Africa-Press – Angola. With the present conversation proposal, we open the Sunday curtains to, in a succinct qualitative study that uses the method of textual analysis, explore the poem “Renúncia Impossível”, by Agostinho Neto, as a speech of revolt and insubmission. Inspired by the tense relations between poetics and politics, whose work, exercised with a political-cultural vision that goes beyond national limits to echo all human subjects who suffered the violence of the colonial yoke, is interpreted from a perspective of the non-reification of the subjugated man.
Because art, as a human manifestation, appears in a communicative act, and can function as a social identity, it is in this sense that our interest in the poetic interface emerges, understood here as the hints of reverberations that are supposed to be in the aesthetic products chosen for the artistic hermeneutics, whose mainstays circulate social matters that punctuate markers of socioeconomic discrimination, as mentioned by António Filipe Augusto (2019:33-79).
One of the most interesting and profitable discussions in Literary Studies is the one that focuses on the possibility of literary art having a functional character within the society in which it is produced, or even a political-social character that would not be properly tied to a certain moment. historical and restricted. There would be, within this debate, those who believe in the possible potential of art to interfere in historical reality as an artistic force that mobilizes the popular and oppressed masses, with the authors making an effort to write literary texts that can critically discuss the political-social issues of society, texts that would be able to harmonize ideological thought with historical action.
For the literary critic and analyst, these social and political factors, expressed in these discursive modalities, should perhaps only be considered from the sensitive and poetic mediation of language. Going through a creative, mimetic and deforming process of the represented reality, the organic interiorization in the textual fabric of these social factors, filtered by the creative and expressive imagination of the author, are concretized in the aesthetic object through the use of linguistic strategies for the construction of the artistic text. In this sense, social and political factors would be internalized in the literary text as elements of its aesthetic elaboration and construction, and not dissociated (CANDIDO, 2000).
It is with this perspective that, in our view, the poetics of Agostinho Neto, of an official work of the word, particularly focused on the process of ideological decolonization of Angola and black Africa, echoing an impossible renunciation and the belief in a sacred hope, can be interpreted as a testimonial expression.
With characteristics covered by mechanism – because, in the absence of a more adequate term to cite here – of testimony, by simultaneously merging, without the loss of memory, the three possible temporalities: past, present and future. It is as if, at the same time, an evocative game of three times imbricated in the context of the poetic subject was taking place. While the past is invoked through memory, through the procedure called remembrance, it is necessary to emphasize that it – the past – will never be complete, because something will always escape it, as in vertigo, since it does not work procedurally and linearly. “Such remembrance implies a certain asceticism of the historian’s activity which, instead of repeating what it remembers, opens up to the blanks, the holes, the forgotten and the repressed, with hesitations, bumps, incompleteness […].” (Gagnebin, 2006, p. 54).
Functioning as an identity mark of awareness, as Agostinho Neto himself expresses in the verse of one of his poems, inspiring desperate consciences, the construction of concepts in the theoretical activity of literature is basically done from new approaches. It is the new perspectives of interpretation that enrich the epistemological paradigms of art in the aesthetics of reception. A poem is a kind of musical score; however, the result of a construction of signs obeying an objective, at times opaque, at other times explicit, however, always inserted in a specific thematic context.
In the literary generation of Mensagem, of which Agostinho Neto is a part, poetry was, for the poets themselves, a commitment, because they saw themselves in what they wrote, that is, they were aware of their writing and the possible reprisals that would come from it. This is how it was constituted and was one of the main pillars for the creation of political liberation movements, as, in the case of Angola, Cosme (1978, p. 10) points out: “perhaps it was through realistic literature – lyrical or personalist or social epic – that Angolan intellectuals sedimented, in themselves and in others, the consciousness of revolt that would later lead to revolution”.
Epistemological retention: The denial, the denunciation and valorization of our being
Poetry, as since its beginnings, is a sublime composition, which represents a being, a people, which, according to the aforementioned authors, carries a cathartic or world-liberating vocation. Emphasizing the role of poetry for the awareness of the subjugated African in the colonial period, of the Angolan in particular, since it served as an impetus for mental liberation, but also for the elevation of the highest expression of our cultural identity, with this comparative purpose, We selected the poems “Renúncia Impossible” by Agostinho Neto, “Monangamba” by António Jacinto and “Namoro” by Viriato da Cruz, which function as marks of the highest and deepest expression of the workshop work of the poetic word in the Angolan literary context.
The denial
As an intersection point at which our approach revolves, the poem “Renúncia Impossible” can be considered as one of Neto’s most complete and comprehensive poetic texts, for stripping himself of colonial and individual clothes, becoming the one who carries his pain. and that of everyone, who gives his life to Life. His prophetic vision transposes the barriers of Africanity, because he strips himself of his existence and recognizes that he can save the world: I arrived at the time of the beginning of the world / And I decided not to exist [ …] And most importantly / I saved the world.
Looking at the text as a sign for the reflection of the oppressed and, consequently, for the revolt, in the poem “Renúncia Impossible”, the poetic subject – in a paradox – presents an anaphoric negation: I don’t believe in myself / I don’t exist / I don’t want to I want to be.
This artful rejection unaltered exposes the evils that plague the contracted/colonized.
In the midst of the ostracization to which the black African people were subjected, Neto says: “I no longer wait / I am the one for whom one waits”. Neto was aware that independence would not be given with kissed hands. that it was necessary to fight for a better Angola.
In the “overseas province”, a term created and used by Portugal in 1951, Portuguese colonization always legitimized its intervention with the unsuccessful “work of civilization”, as a political strategy to deceive the international community that contested the colonial empires. And it is precisely this “work of civilization” that Neto fiercely contests, in many of his poems, and the poet cries out, with all rage and virulence, against those who build “moral systems to frame immoralities”.
In the poem “Renúncia Impossible”, the poetic subject makes use of interrogation to question the mistreated of colonialism – What is colonization? / What are massacres of blacks? / What are property dispossessions? / Things that no one knows – precisely to convey the idea that civilizational attitudes and models were not and were not part of their own, and this concern of the subject is not restricted to Angola, but demonstrates the concern for all colonized and exploited Africa, a profound demonstration of the scope of the poem, for all the colonized.
From the ironic charge, one of the many figures well used to pass the incorrect as correct, is an authentic demonstration of the poetic scope of The Impossible Renunciation, for example, when we read the meaning of the scope that it makes to Africa: You can invent a new History . / You can even attribute the creation of the world to yourselves. / Everything was done for you […] there were never any blacks! / Africa was built only by you / America was colonized only by you / Europe does not know African civilizations – here, with the poetic self looking not only to the cause of its people, but to all the colonized, transposing itself the barriers of Africanity, when he says: I arrived at the time of the beginning of the world / And I decided not to exist […] And what is more important / I saved the world. This philosophical and rhetorical attitude presented by the poetic subject is protected in its own revealing principle, in its non-being, non-existence: I am not. I do not exist. I never went. / I renounce myself / I have reached Zero.
The poetic subject in “Renúncia Impossible” reveals himself to be aware of everything and everyone, having the power and ability to call the attention of his people to become aware, using, here, the apostrophe – Ó humble or shy submissive blacks / No place in the cities / […] / with the soul resting on the minus sign /, declared polygamists / dancers of sensual drums / know that you have all risen in value / You have reached Zero / you are Nothing / and you have saved Man. oppressed to let go of fear and take a stand before those who subjugate them. Therefore, resignation, initially taken by itself, expands to everyone as oppressed people are associated with it when they say – know that you have all risen in value / You have reached Zero / you are Nothing / and you have saved Man.
The complaint
Forced labor, the ban on the use of local languages, social inequalities and other practices highlighted in the poetry of the Message generation are a matter of awakening the people who felt dominated by policies of oppression. When the oppressed claim, he calls into question the place of being dominated and oppressed by Western empires, positioning himself as the subject of their history. By contesting an order established over the centuries, Neto takes and awakens awareness of the need to change the relationship between oppressor and oppressed and assumes the oppressive individuality of everyone as his own, giving indications of the awakening of an identity consciousness, through literature.
In this second case, that of the poem “Monangamba”, by António Jacinto, the poetic subject calls attention to awareness, limiting himself, at first, to the denunciation of forced labor, when through a metaphor – In that large swidden there’s no rain / it’s the sweat on my face that waters the crops – used ironically to express how hard the monangamba’s work was.
When the poetic subject uses personification – Ask the birds that sing /, the merry meandering streams / and the strong wind of the sertão – to introduce a rhetorical element, which, requiring a little mental effort from the monangamba, reached a conclusion of oppression . He still asks:
– Who gets up early? / Who goes to Tonga? / Who brings along the long road / the sling or the bunch of palm oil? / Who weeds and pays is disdained / rotten cornmeal, rotten fish, / bad cloths, fifty angolares / beatings if you refilar?
With this questioning, the poetic subject puts the colonized to reflect on their actions and on their own state. led by those who could not surrender for everyone, but by those, according to the aforementioned author, who had coherent goals, who knew what and why they did it.
In this deep manifestation of discontent and reflection for the contracted/colonized and reflection for the contracting/colonizing, since the former, although providing (and forced) service in his own land, did not deserve his remuneration, creating feelings of revolt.
And what the poetic subject in “Monangamba” makes us realize, he is the one who gives everything to the contractor/colonizer, that is, he gives himself when he rhetorically questions -Who gives the boss money to buy / machines, cars, ladies / and black heads for the engines? / Who makes the white prosper, / have a big belly – have money?
And again in an anaphora – There was never slavery / there was never domination of minorities.
The appreciation of our being
Although many of our poets had fought an intense struggle against Portuguese colonialism, and many of them had lived through exiles outside our country, these poets have always shown a deep love for their land. This led these poets to be the driving force for the valorization of the Angolan essence in a discourse that, although coated with deep marks of a genuine nationalism, in addition to being futuristic, was not divorced from its genesis. They carried in their soul a poetic work sheathed in typically African traits (the quissanje, the marimba and other elements). For this reason LARANJEIRA (1995) states that:
In the poetry of Agostinho Neto, as in that of African poets in general, the concrete reference to elements of geographic, historical and cultural reality, the demarcation of a physical space, the creation of an African cosmovision and imagination, the refusal of subjectivity, abstraction and intimacy. (p. 94).
Regarding the formation of Angolan literature, the context in which Viriato da Cruz is inserted, it is observed that it “also reflects the influence of precursors of a social, cultural and aesthetic nature, adding to these characteristics the influence of the tradition of orality , which is configured as a cultural identity in Africa.
Viriato da Cruz is part of the movement “Let’s discover Angola”, whose aim was to highlight which cultural traits differentiated it from other countries on the African continent. a political-cultural motto that encouraged young people to discover Angola in its different aspects, its culture, its people and its problems, thus awakening popular aspirations, strengthening the relationship between literature and society; get to know in depth the Angolan world of which they were a part but which had not been included in the school contents to which they had access.
It is in this perspective that the interpretation of the poem “Namoro” suggests two interpretations: dating would be both dating in its denotative sense, the relationship, as well as a metaphor to illustrate the relationship between cultures. The content of the poem, divided into 9 stanzas, with polymetric and white verses, confirms the two possibilities of interpretation for the title.
In the first and second stanzas, the lyrical self uses Western knowledge to write a letter to his beloved, in order to win her over. The highly poetic language compares the girl’s beauty to the elements of African nature, as seen in: “a bright smile so warm and playful / like the November sun playing / as an artist in the flowering acacias” or in: “her soft skin – it was kapok / Her soft skin, the color of jambo / smelling of roses / her soft skin kept the sweetness of her hard body / so hard and so sweet – like the maboque… / Her breasts, oranges – oranges of the Loje.”
The comparisons between the girl’s beauty and nature refer to poems and excerpts from romantic novels, but even so, she does not accept him as a boyfriend and gives him no for an answer. In addition, words such as: sumaúma, which refers to an identifiable tree in Angola/Africa, stand out. Another word is maboque, also from our national languages, a fruit whose skin is hard and the fruit is odorific and acidic, the lyrical self wanting to show that the girl is fragrant, and difficult to be conquered in the same way that the skin of the maboque is difficult to remove. In the third stanza, using technological resources, the lyrical self types his suffering on a card: I sent him a card / that his friend Maninho typed: / ‘For you my heart suffers’” and once again she said that not. Despair makes him look for Zefa do Sete, a typical figure in Angolan society, a kind of “spokesperson / scout for dating”. to the Christian faith.
It is noticeable how the colonizer’s faith is mixed here with the attitudes of the lyrical self who, wanting to solve his problem, resorts to both the typical woman of Angolan culture (Zefa do Sete) and the Catholic saints, in order to undress himself from any religious prejudice. In this stanza, religious syncretism is inscribed, a characteristic feature of our country. In the fifth stanza, the Angolan/African religious heritage will be valued, as the lyrical self resorts to the quimbanda, so that she casts a spell, but the spell failed.
Attention is drawn here to the vocabulary, as quimbanda is a word whose origin circulates in almost all the national languages of Angola. Thus, in addition to the discussion that can be raised to legitimize the attitude of the lyrical self, since looking for quimbanda is part of their belief, but this resource also failed.
Disillusioned, he became a monagamba, a Kimbundu word that can be translated as wanderer. However, he wanted fate that the two would meet at a ball, to the sound of a rumba and, in the middle of the dance, she said yes. It is noted that the desire of the lyrical self is materialized with dance, a rhythm that is based on four beats in each measure, of which the fourth is the strongest. Although the dictionaries explain that the rhythm originated in Cuba, it reached the American continent through slaves.
According to our readings, Angola arrived through Mozambican slaves who passed through here, waiting for the ships to leave for America. It is understood then that the encounter of the lyrical self with the young woman, through the rumba, reveals that the African musical rhythm brings people together. In Angolan culture, dance and music are associated with the rites of fertility, birth, initiation, life and death.
With the exercise of textual interpretation that we carried out above, we only demonstrated that the liberation movements, civil or military, had to start with a national construction prefigured by the colonialists, who mapped an artificial territorial entity in a certain geographic space, without taking into account the identity of the natives. , as the then young Angolan essayist Luís Kandjimbo observed in 1986 in Apuros de Vigília:
(…) If the resistance of African peoples to colonialism, throughout the colonizing process for the recovery of a previously existing personality, is a premise for the prospective process of national unity of African peoples, the truth is that only with the emergence of movements of national liberation and under the conditions of world historical development, identity becomes a real and effective project.
Final considerations
In conclusion, we will say that the analysis of a literary text, especially the poem, can focus on different aspects. Valèry (1991, p. 203) states that the poem is alternately judgeable, we can highlight aspects “by phonetics, semantics, syntax, logic, rhetoric, philology, without omitting the meter, the prosody (study of rhythm) and etymology”. Literary language has opacity thanks to the fact that the word in the literary text frees itself from everyday meaning to become free and, consequently, “mean more than what they say”.
Because despite everything, along with Neto’s various approaches, one of the most prominent in his poetic-literary framework is hope (in fact, it is not in vain that he calls his first work Sagrada Esperança). Neto’s poetic discourse impels us to hope, because as Eugénia Neto, his wife, states, “for Neto, writing meant fighting” (2018, p. 11). and/or claim, leaders are needed; and, tendentially, the ideal people to be those in whom the population places trust, are those who show themselves most determined for the causes, and in the case of the poets, for Angola, for example, were the best indicated, as they wrote about their experiences.
Thus, it is possible to understand that poetic language escapes the reality of everyday language, because for this, things are or are not, already in poetry we have this game between the poetic meaning and the referent. social historical aspects in its constitution. According to Cândido, we understand that literature is the result of the intertwining of social factors, taking into account that “[…] social” (CANDIDO, 2006, p. 21).
Aware that the social factors that structure a literary work are temporally demarcated, we think it is essential to understand the social historical context of the production of a work that, in its constitution, points to data from reality, as is the case of the poetic production of Agostinho Neto , corpus of analysis of this article. Corroborating this assumption, Oliveira (2014) states that the work of Agostinho Neto, when analyzed, must consider his life story: “acting as a revolutionary poet, combatant in the anti-colonial struggle and the first President of Angola, Agostinho Neto is, without a doubt, one of those cases in which life and work are not separated in an analysis” (OLIVEIRA, 2014, p. 64).
Cosme (1978) also confirms this idea by asserting that it is not by chance that the most influential members of the MPLA are renowned Angolan writers, and to demonstrate this, points out António Agostinho Neto, Mário Pinto de Andrade, Luandino Vieira. With this, it is clear that poetry allowed us to gather, in a single group, all the authors who made it a means of denunciation and remained both in politics and in literature, were it not for that, 29 days after our independence, many of the same nationalists signed the proclamation of the Union of Angolan Writers, on December 10, 1975.
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