''Ualalapi'' is a novel by
Mozambican writer
Ungulani Ba Ka Khosa. It was published in 1987, and won Mozambique's Grande Prémio da Ficção Narrativa in 1990.
Ualalapi is the name of a
Nguni warrior who is destined to kill Mafemane, brother of Mudungazi (later called
Ngungunhane). This fictional story, a collection of six loosely related episodes, describes the life of hosi ("
king
King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king.
*In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the ...
" in the
Tsonga language) Ngungunhane, celebrity of the resistance to the
Portuguese at the end of nineteenth century. ''Ualalapi''
's telling of the story creates an epic ambience, however, an oral tradition describes the emperor as a tyrant rather than a hero. The author tracks his rise to power over his murdered rivals and his eventual decline. The story is a disguised warning against tyranny. The rough and aggressive personality of the character is radically contrasted with his son Manua, who is passive and pro-Occidental. This opposition will display the conflict of the identity in transition to colonial rule. The violent drive in Ngungunhane's motivations depicts him as suffering from an incontrollable fear of losing power. This seems to be a metaphor of historical interpretation when considering colonial motivations.
In 2002, ''Ualalapi'' was announced by a panel of judges in
Accra,
Ghana
Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in Ghana–Ivory Coast border, the west, Burkina ...
as one of Africa's 100 best books of the twentieth century.
An English translation by Richard Bartlett and Isaura de Oliveira was published in 2017 by Tagus Press.
References
Bibliography
*
Chabal, Patrick. The Post-Colonial Literature of Lusophone Africa. London: Hurst & Company, 1996. Print.
*Chabal, Patrick. Vozes Moçambicanas literatura e nacionalidade. Lisboa: Vega, 1994. Print.
*Khosa, Ungulani Ba Ka. Ualalapi. 2nd ed. Lisboa: Editoral Caminho, 1990. Print.
*Laranjeira, Pires. Literaturas africanas de expressao portuguesa. Lisboa: Universidade Aberta, 1995. Print.
*Leite, Ana Mafalda. Oralidades e Escritas nas Literaturas Africanas: Ualalapi, Ungulani Ba Ka Kosa. Lisboa: Colibri, 1998. Print.
External links
A short excerpt from "Ualalapi" in English
1987 novels
Portuguese-language novels
{{1980s-novel-stub