António Aurélio Gonçalves, better known as Nhô Roque (25 September 1901 – 30 September 1984), was a
Cape Verde
Cape Verde or Cabo Verde, officially the Republic of Cabo Verde, is an island country and archipelagic state of West Africa in the central Atlantic Ocean, consisting of ten volcanic islands with a combined land area of about . These islands ...
, the capital of the island of São Vicente. He was the son of Roque da Silva Gonçalves. He was absent from the island for 22 years after heading to the imperial capital of
Lisbon
Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...
in 1917 after his high-school studies at the seminary on the island of São Nicolau. He attended the
University of Lisbon
The University of Lisbon (ULisboa; ) is a public university, public research university in Lisbon, and Portugal's largest university. It was founded in 1911, but the university's present structure dates to the 2013 merger of the former Universit ...
where he studied medicine for two years. Later, he studied Fine Arts, history, and philosophy. In 1938, he published a dissertation on irony in the work of Eça de Queiroz. He returned to his native island in early 1939.
He was a critic in many different areas, book prefaces, literary seminaries of the Professor's Course Formation of the Secondary School, articles and reviews with ''Ponto & Vírgula'', a Portuguese word for "semicolon".
He was professor of history and philosophy at the Mindelo (''Liceu central do Mindelo'') and
Gil Eanes
Gil Eanes (or Eannes, in the old Portuguese spelling; ) was a 15th-century Portuguese navigator and explorer.
Biography
Gil Eanes was born in Lagos in 1395. Little is known about his personal life prior to his role in the Portuguese Age of Dis ...
Lyceums and the technical school. He published several works and wrote for the major Cape Verdean review '' Claridade'' and the story ''O enterro de nha candinha Sena'' (1957). His other work ''Noite de Vento'' (''Night Wind'') was translated into French, his first work to be translated into a difference language.
Gonçalves died on 30 September 1984 as the result of a hit-and-run accident five days after his 83rd birthday.
Family
He belonged to a family of great literary figures, including the poet José Lopes da Silva and the writer
Baltasar Lopes da Silva
Baltasar Lopes da Silva (23 April 1907 – 8 May 1989) was a writer, poet and linguist from Cape Verde, who wrote in both Portuguese and Cape Verdean Creole. With Manuel Lopes and Jorge Barbosa, he was the founder of '' Claridade''. In 1947 ...
.
Legacy
A street (Rua Dr. António Aurélio Gonçalves) is named after him in his hometown Mindelo, and to the west is a park that is known by his nickname (Parque Nhô Roque), located by Avenida Marginal and Porto Grande Bay.
Along with
Eugénio Tavares
Eugénio de Paula Tavares (born 18 October 1867 in the island of Brava; died 1 June 1930 in Vila Nova Sintra) was a Cape Verdean poet. He is known through his famous poems ('' mornas''), mostly written in the Creole of Brava.
Biography
Eugén ...
he was featured on a Cape Verdean $1000 escudo banknote issued between 2007 and 2014, and he was also featured on a Cape Verdean postage stamp. In the national capital of
Praia
Praia (, Portuguese for "beach") is the capital and largest city of Cape Verde.Eça de Queiroz'' (''Aspect of Irony''), essay, 1937
*''Recaída'', or ''Aurelio Recaída''; 1947; reimpression: 1993; Editora Vega
*''Terra da Promissão'' (''Promised Land''); reimpression: 2002, Lisboa, Caminho Publishing; with preface by Arnaldo França
*''Noite de Vento'' (''Windy Night''), 1951: 2nd edição: Praia, 1985; with preface by Arnaldo França
*''Prodiga'' (''Prodigy''), 1956
*''Historia do Tempo Antigo'', (''History of the Earlier Times''), 1960
*''Virgens Loucas'', theatrical play, 1971
*''Biluca'', 1977
*''Miragem'' (''Mirage''), 1978
References
Further reading
*Rebecca J. Atencio, "Para uma leitura pós-colonial de António Aurélio Gonçalves: o potencial subversivo da imitção em Pródige e Virgens Loucas" ("On the Post-Colonial Letter by António Aurélio Gonçalves"), in ''Africa'' (São Paulo), 2006–2007, no. 27–28, p. 9–22