Alegory and testimonial in ‘Muana Puó’ (1969), novel by Pepetela

Abstract

Muana Puó was the first novel written by Pepetela. It was written in 1969 but its publication was made only in 1978. Its title refers to a tchokuê mask that symbolizes the rite of passage to adulthood, and that worked as a mot­to, so the Angolan writer could construct an allegory based on the fight between crows and bats as oppressors and oppressed as well. In a 1987’s article about this narrative, I declared that “to adopt as justification the position of oppressed, to explain the use of the language treatment, en­gaged and even leafleted, is unbearable”. In 2012, twenty-five years later, I reread the novel under the prism of the witness, reevaluating the relations between ethics and aesthetics, having as support the outcomes provided by Adorno in “O que significa elaborar o passado” (1959) and the analysis of Marcelo Caetano (“O enigma de Muana Puó”, 2004) and Laura Padilha (“A força de um olhar a partir do Sul”, 2009).