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Minha pátria é a língua pretuguesa: Crônicas
Nesta seleção de algumas de suas melhores crônicas, Kalaf Epalanga reflete sobre a riqueza que a miscigenação cultural é capaz de promover, sobre os laços entre África e Brasil, sobre seu trânsito entre continentes, artes e sociedades. Com clareza argumentativa, elegância estilística e paixão onívora por todas as manifestações artísticas, o autor traz aqui um panorama variado da experiência de um pensador negro que está sempre a auscultar o coração da produção cultural do planeta.
216 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 11, 2023
8 people are currently reading
54 people want to read
About the author
Kalaf Epalanga
7 books43 followersKalaf Epalanga, born in Benguela, Angola in 1978, is a well-known musician and writer living in Lisbon since the 1990s. As a musician, he co-founded the record label A Enchufada, a creative and dynamic platform that promotes new music styles from Portugal around the world, and went on to form the MTV Europe Music Award-winning band, Buraka Som Sistema. He wrote a regular column of short literary chronicles for the prestigious newspaper, O Público. TAMBÉM OS BRANCOS SABEM DANÇAR is his first novel.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 3, 2025
One of the best podcast episodes I have ever listened to was episode #7, from October 2017, of O Nome Disso É África, titled “O nome das coisas,” in which my friend Eliana Nzualo talks with Kalaf Epalanga about a multitude of topics. Some time later, I started reading his excellent texts in the magazine Quatro Cinco Um, so when the collection of chronicles Minha Pátria É a Língua Pretuguesa was released, I had no doubt that I wanted to read it.
In addition to the aforementioned texts from Quatro Cinco Um, the book also includes writings from the books Estórias de Amor para Meninos de Cor and O Angolano Que Comprou Lisboa (por Metade do Preço) and from the digital newspaper Rede Angola. The chronicles cover various subjects, and even though the edition doesn't separate them, it's possible to perceive the blocks of texts.
The ones that most caught my attention were those dealing with the culture of Angola, a country about which we know so little on this side of the Atlantic, although we share fundamental similarities, such as the condition of being a former colony of Portugal and having Portuguese as the official language. Epalanga builds this bridge, even demonstrating vast knowledge about what is produced in Brazil in terms of music, cinema, literature, and art in general, which is confirmed right from the title, which borrows the “pretuguês” from Lélia Gonzalez.
Another highlight are the political texts, which can be divided into two genres: first, those that talk about Blackness, being Black in the world, the anti-racist struggle, etc.; second, those that deal with the politics of Angola and the developments of a country with only half a century of political independence. There are also some texts dedicated to the condition of being an African immigrant in Europe, the challenges, the culture shock, among other nuances that only a foreigner is capable of perceiving when venturing to other shores.
The writing is fluid and employs literary devices that only those who master the art of writing can use without seeming forced. For me, reading this book was a perfect marriage between expectation and reality, because the Kalaf Epalanga I read perfectly matched the idea I had formed of the one I heard on the podcast almost a decade ago.
In addition to the aforementioned texts from Quatro Cinco Um, the book also includes writings from the books Estórias de Amor para Meninos de Cor and O Angolano Que Comprou Lisboa (por Metade do Preço) and from the digital newspaper Rede Angola. The chronicles cover various subjects, and even though the edition doesn't separate them, it's possible to perceive the blocks of texts.
The ones that most caught my attention were those dealing with the culture of Angola, a country about which we know so little on this side of the Atlantic, although we share fundamental similarities, such as the condition of being a former colony of Portugal and having Portuguese as the official language. Epalanga builds this bridge, even demonstrating vast knowledge about what is produced in Brazil in terms of music, cinema, literature, and art in general, which is confirmed right from the title, which borrows the “pretuguês” from Lélia Gonzalez.
Another highlight are the political texts, which can be divided into two genres: first, those that talk about Blackness, being Black in the world, the anti-racist struggle, etc.; second, those that deal with the politics of Angola and the developments of a country with only half a century of political independence. There are also some texts dedicated to the condition of being an African immigrant in Europe, the challenges, the culture shock, among other nuances that only a foreigner is capable of perceiving when venturing to other shores.
The writing is fluid and employs literary devices that only those who master the art of writing can use without seeming forced. For me, reading this book was a perfect marriage between expectation and reality, because the Kalaf Epalanga I read perfectly matched the idea I had formed of the one I heard on the podcast almost a decade ago.
October 4, 2023
Este livro é realmente transformador. Revela elos entre África e Brasil que normalmente não encontramos em nossa visao voltada ao norte e é rico em referências para argumentar estes elos.
Epalanga transita pela música, poesia, danças das periferias ( no caso brasileiro o funk certamente é o melhor exemplo ) e a língua. Mais coisas unem Brasil e África do que o senso comum reconhece e nas crônicas trazidas neste livro estes vínculos se descortinam com uma fluência descomunal.
Seus contos reunidos neste livro apresentaram-me uma nova lente sobre o tema e despertou-me grande interesse em conhecer mais sobre escritores africanos e sobre África em geral.
A última crônica é belíssima e traz com uma lucidez única porque o "pretugues" é o futuro da língua portuguesa
Este livro plantou uma semente para a desconstrução do viés intelectual e a descolonizar minha razão.
Epalanga transita pela música, poesia, danças das periferias ( no caso brasileiro o funk certamente é o melhor exemplo ) e a língua. Mais coisas unem Brasil e África do que o senso comum reconhece e nas crônicas trazidas neste livro estes vínculos se descortinam com uma fluência descomunal.
Seus contos reunidos neste livro apresentaram-me uma nova lente sobre o tema e despertou-me grande interesse em conhecer mais sobre escritores africanos e sobre África em geral.
A última crônica é belíssima e traz com uma lucidez única porque o "pretugues" é o futuro da língua portuguesa
Este livro plantou uma semente para a desconstrução do viés intelectual e a descolonizar minha razão.
June 12, 2024
Um livro cheio de potência, de identidade e de diáspora africana!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews