Henrique Teixeira de Sousa was born in Cape Verde, Island of Fogo, in the parish of São Lourenço, on September 6, 1919. He died, aged 87, in Algés, on March 3, 2006, after being hit by a car. He lived in Oeiras, Portugal, since the seventies of the 20th century.
He completed his medical course at Universidade de Lisbos, in 1945. In addition to writing, medicine deserved great dedication on the part of Teixeira de Sousa, attending courses in Tropical Medicine and Nutrition, having even served in East-Timor and Cape Verde (Fogo and São Vicente), before returning to Portugal.
As a result of his inter-island experience and around the world, Henrique Teixeira de Sousa became a symbol of the Cape Verdean feeling and the exposure of the feeling of the islands, which, according to Ondina Ferreira, catalogs him as “arquipelágico” because “Os seus textos ensaísticos [and not only] saem desse âmbito mais restrito e pertencem igualmente a todas as ilhas de Cabo Verde”[1].
From Cape Verde, and from the author’s early formative years, his longevity allowed him to participate in cultural movements that came to underline the Cape Verdean identity. From claridosos, associated with the magazine Claridade (1936), to the generation of Certeza, identified with the magazine Certeza (1944), Henrique Teixeira de Sousa remained close to the literary evolution of Cape Verde in an attitude that edified Cape Verdean culture and identity.
Coming from a time when the focus was the struggle for the liberation of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde, under the banner of the PAIGC (African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde), some of his reference works reflect that period of uncertain for the future of the archipelago which, thanks to its population, diaspora and respective history, was not exactly a brother of Guinea-Bissau and found itself in an intermediate position between Africa and Europe: “Em Caboverde julgo poder afirmar que o processo de aculturativo desabrochou no florescimento de expressões novas de cultura, mestiças […]; que no arquipélago puderam o negro e o mulato apropriar-se de elementos da civilização europeia e senti-los como próprios” (Mariano, 1991: 47).
Both the historical-political vision and the more attentive sensitivity towards Cape Verdean social problems (hunger, emigration) made Henrique Teixeira de Sousa “um profundo e fino analista social” [2]. The reformulation of these themes made Cape Verdean literature assert itself because it was necessary “ultrapassar a fase folclórica ou regionalista para não continuarmos espartilhados dentro dum círculo restrito de temas mais que esgotados” (Laban, 1992: 207).
It is difficult to discern about his masterpiece. Among the short stories and novels, we highlight two, in particular, Contra mar e vento, his first book of short stories, and Entre Duas Bandeiras, a historical novel, because we believe that they represent Cape Verde as a geographical, political and cultural entity.
In Entre Duas Bandeiras, as it is close to “la memoria politica” (Turano, 1997: 1555), the debate launched on the insular identity of Cape Verde is evident, which does not welcome or identify itself with the Guinean union. The author points out elements of a civilizational nature that justify the discussion regarding the independence of the archipelago: “Con questo volume lo scrittore apre il dibattito su una questione delicata, quella del passaggio dei poteri dal vecchio regime coloniale al nuovo stato indipendente. Con la presa del potere del P.A.I.C.G. riemergono, attraverso la ‘finzione’ romanzesca, questione politiche che, forse, sarebbe interessante dibattere” (Turano, 1997: 155). As readers, we conclude a greater affinity with the idea of an independence of Cape Verde outside the sphere of Guinea-Bissau, which results in an island country with its own identity between two continents that build its feeling. This point of view is openly assumed by Henrique Teixeira de Sousa himself: “Ora, eu não via que essa unidade [Cape Verde/Guinea-Bissau] fizesse o mínimo sentido dada a disparidade dos valores culturais entre os dois países. Combati-a veementemente. E a História veio-me dar razão” (Laban, 1992: 202).
Of the works by Henrique Teixeira de Sousa, it is worth mentioning Contra mar e vento (1972), Ilhéu de contenda (1978), Capitão de Mar e Terra (1984), Xaguate (1987), Djunga (1990), Na Ribeira de Deus (1992), Entre duas Bandeiras (1994), Oh Mar das Túrbidas Vagas (2005). Ilhéu de contenda, Xaguate e Na Ribeira de Deus constitute a trilogy.
References
Chabal, Patrick et al. (1996). The postcolonial literature of lusophone Africa. Londres: Hurst & Company.
“Entrevista a Ondina Ferreira – H. Teixeira de Sousa é uma referência incontornável da nossa história cultural”. Digital access: https://terranova.cv/index.php/entrevista/6895-h-teixeira-de-sousa-e-uma-referencia-incontornavel-da-nossa-historia-cultural-ondina-ferreira. Consulted on 13-12-2021.
Figueira, Paulo (2012). Entre Duas Bandeiras, de Henrique Teixeira de Sousa: traços para a identidade cabo-verdiana. In Navegações, 194-202.
Laban, Michel (1992). Cabo Verde: encontro com escritores. Vol. I. Porto: Fundação Engenheiro António de Almeida.
Laranjeira, Pires (1987). Formação e desenvolvimento das literaturas africanas de língua portuguesa. In Literaturas africanas de língua portuguesa. Lisboa: Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, 15-24.
Mariano, Gabriel (1991). Cultura caboverdeana – ensaios. Lisboa: Vega.
Trigo, Salvato (1987). Literatura colonial/Literaturas africanas. In Literaturas africanas de língua portuguesa. Lisboa: Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, 139-158.
Turano, Maria Rosaria (1997). Diaspora Capoverdiana a Lisbona: Memoria Letteraria e Memoria Rituale – Appunti da una Ricerca. In Africana Miscellanea di Studi Extraeuropei. Pisa: Edizioni ETS, 149-159.
[1] In “Entrevista a Ondina Ferreira – H. Teixeira de Sousa é uma referência incontornável da nossa história cultural”. Digital Access: https://terranova.cv/index.php/entrevista/6895-h-teixeira-de-sousa-e-uma-referencia-incontornavel-da-nossa-historia-cultural-ondina-ferreira.
[2] In “Entrevista a Ondina Ferreira – H. Teixeira de Sousa é uma referência incontornável da nossa história cultural”. Digital access: https://terranova.cv/index.php/entrevista/6895-h-teixeira-de-sousa-e-uma-referencia-incontornavel-da-nossa-historia-cultural-ondina-ferreira.