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 Sofala is a province of Mozambique. It has a population of 2,259,248 (2017 census). Beira is the capital of the province, named for the ruined port of Sofala which is to the south. History Portuguese landholder and imperialist Joaquim Carl ...

. Khosa completed elementary school in Sofala, and high school in Zambezia. In

Maputo Maputo (), formerly named Lourenço Marques until 1976, is the capital, and largest city of Mozambique. Located near the southern end of the country, it is within of the borders with Eswatini and South Africa. The city has a population of 1,0 ...

he attended

Eduardo Mondlane University , image = , image_size = , former_names = , motto = , type = Public , established = 21 August 1962 , rector = Manuel Guilherme Júnior, PhD , students = 39,078 (2015) , undergrad = 35,809 , ...

, receiving a bachelor's degree in History and Geography. He then worked as a high school teacher. In 1982, Khosa worked for the Ministry of Education for over a year. Six months after leaving the Ministry of Education, he was invited to work for the Writer’s Association. He initiated his career as a writer with the publication of several short stories and was one of the founders of the magazine ''Charrua'' of the Associação dos Escritores Moçambicanos (AEMO). It was his experiences in Niassa and Cabo Delgado, where poorly organized reeducation camps were located, that gave him the urge to write and expose this reality.

Literary influences

Khosa has described being influenced by Latin American writers, such as

Alejo Carpentier Alejo Carpentier y Valmont (, ; December 26, 1904 – April 24, 1980) was a Cuban novelist, essayist, and musicologist who greatly influenced Latin American literature during its famous "boom" period. Born in Lausanne, Switzerland, of French an ...

, Julio Cortázar,

Gabriel García Márquez Gabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez (; 6 March 1927 – 17 April 2014) was a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter, and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo () or Gabito () throughout Latin America. Considered one ...

Juan Rulfo Juan Nepomuceno Carlos Pérez Rulfo Vizcaíno, best known as Juan Rulfo ( ; 16 May 1917 – 7 January 1986), was a Mexican writer, screenwriter, and photographer. He is best known for two literary works, the 1955 novel ''Pedro Páramo'', and th ...

, Jorge Luís Borges and

Mario Vargas Llosa Jorge Mario Pedro Vargas Llosa, 1st Marquess of Vargas Llosa (born 28 March 1936), more commonly known as Mario Vargas Llosa (, ), is a Peruvian novelist, journalist, essayist and former politician, who also holds Spanish citizenship. Vargas Ll ...

, in addition to African writers, such as

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o (; born James Ngugi; 5 January 1938) is a Kenyan author and academic who writes primarily in Gikuyu and who formerly wrote in English. He has been described as having been "considered East Africa’s leading novelist". His wo ...

Ousmane Sembène Ousmane Sembène (; 1 January 1923 or 8 January 1923 – 9 June 2007), often credited in the French style as Sembène Ousmane in articles and reference works, was a Senegalese film director, producer and writer. The ''Los Angeles Times'' consider ...

and

Chinua Achebe Chinua Achebe (; 16 November 1930 – 21 March 2013) was a Nigerian novelist, poet, and critic who is regarded as the dominant figure of modern African literature. His first novel and '' magnum opus'', ''Things Fall Apart'' (1958), occupies ...

, and American writers, such as

Ernest Hemingway Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century f ...

and

William Faulkner William Cuthbert Faulkner (; September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American writer known for his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, based on Lafayette County, Mississippi, where Faulkner spent most o ...

Awards and honors

*Won the Grand Prize of Mozambican Fiction in 1990 with ''Ualalapi'' *In 2002 '' Ualalapi'' was considered one of the 100 best African books of the twentieth century. *In 2007 Khosa won the José Craveirinha Award for his book Os Sobreviventes da Noite.

Published works

*'' Ualalapi'' (1987). Trans. Richard Bartlett and Isaura de Oliveira (Tagus Press, 2017) *''Orgia dos loucos'' (1990). ''Orgy of the Fools'' *''Histórias de amor e espanto'' (1999). ''Stories of Love and Wonder'' *''No reino dos abutres'' (2002). ''In the Kingdom of Vultures'' *''Os sobreviventes da noite'' (2005). ''Survivors of the Night'' *''Choriro'' (2009) *''Entre as Memórias Silenciadas'' (2013). ''Among the Silenced Memories'' * ''O Rei Mocho'' (2016) * ''Orgia dos Loucos'' (2016) * ''Cartas de Inhaminga'' (2017). ''Letters from Inhaminga'' * ''Gungunhana'' (2018)

References

External links

A short excerpt from "Ualalapi" in English

{{DEFAULTSORT:Khosa, Ungulani Ba Ka Mozambican novelists Living people 1957 births People from Sofala Province Male novelists 20th-century novelists 20th-century male writers 21st-century novelists 21st-century male writers

Literary influences

Awards and honors

Published works

Further reading

References

External links