Alda Ferreira Pires Barreto de Lara Albuquerque, known as Alda Lara (9 June 1930,

Benguela Benguela (; Umbundu: Luombaka) is a city in western Angola, capital of Benguela Province. Benguela is one of Angola's most populous cities with a population of 555,124 in the city and 561,775 in the municipality, at the 2014 census. History Por ...

Angola Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country on the west-Central Africa, central coast of Southern Africa. It is the second-largest Portuguese-speaking world, Portuguese-speaking (Lusophone) country in both total area and List of c ...

– 30 January 1962, Cambambe, Angola) was a

Portuguese-language Portuguese ( or ) is a Western Romance language of the Indo-European language family originating from the Iberian Peninsula of Europe. It is the official language of Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal and São Tom ...

Angolan poet.

Margaret Busby Margaret Yvonne Busby, , Hon. FRSL (born 1944), also known as Nana Akua Ackon, is a Ghanaian-born publisher, editor, writer and broadcaster, resident in the UK. She was Britain's then youngest publisher as well as the first black female book p ...

(ed.), '' Daughters of Africa: An International Anthology of Words and Writings by Women of African Descent from the Ancient Egyptian to the Present'', London: Jonathan Cape, 1992; Vintage, 1993.

Early life and education

Alda Lara was born on 9 June 1930 in

Portuguese Angola In southwestern Africa, Portuguese Angola was a historical Evolution of the Portuguese Empire, colony of the Portuguese Empire (1575–1951), the overseas province Portuguese West Africa of Estado Novo (Portugal), Estado Novo Portugal (1951–1 ...

. She came from a wealthy family and received a Christian education, which gave her a spirit of liberalism according to one commentator. Her brother was the noted poet Ernesto Lara Filho. Lara attended a women's school in Sá da Bandeira (now Lubango) before moving to Portugal to finish her secondary schooling. She attended

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 ...

and resided at the Casa dos Estudantes do Império (House of the Students of the Empire). She had an active student life and began her writing career by publishing poetry in the literary journal ''Mensagem'', a publication specifically for Africans. Lara later attended the

University of Coimbra The University of Coimbra (UC; , ) is a Public university, public research university in Coimbra, Portugal. First established in Lisbon in 1290, it went through a number of relocations until moving permanently to Coimbra in 1537. The university ...

and earned a degree in medicine.

Career

Lara wrote for several newspapers and magazines such as the '' Jornal de Benguela'', the ''

Jornal de Angola ''Jornal de Angola'' is the only daily newspaper in Angola since the independence of the country in 1975. The organization uses wire feeds from ANGOP, Agence France-Presse, Reuters, EFE, and Prensa Latina. The newspaper is published in Luanda ...

'', and the ''ABC e Ciência''. She married the Mozambican-Portuguese writer Orlando Albuquerque and gave birth to four children. After living in Portugal for 13 years, Lara moved back to Angola in 1961.

Death and legacy

She died on 30 January 1962 in Cambambe. Her husband set about publishing her collected works after her death, including ''Poemas'' in 1966 and ''Tempo de Chuva'' in 1973. Lara's poems and short stories mostly deal with themes of motherhood and children as well as liberty and justice. Much of her poetry reflect a dissatisfaction with the colonial status quo. The Alda Lara Prize (in Portuguese, ''Prémio Alda Lara'') was established in her honour by the city of

Lubango Lubango, formerly known as Sá da Bandeira, is a municipality in Angola, capital of the Huíla Province, with a population of 914,456 in 2022. The city center had a population of 600,751 in 2014 making it the second-most populous city in Angola a ...

Paulo de Carvalho Paulo de Carvalho (born 15 May 1947) is a Portuguese singer. Career Carvalho co-founded the band The Sheiks in 1965. He sang and played the drums. He also played an instrumental role, either as a founder or a guest, of many other important Port ...

, a famed Portuguese singer, who has had a strong artistic career, recorded "Preludio/Mãe Negra", a poem written by Alda Lara. ''Movimento'', the second album of Aline Frazão released in 2013, features a poem by Lara set to music.

Books (posthumous)

* ''Poemas'' (1966) * ''Tempo da Chuva'' (1973) * ''Poesia'' (1979) * ''Poemas'' (1984) (her collected poems)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lara, Alda 1930 births 1962 deaths People from Benguela Angolan people of Portuguese descent Colonial people in Angola 20th-century Portuguese writers Angolan women poets 20th-century Angolan women 20th-century Angolan poets 20th-century Portuguese women writers Portuguese-language writers