Manuel Rui Alves Monteiro (born 4 November 1941) is an

Angola , national_anthem = " Angola Avante"() , image_map = , map_caption = , capital = Luanda , religion = , religion_year = 2020 , religion_ref = , coordina ...

n writer of poetry, novels, theater plays, and short stories. He has been described as "the chronicler par excellence of postindependence Angola" through fiction that offers "subtle, complex, pointed, and oftentimes humorous portrayals of Angola since the early years of the

MPLA The People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola ( pt, Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola, abbr. MPLA), for some years called the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola – Labour Party (), is an Angolan left-wing, social d ...

euphoria, in which he played a political role."Fernando Arenas
"Angolan Literature"
''Lusophone Africa: Beyond Independence'', University of Minnesota Press, 2011, p. 173.

Life and career

Manuel Rui was born in 1941 in

Huambo Huambo, formerly Nova Lisboa (English: ''New Lisbon''), is the third-most populous city in Angola, after the capital city Luanda and Lubango, with a population of 595,304 in the city and a population of 713,134 in the municipality of Huambo (Cen ...

(then Nova Lisboa), capital of Angola. He received his primary and secondary education in Huambo. He studied at the

University of Coimbra The University of Coimbra (UC; pt, Universidade de Coimbra, ) is a Public university, public research university in Coimbra, Portugal. First established in Lisbon in 1290, it went through a number of relocations until moving permanently to Coi ...

, in

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...

, and received a law degree there in 1969. As a student, Rui participated in literary and political events and was jailed for two months in Portugal. He practiced law in

Coimbra Coimbra (, also , , or ) is a city and a municipality in Portugal. The population of the municipality at the 2011 census was 143,397, in an area of . The fourth-largest urban area in Portugal after Lisbon, Porto Metropolitan Area, Porto, and Bra ...

during the nationalist struggle for independence in Angola. He was on the editorial board of ''Vértice'', the journal of the Center of Literary Studies in Coimbra, where he published his first prose fiction works in the early 1970s. In addition, he was part of the board of Editora Centelha and worked for the Centro de Estudos Literários da Associação Académica de Coimbra. In the aftermath of the Portuguese military coup on April 25, 1974, Rui returned to Angola to serve as the

Minister of Information in the transitional government established by the

Alvor Agreement The Alvor Agreement, signed on 15 January 1975 in Alvor, Portugal, granted Angola independence from Portugal on 11 November and formally ended the 13-year-long Angolan War of Independence. The agreement was signed by the Portuguese governmen ...

. He then served as Angola's first representative to the

Organization of African Unity The Organisation of African Unity (OAU; french: Organisation de l'unité africaine, OUA) was an intergovernmental organization established on 25 May 1963 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, with 32 signatory governments. One of the main heads for OAU's ...

and the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

, and as rector of the University of Nova Lisboa. He also directed the MPLA's Department of Revolutionary Orientation and Department of Foreign Affairs. He wrote the lyrics of Angola's first

national anthem A national anthem is a patriotic musical composition symbolizing and evoking eulogies of the history and traditions of a country or nation. The majority of national anthems are marches or hymns in style. American, Central Asian, and European n ...

, "

Angola Avante! "" (, ) is the national anthem of Angola. Rui Alberto Vieira Dias Mingas composed the music, while the lyrics were authored by Manuel Rui Alves Monteiro. It was adopted as the national anthem in November 1975, when the country gained its indepen ...

", the Angolan version of "

The Internationale "The Internationale" (french: "L'Internationale", italic=no, ) is an international anthem used by various communist and socialist groups; currently, it serves as the official anthem of the Communist Party of China. It has been a standard of th ...

". Rui's 1982 book ''Quem Me Dera Ser Onda'' has been described as "a classic of Angolan (and Lusophone African) literature". The work satirically addressed the social problems of the time and has been translated into several languages. He frequently wrote for Angolan newspapers and magazines and has published some children's books. Rui has taught at the University of Huambo and is one of the leading Angolan novelists.

Selected works

Theater plays

*''O Espantalho'' (The Scarecrow, 1973) *''Meninos de Huambo'' (Children of Huambo, 1985)

Poetry

*''A Onda'' (The Wave, 1973) *''Cinco Vezes Cinco'' (Five Times Five, 1986)

Prose

*''Regresso Adiado'' (Delayed Return; short stories, 1973) *''Sim, Camarada!'' (Yes, Comrade!; short stories, 1977) *''Quem Me Dera Ser Onda'' (I Wish I Were a Wave; novella, 1982) *''A Crónica de um Mujimbo'' (The Chronicle of a Rumor; novel, 1989) *''O Manequim e o Piano'' (The Mannequin and the Piano; novel, 2005) *''Quitandeiras & aviões'' (short stories, 2013)"Angola: Writer Manuel Rui Monteiro Releases Latest Book"
AllAfrica, 18 April 2013.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rui, Manuel Angolan writers 1941 births Living people People from Huambo National anthem writers