is a work that reflects, better than ever, a writer who has accustomed us, over the years, to an exhaustive work that constantly balances between a very rich, but also very disciplined", underlined the jury.
"Between the imaginary, the realist, the religious, the musical (the refrain that runs through one of the main figures in his novel, in his life!), Boaventura Cardoso uses the same methods that made him one of the best prose writers in the History of Angolan Literature: an iron discipline, a deep knowledge of reality, a lucid and intelligent observation of everything that is happening around him (around us...), and builds a novel that is fundamental for anyone who wants to know Angola from the last medium century," added the jury.
Published in Portugal by Guerra & Paz, "Margens e Travessias" is highlighted by the publisher as "a political, courageous novel, but above all of great literary value, by a great accountant with an imaginary that goes to the deepest and most mythological of Africa".
Graduated in Social Sciences from the Pontifical University of São Tomaz de Aquino - "Angelicum", in Rome, Boaventura Cardoso made his debut in the edition in 1977 with the book of short stories "Dizanga dya Muenhu, which was followed by new collections such as "O Fogo da Fala" (1980) and "A Morte do Velho Kipacaça" (1987), and the novels "O Signo do Fogo" (1992), "Maio, Mês de Maria" (1997) and "Mãe, Materno Mar", to which was awarded the National Prize for Culture and Arts (2001), in the area of Literature.
"Noites de Vigília" (2012) and "Margens e Travessias" (2021) are among the author's most recent works.
Current deputy to the National Assembly for the MPLA, Boaventura Cardoso is an honorary member of the Academia Palmense de Letras, in the Brazilian state of Tocatins, and received the Order of Cultural Merit from Brazil in 2006.
From 2016 to 2020, he was the first president of the Angolan Academy of Letters of which he is a founding member.
The dstangola/Camões Literature Prize, dedicated to books published in poetry and prose, by Angolan-born artists, distinguished, in previous editions, Zetho Cunha Gonçalves, in 2019, Pepetela, in 2020, and Benjamim M'Bakassy, last year.
Created in a partnership between the business group and Camões - Instituto da Cooperação e da Língua, in 2019, the prize aims to distinguish works of poetry and prose by Angolan writers, in alternate editions, in terms of literary genre, similar to the dst prize of literature, dedicated to Portuguese authors.
As part of the protocol with the Camões Institute, the dstangola reading room was also created at the Portuguese Cultural Center in Luanda, which has already received from the business group books worth more than 12,500 euros, from Portuguese-speaking authors, in technical and literature, "among many other genres".
The reading room project will be "reinforced by six thousand euros, in each of the three subsequent years", as announced this Friday by the dst group.
The prize for this edition of the dstAngola/Camões Literature Prize, with a value of 15 thousand euros, will be given to the winner, in Luanda, during the month of October.
