Pepetela

Sean Rogers (University of the Witwatersrand)

Ed. by Dan Ojwang, University of the Witwatersrand
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 8.2.1: Francophone African Writing and Culture: Subsaharan.
Vol. editors: Helen Rachel Cousins (Birmingham Newman University)

Dates

Born 29 Oct 1941
Activity 1976-ongoing

Places

Born in Angola
Active in Comoros

Activities

Primary

Novelist
Playwright / Dramatist
Story-writer

Resources

Pepetela's Works

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Pepetela was born Artur Carlos Maurício Pestana dos Santos to Portuguese settler parents in Benguela, western Angola, on the 29th of October 1941. In 1958 he went to Lisbon, Portugal, to study engineering. This was followed by a move to Paris and, finally, graduation in sociology in Algiers, Algeria in 1966. It was during this time that he became interested in Marxist liberation theory and, as a result, joined the Movimento Popular Libertação de Angola (Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola, or MPLA) in its drive to liberate Angola from Portuguese colonial rule. Importantly, it was here, too, that he began to use the name Pepetela [Umbundu word for eyelash] as his nom de guerre. As a member of the MPLA, Pepetela was deployed to fight in the Cabinda enclave north of Angola in…

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683 words

Citation: Rogers, Sean. "Pepetela". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 18 February 2009 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=12300, accessed 04 May 2024.]

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