Chó do Guri

Maria de Fátima - better known by her pen name Cho do Guri - (24 January 1959 – 7 July 2017) was an Angolan poet and writer.[1][2]

Biography

Fatima was born on January 24, 1959, in Quibala, Cuanza Sul Province in Portuguese Angola.[3] She is the daughter of an Angolan mother and a German father.[4] At two years of age she came to Luanda where she lived with her mother in the Bairro Operario. At the age of four, her mother took Fátima to a house for disadvantaged children because she could no longer feed her. She developed an interest in poetry at a young age and publisher her first poem in 1988, in the newspaper Mural da Associação de Estudantes Angolanos em Portugal.[3] Fatima received her primary and secondary education in Luanda. She studied pharmaceutical sciences at the Faculty of Pharmacy at the University of Lisbon, Portugal. She graduated in social policy by the Open University of Lisbon.[4]

Her first book, Vivências, was published in 1996. Chiquito de Camuxiba was published in 2006 and received the African Literature Prize from the Institute of Valle Flor Marquis. Drawing on her childhood experiences, A filha do Alemão (The German Daughter) came out in 2007 and is about the unwanted mulatto children in Angola.[4] The story took almost two decades to write and originally was titled A Filha do Pecado (The Daughter of Sin). Economist António Fonseca praised the novel, calling it a "great benefit to study the recent history of Angola" at the same time allowing a person to better understand "the new social classes of Angola" and "know the soul and the recent history" of the country.[2]

In 2009, A filha do Alemão was translated into German by the Goethe Institute. It was part of the official opening of the program of the German Cultural Centre, in Luanda.[5] Chó do Guri has had several poems published in anthologies in Angola and Brazil. She currently works as a columnist for the weekly newspaper Folha 8.[6]

Works

• Vivências (1996)
• Bairro Operário - a minha história (1998)
• Morfeu (2000)
• Chiquito de Camuxiba (2006)
• Na Boca Árida da kyanda (2006)
• A filha do Alemão (2007)[4]
• Songuito e Katite (2009)
• O Cambulador (2013)[7]
• Pulas, Bumbas, Companhia Limitada e muita Cuca (2016)[8]

References

1. "Morreu Chó do Guri a escritora de "Morfeu"". Jornal de Angola. 8 July 2017.
2. "História de uma escritora que nasceu sem apelido por ser filha de branco". RTP (in Portuguese). 9 February 2007. Retrieved 6 November 2016.
3. "Chó do Guri". União dos Escritores Angolanos (in Portuguese). Retrieved 6 November 2016.
4. "Escritora angolana Chó do Guri lança 5ª obra literária". Angop – Agência Angola Press (in Portuguese). 9 January 2007. Retrieved 6 November 2016.
5. "Goethe Institut apresenta livro "Filha do Alemão"". Angop – Agência Angola Press (in Portuguese). 15 June 2009. Retrieved 6 November 2016.
6. "Chó do Guri". University of Coimbra. Retrieved 6 November 2016.
7. Mário Cohen (10 April 2013). "Escritora Chó do Guri lança "O Cambulador"". Jornal de Angola (in Portuguese). Retrieved 6 November 2016.
8. Jorge Fernandes (23 February 2016). "Chó do Guri lança "Pulas, Bumbas, Companhia Limitada e muita Cuca" em Março". co.ao (in Portuguese). Archived from the original on 8 October 2016. Retrieved 6 November 2016.