Alda Ferreira Pires Barreto de Lara Albuquerque, known as Alda Lara (9 June 1930,

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, Angola – 30 January 1962,

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, Angola) was a Portuguese-language Angolan poet.

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(ed.), '' Daughters of Africa: An International Anthology of Words and Writings by Women of African Descent from the Ancient Egyptian to the Present'', London: Jonathan Cape, 1992; Vintage, 1993.

Biography

Alda Lara was born on 9 June 1930 in

, Angola. She came from a wealthy family and received a Christian education, which gave her a spirit of liberalism according to one commentator. Her brother was the noted poet

Ernesto Lara Filho Ernesto Pires Barreto de Lara Filho (1932–1977) was a revolutionary Portuguese Angolan writer and agronomist and brother of Angolan poet Alda Lara. Born in Benguela in 1932, he was educated in Angola and Portugal before he began work as a jour ...

. Lara attended a women's school in Sá da Bandeira (now Lubango) before moving to Portugal to finisher her secondary schooling. She attended

Lisbon University The University of Lisbon (ULisboa; pt, Universidade de Lisboa, ) is a public research university in Lisbon, and the largest university in Portugal. It was founded in 2013, from the merger of two previous public universities located in Lisbon, th ...

and resided at the Casa dos Estudantes do Imperio (House of the Students of the Empire). She had an active student life and began her writing career by publishing poetry in the literary journal ''Mensagem'', a publication specifically for Africans. Lara later attended the University of Coimbra and earned a degree in medicine. Lara wrote for several newspapers and magazines such as the '' Jornal de Benguela'', the '' Jornal de Angola'', and the ''ABC e Ciência''. She married the Mozambican-Portuguese writer Orlando Albuquerque and gave birth to four children. After living in Portugal for 13 years, Lara moved back to Angola in 1961. However, her return would be short-lived, as she died on 30 January 1962 in

. Her husband set about publishing her collected works after her death, including ''Poemas'' in 1966 and ''Tempo de Chuva'' in 1973. Lara's poems and short stories mostly deal with themes of motherhood and children as well as liberty and justice. Much of her poetry reflect a dissatisfaction with the colonial status quo. The Alda Lara Prize (in Portuguese, ''Prémio Alda Lara'') was established in her honour by the city of

Lubango Lubango, formerly known as Sá da Bandeira, is a municipality in Angola, capital of the Huíla Province, with a population of 914,456 in 2022. The city center had a population of 600,751 in 2014 making it the second-most populous city in Angola af ...

Paulo de Carvalho Paulo de Carvalho (born Manuel Paulo de Carvalho Costa, in Lisbon, on 15 May 1947) is a Portuguese singer. Career Carvalho co-founded the band The Sheiks in 1965. He sang and played the drums. He also played an instrumental role, either as a fou ...

, a famed Portuguese singer, who has had a strong artistic career, recorded "Preludio/Mãe Negra", a poem written by Alda Lara. ''Movimento'', the second album of Aline Frazão released in 2013, features a poem by Lara set to music.

Books (posthumous)

* ''Poemas'' (1966) * ''Tempo da Chuva'' (1973) * ''Poesia'' (1979) * ''Poemas'' (1984) (her collected poems)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lara, Alda 1930 births 1962 deaths People from Benguela Angolan people of Portuguese descent Colonial people in Angola 20th-century Portuguese writers Angolan women poets 20th-century Angolan poets 20th-century Portuguese women writers Portuguese-language writers