''Ualalapi'' is a novel by
Mozambican writer
Ungulani Ba Ka Khosa
Francisco Esaú Cossa (pseudonym Ungulani Ba Ka Khosa, also spelled as Ungulani ba ka Khosa) is a Mozambican writer born on August 1, 1957, in Inhaminga, Sofala Province. Khosa completed elementary school in Sofala, and high school in Zambezia. ...
. It was published in 1987, and won Mozambique's Grande Prémio da Ficção Narrativa in 1990.
Ualalapi is the name of a
Nguni Nguni may refer to:
*Nguni languages
* Nguni cattle
*Nguni people
*Nguni sheep, which divide into the Zulu, Pedi, and Swazi types
*Nguni stick-fighting
* Nguni shield
* Nguni homestead
*Nguni (surname) Nguni is an African surname. Notable people ...
warrior who is destined to kill Mafemane, brother of Mudungazi (later called
Ngungunhane
Ngungunyane, also known as Mdungazwe Ngungunyane Nxumalo, N'gungunhana, or Gungunhana Reinaldo Frederico Gungunhana, (c. 1850 – 23 December 1906) was a tribal king and vassal of the Portuguese Empire, who rebelled, was defeated by General Joaqui ...
). This fictional story, a collection of six loosely related episodes, describes the life of hosi ("
king
King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king.
*In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...
" in the
Tsonga language
Tsonga () or Xitsonga ( ''Xitsonga'') as an endonym, is a Bantu language spoken by the Tsonga people of southern Africa. It is mutually intelligible with Tswa and Ronga and the name "Tsonga" is often used as a cover term for all three, ...
) Ngungunhane, celebrity of the resistance to the
Portuguese
Portuguese may refer to:
* anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal
** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods
** Portuguese language, a Romance language
*** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language
** Portu ...
at the end of nineteenth century. ''Ualalapi''
's telling of the story creates an epic ambience, however, an oral tradition describes the emperor as a tyrant rather than a hero. The author tracks his rise to power over his murdered rivals and his eventual decline. The story is a disguised warning against tyranny. The rough and aggressive personality of the character is radically contrasted with his son Manua, who is passive and pro-Occidental. This opposition will display the conflict of the identity in transition to colonial rule. The violent drive in Ngungunhane's motivations depicts him as suffering from an incontrollable fear of losing power. This seems to be a metaphor of historical interpretation when considering colonial motivations.
In 2002, ''Ualalapi'' was announced by a panel of judges in
Accra,
Ghana
Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...
as one of Africa's 100 best books of the twentieth century.
An English translation by Richard Bartlett and Isaura de Oliveira was published in 2017 by Tagus Press.
References
Bibliography
*
Chabal, Patrick. The Post-Colonial Literature of Lusophone Africa. London: Hurst & Company, 1996. Print.
*Chabal, Patrick. Vozes Moçambicanas literatura e nacionalidade. Lisboa: Vega, 1994. Print.
*Khosa, Ungulani Ba Ka. Ualalapi. 2nd ed. Lisboa: Editoral Caminho, 1990. Print.
*Laranjeira, Pires. Literaturas africanas de expressao portuguesa. Lisboa: Universidade Aberta, 1995. Print.
*Leite, Ana Mafalda. Oralidades e Escritas nas Literaturas Africanas: Ualalapi, Ungulani Ba Ka Kosa. Lisboa: Colibri, 1998. Print.
External links
A short excerpt from "Ualalapi" in English
1987 novels
Portuguese-language novels
{{1980s-novel-stub