Mozambique: Paulina Chiziane “emotional” over Camões Literature Award

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Mozambique: Paulina Chiziane “emotional” over Camões Literature Award
Mozambique: Paulina Chiziane “emotional” over Camões Literature Award

Africa-Press – Mozambique. Only three Mozambicans have won the Camões Prize so far: José Craveirinha in 1991, Mia Couto in 2013, and now Paulina Chiziane.

The announcement of Paulina Chiziane as this year’s winner was made on Wednesday (20-10) by the Portuguese Minister of Culture, Graça Fonseca. “The jury unanimously decided to award the prize to Mozambican writer Paulina Chiziane, highlighting her vast production and critical reception, as well as the academic and institutional recognition of her work,” the note sent to the press reads.

The jury also referred to the importance she attributes in her books to the problems of Mozambican and African women.

A day after the announcement of the award winner, the Mozambican writer, author of “Niketche”, opened her heart to DW Africa to tell us about the moment when she received the news.

DW Africa: How did you receive the news that you were the winner of the Camões 2021 award?

Paulina Chiziane (PC):

It was a big mess. I was cooking, getting ready to eat my snack and they tell me the news. I got a little dizzy. The pot caught fire… After a while people started to come, friends, neighbors, and I forgot about the pot. My neighbour came and said: “I see smoke in your kitchen, what is burning?” That’s how I got the news. This is to say that it was very emotional, people who come from the ground, like us Mozambicans, and Africans in general, we are not used to these good things. We are more used to pain, because there was an accident here, a disaster there, we know better to manage pain than happiness.

DW Africa: And are you learning how to cope, because you are also the first Mozambican woman to receive the award?

PC: I’m trying, it’s not easy, but I think I can manage this reality.

DW Africa: It’s a big responsibility…

PC:

It is a big responsibility yes, I recognize that, because there is a new generation that is coming and will be inspired.

DW Africa: You always say, and in your works it is also evident, that you are not a novelist, but a storyteller. This turns out to be a recognition of this storytelling…

PC:

There are so many beautiful stories that this land has that need to be told. Why do I need to be a novelist if I can tell the story of my people according to their own aesthetic?

DW Africa: You are very supportive of Africanity. Do you see this Camões Award as an acknowledgment of the depth of Africanity?

PC:

Absolutely. I am Mozambican, I have the memory of my people, I defended that memory, I defended this culture, this way of being. And the world ended up recognising that this way of being is a human way of being, because every human being has his culture and place of origin.

DW Africa: Do you see this award as a sign that women are gaining their space in Mozambican society, as well as in the world?

PC:

It’s a part, but it’s not all. It can be misleading to look at Paulina as a simple woman. I’m a woman, I’m a mother, of course, and I’m black. This award has always revolved between whites and mulattos. A black woman like me receiving this award, I say: “What? Do I speak Portuguese well?” But then, the essential thing is to say the following: each one of us, in his language, in his form of expression, whether man or woman, in a globalized world must assert himself based on his own essence.

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