fares, Fay toadely Asephowe Aricxn Nacvate ve Cainese lle ; Uiueesity o Horan, tress, HF. Chapter 2 Countermapping Luanda se ‘The Other Luanda Luandino Vieira is the adopted natne of José Vieira Mateus da Graca, born ‘in 1935 in Portugal and brought to Luanda as a smal] child by his parents, settlers in Angela. An activist with the MPLA, he was imprisoned by the Por- tuguese New State for leven years (1961-72) and spent enost of that time in the Tarrafal camp for politieal prisoners in Cape Verde. Luandino was ce Teased in 1972, but the conditions ef his parole were thathe live only in Lisbon. His writing done in prison (in Eaanda and Tarrafal) was, for the most part, not publistied umti] the Portuguese New Stete fell in 1974, Following Angolan independence, Luandino held several posts, the most tecent and extended Ipring that of Seeaevary of the Unite dos Eseries Arigetanos (Angolan Wit ‘ers Union or UEA), Perhaps the best sew internationally of Angolan faiion waiter, Luandine began his extended literary career in the mid-1950s when he wus associated with the Luanda-based journal Cultura! Like the other nationalist writers and iniellectnals ofthe period, in his early writings he engages the equestion oof Angolan identity and begins a search that dominates his literers practice ducing the next bventy years,) ‘That seareh, as mentioned in chapter 1, is indicated in his 1957 poum “Cangdo para Luanda” (Song for Luanda], which posesthe question, “Where is Luanda?” Beyond evoking a specific Luanda, ane that & being transformed by the post World War Il inflse of Portuguese ceillers to Afvica, this question ing encompasses a search for a collective identity. The poems vision of unity is strengthened by the use of a shaved fcreolized language and the emneation of a past cultural tradition thet is assuaied to be asbad. ~ a Teosseuftyraction and Resi — Conniemagping Heanda 1: |, Theisagining of that other Luanda asthe beast of collective cuttucal iden: fityyforms the cen‘ral problem of Luandino’s prose fiction. Although the tex: tualizations of a counter-Lnanda rooted in collectivity pecsume city that is curently Eurcpeanized and divided, they ate never undertaken from a colo. nis] Manichaean position that celebrates the categorization of the eclonized other. In Luardino’s warratives, ee ésn east separation between colonize and colonized; zathor, his countermappings of Luanda chart the fluid bor ders of hybridity in the colonized past, the revolutionary present, and dhe Re ‘Cire nation. ‘These visions of hybridity and the rejection of a| facile conjuring of Angolan identity introduce a new complexity to Angolan fiction. As discussed in the previous chapter, texts by earlier Angolan writers, such as Antonio Assis Jimor's (O Segrede da Morta, (The dead wernan’s secret), originally published in 1935, vevindicate African cultural traditions but by assuming an ambiguous wefthey position. A more recent example is Geraldo Bessa Victor's 1967 short story + collection, Sanzala sem Batugue (Village without drums), which views Luanda's sociocultural transfornations from an assimilated penpestive of cultural superiority, As Russell Hamilton notes in Voices fom an Empire, Bessa ‘Victor may mourn the disappearance of African traditions, but ke ultimately sees Uietr passing as 2 Senefit tp the Fostuguese patriarchy with which he Tanself identifies? For Luandino Vicita, Luandais tnagined.as the matcix of cultural collec. tivit; precisely at the moment of radical displacement. The other Luanda ol the past is one in which creolized cultural practices had emerged, in pari, as a result of the limited Portuguese settler presence, The New State’ inlensi fied efforts to transform Angola into a white sella culuny not only upset Luanda’s demographic pate: but afso the patterns of crcolization. Socice cconomic and racial distinctions manifested in the division of 2 creolized Luards inte Aftican and European seciors, In Angele under the Portuguese. (Cerald Render deseribes the impact of the intense settler influx into Landa, in terns of a growing white city that expanded into the bordeis of Afficen | neighborhoods and in some cases overran: establishert sections ofthe sity? This displacement figures prominently in 1950s narratives that concen trated on the sociocultural contradictions of colonial urban soviet. These urban-based works, whether those by Amaldo Santor that assumed 2 eréniea (chronicle) orm of others by Matto Ant6nia that were more intimisi, read as quadios sociaiy (social portals) of contemporary Euandense societ:, Luan dies, Vieitas early narratives share in this eritical representation of co- louial soviety, patticulasly in tesasof the fragmentation of iinagined cellee- tivity15 Ten sculturaiion and Resitance in Lusophone Afocan Narrative Crities of Lnandine’s prose Biction generally ascertain the development of his literary production inn teams of the ruptures produced by certain of the ‘works, Salvato Thigo, for instance, in his book-length stady, Leemdino Vieica 9 Logotete, icenties two distinet phases in Luandiveys literary produetion ith Luanda (1964) asthe text hat marks the rupture, For Trign, thir nap- Nave is understood in terms of discontinuity, so thet in the first phase Luanding wiles to nanrate, while in the second, he narrales to vate. The. carly texs, therefore, are chatscterined by the immedisey of representation, while those \ iuen after Laewanda emphasize the process of textual production itself “Tn an interesting counter to Tkigo’s demarcation, José Ornelas admits & certain decenttelization of representation but witk the provision shat Luan- dinc’s tents always return to dhe representative *f would add that this return is what creates a single iteray project whexe focus i that of remapping the F eoatous of Luands’s hybrid identity. Moreover, as Stuait Hall reminds us, Jie | the natiated invention of identity i thot which is “never complete, always in process, and always constituted within... representation." Por Luanding ‘Vieira, this process of inventing identityisa continuing projestthal, of coutse, changes over time end becomes increasingly concemed with how to repre, sent hybridity within nettative d scours, It ie not surprising that erties such as Trige understand this project to he ‘ones of ruptures, since what is really at stake is a batle for both subjectivity and discursive terrain, What ere perceived as roptuces aie actually violent negotiations of hybrid to define Bre linvinal space that can be claimed as Angolen narrative, Thatspace ofliminality, |would argue, is that of the trans: culturated extria in witich the narativesthemselues are 2 difeutt to eatego- rire as the imaginings of Luanda (see chapter 4). Itis a charting of narrative space, moreover, that begins with Luandine Vieire'seailiest works, in which, asthe author himself claims, “Bsecything is ateady there.” ‘Transeulturaticn and the Hyluid Estseie ACidade ec Inféiacic (The cityand childhood}, originally published in 1960 by the Guse des Estudantes do Impéri, represents the fist book-length sallection of prose fitien by a writer associated with the 1950s literay. For Luanéino, then, thé leson of rethinking Sagerana in terms of his own liter- ary practice was the Feedom to invent language thet was based on the popular patterns of accommodation ard resistance in Angola, The practice of neology, employed somewhat tentatively in Lueatnda, vir- luclly explodes in Vethas Eatiras, revised during this time of literary rethink- ing in Tawafal. The-geolosisme in this collection car, be divided into four main categories: those derived from Rimbandh; those that have their: inandense Porhiguese; those frat ate created from standatd Portuguese; and those that representa credlization oF Portugiésahd Kibiiidu. Exainples fiom the first category inclule such. words es axuetado from the Rimbunda Countermeppang lamoda 30 ke xueia {to dry), banzanco and barzativo from ku banza {to think}, xexateiro and cexéta from kv xata (lo squeeze, and mussequial from musseque. Words suchas titecids from the Portuguese endristecida (saddened) and venear from ererenentar (10 poison) reprecent the laandence tendenos to eliminate the Gist vyoealic syllable, Neologisms derived from standard Portuguese include fusions af bro separate words io forma new one with combined semantic value: Beizebunico (Belzeby and nico) {singular}; cavtelento (eauteloso and fento) (cautious and slow), preezauf (preto and azul) {black and bluc), and vegamiendagen (vagebuadagem and raundo} (vagibondage and world). Finally, words with, both Portuguese and Kimbundu roots include maxebundo (mexer and burda) and culedo {e shortened forrn of azulado that also gains semantic value fiom the Kimbancu fu zala—ro be without eothes).* In Vethas Fstérias, more than one hundred neologisins represent more than a relexifcation of Portuguese literary language. Luandino’s use of Kim- bundu-derived words and expressions indicates a velorization of the literary ‘capacity of that language as vell as s means of incorporating the voices of its | therriergineized speakers, Tn the tame manner, the crealized neologismas revindicale disparsged speech patterns and sirmultaneously underscore the positive semantie eapacitie: of the creolization process for the textualization, of nition. The creation of words and expressions from various language and ‘3, dialect systemsnicicates nok only the new directions of an emerging Angolan terature but also the polyglot hybrid possibilities of the imagined nation. In terms of Luandine’s narratives, this practice implies a movement away {corn the cartier, rnore direct duplication of luandense speech patterns. Vari- cous chatacters nA Cidade e wlyfancia, for instance, employ exeolized speech but mouly at she lefical levelin A Vida Verdadeiva de Domingos Xavier however, Kimbundu-Portuguese is introduced into the narrative voice at bath | the ‘exical and syntactic levels, Greolized words such asmuxaxar, candengué \, | cambute, matumbe, quifumes, inbarbes, and xuaxuthar are used by both char- acters and narrator. [ fraddtion, several gammatica pattems prevalent in luandeave cxealiaed speech are incorporated inte the text, For instance, the preposition em is used when the object refers to a persen: “Foi encontrar a compbegpeira pondo + guifunes erm mivide Bestido;” “Vou casat na Bebiona;” "Os dais amiges despe diraon ro vax" The indirect object the (to you, to her, to him) is used in grammatical consiructions that in standard Portuguese demand a direct ob- ject “Nuntea fhe vi no musseque.” “Ninguém The conhecia.” The subjunctive modeisat times suppressed: “Talvex Domingos tinka side tevado fd," “Se Marker ro tinhe sua amige ao Sambizaug, caro ia fozer entio.” The subjcet pro-40 Toorcculuration ond Resnlanes in Lascphone Afican Namatve ‘noun ¥oc@ ('you” informal) appears withthe verh ending that corcesponds to the te ("you" intimate) forte. ‘The following senfence illustrates all ef these syntactic constructions of htandense ereolized Poctuguete: “Melhor voe@ dizer ‘nequele homem se macino Kieo chega, « gente the esperar na muralha,” The wwe of these speech patterns by both characters and narrator cleady indicates a shaved hybrid litecry discourse and farther emphases he aovel’scollective vision by means of 4 ecmmon langusge of resistance. ~ If Leuasda, indeed, marks & turn in Lnandino’s prose in termas of transe ‘cultured and hybridized titerary form, that tam alsa signals the keansforme- tion of ecculturated literary language. Luanda continies the Hiterary xalocication of marginalized end popular speech pattems nd introduces 4 tendency tonard the creation of new forms. These nologisms all have their Toots in words or expressions used in Luanda that are desived {rom either Popular practice ot Kimbuncu. Neologisme of Kimbundu ovigin include ‘afucarnbolar from kafuterboio cambalhota), cocair from ku baie (expreitar) (lo observe) and watofar fiom tu taba (fazer pouco! {to make fun ef Copiaagica (thief) comes from the Iuandense Portuguese we of capiengo heft), whereas caratmarsho is based on the popular pronunciation of eavalo marino Although neo glossary was provided until 1981, interingual translations at tines are provided in the nar:ation itself, a in the following examples in ‘hich the underlined sections represent the equivalent expresiions in Pottu- guese Ri os dentes brancos delu, parece so cunchas, tuculute. the, mas nao é ‘ava nom desprese, tem ume escondicasatsfacay nesse rvtrar dos obhas, Nga Tita chegou mais porto fara contara merina aascera cassanda, isso mesmo tav6, nasteu bramze, Branca, parecia ora aida filha de ngucta Loginlage veio umn guisada ce fia, um cheinace quitande amarelo For the «ast part, however, translations are not proxided so that clthough Lauande’s estirias ceftain fiom she alnest didactic pelitieal message of A Vide Verdadeiva de Domingos Kewier and Vidas Nosat, politica solidarity is expressed trough a colfective language, Moreover, lhisis evident within the stétias theinselves as the language of resistance establishes the stength of the musseque cormmority, Ia “Estéria da Calioha ¢ da Ovo? for instance, the mala between fe hwo women is wl resolved by the outside Portuguese or assinilade jadget who attempt to obtain the egg fer themselves through discourses of powet, Rather the resolution relies on shated codes of resistance in which evea the cackle of the hen partakes. lose Ornelas notes thet teuth in ree CounermappingLaands 42 this case resides in the att ofthe colonized who refuse io assimilate the eolo- nial discourse and whose actions subvert eronelingualiire.™ A comparison also night be mede to Liandino’s earlier story, “O Pato Complete de Lucas Matesio” from Vides Novas, in which the imprisoned tiJe character drives bis Portuguese jailers and torturers erazy when he asks his wife to bring hien a fato completo, which in standard contivental Fortuguese is 2 man’s sit The authorities search through Matesso’s clothing to find a hidden weapon or note, but their search is in eain because they don't realize that in luandense Portuguese a fata completo is the name of a popular fish dish, The prisonet, though beaten froma the continued inferrogations, laughs at the victory of te- sistance on the part ofa community that has subverted und tatisformed valor nial discourse. - Vethas Bstérias, revised during Luanitino’s Literary rethinking in Tarra, demerstrates the new linguistic direction through a exeative practive based on the recreation of popular pattcins of linguistic resistance. Itis no coinci- dlencs, therefore, thai the frst estria, ‘Muadie Gil, o Sobral co Bantil” (Boss Gil Sobral and the barrel), concerning the dispute over a barrel of wine nor ‘mally given workers after completion of a construction project, follows the patel. linguistic confiowtation between Sobral—~the self-appointed voice of the workers—and the Portuguese boss, Gil. The animosity that already exists between the two ner because of Gis attentions to Sabrals wife surfaces in thei inguietic dual: “Bess Mu. Gil Sfonsel Oh, bes, vou old rooster, if you ‘want o fight, tske off your spurs’* When Gil attempts to respond it his Kimbandu estragade de bronco (his cornapted whito-man's Kimbundu, Sobsal Fetor: “Ney, boss, Frobibited in thedeezee! Kinsbundu is not offical! Avwhite ‘man can’t speck Kimbund."* Sabra is the one sho contiels because of his Kimbunda domain. ‘The confrontatice berween the two intensifies when Gil sees one of the workers preparing cofiee on the job, and Sobrat diverts his attention by means of a Haguistic frontal atsck ~ Save, mest? . ~Sou um profits fala finguas maudié”.. leo aqui &frenxel —Frolixo! Priva, ¢ que te maarela outa Vea ™ Sobrala use of French (*sovd" for “pa wr")and English ("fenxe” forFrench’) and jus assertion that he is profiza is countered by Gil’ play on the word Prolite as prdiixo (“para o lixa”—in the trash), The linguistic dual takes on overt political dimensions as Ci demands that his workersgreet the colonial governor with signs that read "Os operdrios42 TeemeuTtwation and Resictnce in Linaphore Acar Native da Gilafotcom firmeza na defezalda Angola portuguesa” (The workers of Gilafofvith strength in the defense/of x Portuguese Angola). The workers Jook on as the verbal war continues between ‘icbral and Gil~"meoa de suingarigengo ¢ cangunde fica de fera 0 monabundo" (blacks stay out of the maka between mulattes and shite’) When Cil explains his sising costs in technical terns, Sobral concerles the advantage: “Sebral could well see that the boss was winning, those words that they did't now were scoring points" Although the workers eventually receive the wine, the linguistic dual re- mains unresolved. Sobral’s final song~-in Kimbundu, of course — places the confrontation in the larger political linguistic contest. The song also under- soores the link between political end caltvral independence as it recognizes the Portuguese language as a stratifying and repressive element of colomtal- iim and even neocolonialisn: “Fortguese Government! Partuguese Covere ‘ment! Portuguese Government with good lines/lfyou dan’ eat usin the war! ‘Youll want to zat us in conversations”? A Sirailar Finguistic conlicntation forms one of the centaal themes of Macurduanba’s “Cangurelos, Verdianos, Santoraistas, Nossa Gente.” In this stiri, the repeated interpolations of the nanato: concean the languages of the nnusseque as well asthe actual nattation itself The estiriatextualizes the linguistic hybridity ofthe musseque as an iter- section of Joaquim Ferreta’s “‘pretogeés,” Rebertom’s Cape Verdean creole, Alceu and Maria's pretentious upper-class speech, as well as Kimbandu, legal Fortugucse, and ciealized mmseque discourse. Pretaguas was a pejora- tive colonial teria wed to describe the Portuguese spoken by Afticens and ‘comes from a combination of preto (black) and portugues Luandine uses the term heze somewhat itonically, of course, to describe the assimilation of the Portuguese Joaquim Femeina into the musseque, The natrative voice also participates in the confesion of the languages in the estoria taatad¢s tothe «ystery surrounding the counterfeit lottery ticket fun the one hand the author of the creclized song that opens the text is criticized humorously as an illiterate poet (or writing santomista instead of the standard saniounense (someone from Sdo Terme), the nazratar also freely {ies santomiste dizonghout the estéria. At one point, the nacratcr ses the verb fitucer and interrapts the eetéri to comment om both meaning and us ‘age: “H was there thal sister Marfa fitacou —as the loyal Niminha would say, vendor with confidence in the state oi the soul at the garden doos, Fitucou, thats what it, there i ao foreign word forthe feeling of the musseque: hot and wordy anger, with the saul on the outside, all the truths spoken with nothing left out—more kricucship than enger, Jess hate than heat, how is itn the vernacular? Dona Mattia, therefore, fitucou."¥ The ver’ must remain, fie Countensapoing ands 43 for there isno outside linguistic mears of expressing the musseque, The mul- tplesociolinguittc cegisters of Luanda—“eidade de muitase mussecads en 2" city of many and musseque-ed peoples) enter into the narrative because, ss te tile ofthe estria inictes, they all belong to“ nossa yerte” [our people). Sohal, from: Vethas Estorias, asa counterpart in ode Vario, also a self Proclsimed “prolixo.” whose first-person narration sa hybtid interwesving af langasgesand linguistic registers. Vencto setRidentifies asan atebaguiste, and indeed his radieat discourse ie signaled by the estoria’s sublitie tana tentatina de ambeaquismo literirio a partir de ald, ghia termes chs (an attempt at literary ambaguiomo using jargon, slang, and the terms of pimps). As an ale tempt at Lterary ambaquisma, the text draws upon the historical cele of the ‘Ambacas, whose propensity for argumentation and use of the Portuguese lan- guage account: or thei significant part in she colanjal adininiststive and. judicicl systems: The Ambaces not only served as scribes and notaries for the often iliterate Portaguese colonizers, but they also inetianed as provisional lawyers Here "arbaquista” not only designetes otigin but alsodcaws its mean- ingas apopular pejorative expression from those yeme rhetorical cepabilites Alftede Margarido suggests, though, that the arcbaquistas subverted their own privileged pesttionste identify with the community, ss many beseme types of| public writers The estovia’s literary ranseulturation, suggested by “erary ambagaisme,” fs informed also by tnarginallzed discowses that are incorpo- rated ioto the oftentimes theterical narration: Jof0 Vancio continually elaiaw that pers ie es they transfoun reality and truth, cTthough this qhesbioning realization does not stop him from partic ating in an oxchestration of those sare lying words: “You'e estonished by my vocabulary, my patois? . Anyway, my father it wa that got me hooked. lhe gave me the dictionary opened and shut, [ tearned it by heart Then, too, any shaatytown, with its thousend colors of people, its thousand voices—t'm partial to Verdean lingo, all those neat woids! And the rivers ofan days, my ways: | was ako « tonrguide, you know, showing the sails, the sights, clubs, hhossies and sluts [eamed some English. Geel the clean dirty sine ofthis sweet od sherat, .. How much? Twenty dollars? Vencio, tell this old crab 1 would rather fuck ryself.,. Assay! My bad wars, parlances!"® Joao Vencio’s esttiais rot only his life's mltiple stories but aso the vat ‘ew discourses thai he has absorbed along the way. An accumulation of the code: ofstandard and poputar Portuguese, creolized musseque speech, Ca Verdeon creole, Eaglish, French, seminery Latin, and biblical discourse all combine to for Jo sbeid lexicon, oF as he puts it, his “‘patua” (aicis) It ic VEncie wha eanirols his patois, however, as he mocks at thé ‘astonishment of the literate muadié. Clearly Jodo Vencio's language is that of44 Tiancen tization and Resiilaace in Lusoplianc Alvican Naraative colonized hybrid identity and is meant to evoke the multiplicity of his fife sfocies as well as the multiple Jevels of resistance. Ttis lenguage as well that nsemurializes the tense collective childhood wodd of Nés, or do Matulusy, One of the motifs that runs through the novel, {bilinguals that we are, almoai? véveals He Trantiéts of coesistence as the imagined collective bilingualism is modified hy a coloniat style “almost.” ‘The narrator atempls to remember and indeed reconstmet through language that collective world of Makuiuwu as he wanders theemgh Luanda, and his memory is iggered by various words and phrases, For instance, Mais-Velho's path through Lisinca, specifically thioagh the Baizro dos Coqueiros, Feads him to the Rua dat Florer (Street of Plawe:s), which sets off the memory of baying flowers for Maninhc’s funerel from Done Marijosé. Moreover, Mzis-Velho fully wealizes his own part in the betzzyal of the collective we through the teeurting recollections ofthe four fiends and brath- ets trapped in the Makokelofi cave, He desperately attempts to recall the Full Kimbunde pliase he almest has it, almost—that united the four avd r+ Teased them, in his memory, fiom the cave: "Ukariba, xakarba kikundat” (ln fiiendship there is no betrayal.) Itis only atthe novels end that he finds, the missing word that signifies his avn betrayal Undouritedly, shisfergelting ofthe Kimbunds phrase thatmarked the wi dof the nds (we) tindetscorts the conBlictive colonial relations of eollectivi The lost Kimbundu phiate ftrther resonates agsins: Maninhe's own justi. cation for the war and the suppression, or forgetting, of Affican and creolized values, Mais-Velho remembers the missing sword toe late for he has already hetayed Paizinho by arenging a meeting lo ell hin the news of their biother’s death: “Lem goingte see Paizinho, Im going to meet him, agninstall the mites of security, against the order that he gave me... And Tam betraying, and thal is bettaying him” Mais Nilho also assumes the gril for the deaths of the others. He had given Kibiaks 2 gun when his friend hed left Luanda to join the MPLA. Ile later convinces himself that Kibiaks is the guerrilla who killed Manizho and is Killed, ia tum, by Portuguese soldiers. The remem- brance of that missing word that might seunite the we—even in narrative memory —sinnultaneously triggsts Mais-Velho’s alization of his own con- tradiolery position and the icreparable dedtmaction of the ccllective we: "We have to do what we have to do even if Mani is loughing—and he isn’t laughing row, he’s only dead —and curses us since these are society's gars, ‘here isn't any other path... ght sothat your reasn isnot reason and you. Jive and Kibiska lives and all the dead can live and all te living can die withoxt being tverogs. And suddenly, [now remember the thicd word: kitundla, betrayal, thats itand Isey:— Ukamiba uekamba kikundal—we leave the depts i 4 Counternapping Lawns 45 of death in Makokaloji, And this is now worthless. There is Paizinho under amresl, over there, some one huidred meters from roe"™ ‘The memory of the childhood game in which the we pronounced the sumagie words and were released from the Makokaloji eave of death comes too late for Mais Velho, All alone now, he says the words, but they have lost their -agicel powe:s of collective freedom that they had within the vislert hierar chies and boundaries of colonial Luanda. Mais-Velho's ultimate nareaive ‘question amd the rupture ofthe we is whether those words might once ggain recapture the magical and imagined collectivity within the fulase possibil ties of nationness, - ‘Thicnanative memorialitation though language altaine ts most complex foant in No Antigamente, na Vida (in the long ago, in life). The three estiras io this 1974 collection move bevané smagmed communal memory to a type of mythicizing of the past, The specific past once again is that of tense ‘childfeod collectivity in a colonized and cxedlized Luanda, In “La em ‘Tetembuatubia” (There in Tetersbuatubia), language i the key to hath the mysteries imagined voyage of the children as well a its textualization. Simi larto Mais-Velhosealization that even the remembrances of collectivity might Got surve the present rupture of armed confiet, He nattator of “LS, em ‘Teteanbustubia” also realizes thatthe retara to the post isabwaye inadequate Here the narrator isthe childhood chronicler of the imagined voyages ofthe rrusieque children, and even though he obeys their leader's command—"O que ve, ercravee mum livre” (What you see, waite it in 2 book)—he ude stands the filly of temenmbeting: “Today, Tetencbsatubia i nok even simple name on the voll of time. ... hat there was life in its entiety te place ‘where we fonnd impossible miracles, in ¢ far away Jong ago! “The wall of me" (a pasede do tempo) is an image that Lwandino bor towed and moified from Brazilian poet Caslos Drummond de Andrade’s “Confidbucia do Rabivano.” Ee uses the image in the closing of "Cangundos, \Verdianes, Santomistas, Nossa Gente;"as the Cape Vetdean Robertorn dreams of returning home: "On the wall of time, Luanda, that vill only be a aur: tured sound of waters against the hand racks ever there on his island, in the retumns"® ‘The images of the wall of time and the many reams for those who are” sailed both within and away ftom thelr homelands serve as eteapsulating ‘melaphers for Euandine’s textualizations of nation. His counteruserative: to accultunted discounne wite against Westetn notions of chronological tame that weuld cofonize Angolan naitative Wel Th 3 sequential and false order ing oF communal memory and orakty that would farther separate the past Gorn the Fite. Uuandino Vieira’ resistance tex propose ean seulizated46 Tenet sranifaocehn cm No forms and languages.to narrate the estorias of Angolan nationness, is imag- { sed pasts, and its possible futures. ‘ ‘The nariator of “Canguados, Verdianos, Santomistas, Nossa Gente” may Project time-bound image of Luanda but counters this very image with an- other: “City of truth that no longer’exicts, never more, i will oaly be found again one day in » faraway land And there, it will seem lke nothing we've seen or lived-itis the other thing, the vetted light living in the heazt, a dewy and serene mist within those who are in exile.” es ‘The wall of time, that seemingly eterna! colonial boundary that enforces dominant history though European time, remains as a riatker of the colo- nial past in the narratives but is alnays counlered by the collective image of that other Leuanda that stays secreted away in the heart to be nercated as vs agined nation, The liberating reclaiming of an integral Angolan past é felling and retelling of multiple estérias within Luandino Vieica's narratives, By drawing formally Grom ora traditional structures and by inant. inga language that reinvents the polyglot posibilities of Luande’s hybrid com- snonity, Luandino imegines an Angolan ration tfhatisar its heart z collective retaking of community ard homeland. te Chapter 3 Mimicry in the Contact Zone Menacing the Colonizers Untsheaga Xitn was born in 1924 in the Calombotoca village in the Luandan region of Ioolo e Bengo. Baptized a: Agostinho Mendes de Carvalho, Xitu uses his Kimbuneh birth name, which he has always emphasized is not a pen name, Xitu was one of the original organizers of the MPLA and was impris oned between 1959 and 1970 in Laanda and Tacrafat. Since Angolan inde- pendcree, Nit has served as a member of the Cental Committee of the MPLA. as minister of health, and asambasdor to the lormier Bast Getman. The outhar began writing in Tertaal, and his works ware published efter 1974, For Luandino Vieita, the narration of nation is a trunsculturated practice ‘hatreclaims discursive tersain through the invealion of hybrid Angolan liter ary fortosand languages. For Uanhengs Xitu, his contemporary and onetime fellow prisoner in the political camp in Tarrafal, narrating the Angolan na- tion is 30 less an imagining of hybrid identities but is carried out under sub- vetsive stategies of mimicry and farce. Homi Bhabha has sugzested the role that mimicry plays in the sebversion of colonial discourse by the discsimi- uated subject: “The menace of mimiory is its double vision which in dsclos- ing the ambivalence of colonial discourse also disrupts its authority"! Mi icry is menacing precisely becanse the colonized subject seerns to be gazing adoringly at the metropelis, while there is a second gaze behind the adoca. ion that is mocking and oarries the threst of eisruption In Cauhenga itu narratives, this serond gaze, masked within the colo- ‘ial vis.ons of the other, is the onc that counts. Xitu wiocks the discourses of the Portaguese civilizing mission with a ecurterstance thal sectniugly defies hybrid Angolan identity. Behind that public stance, however, is the coun: