Orlando Mendes

Orlando Mendes's Portrait

Orlando Marques de Almeida Mendes (Island of Mozambique, 4 August 1916 – Maputo, 11 January 1990) was a Mozambican biologist and writer.

Biography

He lived the Portuguese decolonisation of Mozambique. In 1944, he moved with his wife and daughter to Coimbra, where he studied biology at the University of Coimbra.

He worked as a biologist in Lourenço Marques and wrote for several publications such as: Tempo, Itinerário, Vértice and África. In spite of being European, he strongly criticized colonial treatment towards black people and Salazar's administration. During the Portuguese Colonial War, he was with FRELIMO nationalist party.

Works

• Trajectórias (1940)
• Clima (1951)
• Carta do capataz da estrada 95 (1960)
• Depois do sétimo dia (1963)
• Portanto, eu vos escrevo (1964)
• Portagem (1966)
• Véspera confiada (1968)
• Um minuto de silêncio (1970)
• Adeus de gutucumbui (1971)
• A fome das larvas (1975)
• País emerso (1975–76)
• Produção com que aprendo (1978)
• Lume florindo na forja (1981)
• Papá Operário mais Seis Histórias (1983)
• Sobre Literatura Moçambicana (1982)

Prizes

• Prémio Fialho de Almeida, 1946

References

• MENDES, O. Sobre Literatura Moçambicana. Maputo: Instituto Nacional do Livro e do Disco, 1982. (Resenha por Russell G. Hamilton, Research in African Literatures, Vol. 17, No. 3, Special Focus on Southern Africa (Outono de 1986), p. 422-425.)