Library Weekly

The ASCL's Library Weekly is our library’s weekly spotlight on African people and events. Inspired by the SciHiBlog, this service is based on information retrieved from Wikipedia and Wikidata and is completed with selected titles from the ASCL Library Catalogue.

N.B. The weeklies are not updated and reflect the state of information at a given point in time.

Library Weekly archive

Germano de Almeida

Germano de Almeida (Source: Wikimedia Commions, Leandro Müller) On 31 July 1945, Cape Verdean writer, publisher and lawyer Germano de Almeida (also known as Germano Almeida) was born on the island of Boa Vista, Portuguese Cape Verde. After completing elementary school on Boa Vista, he attended various secondary schools in the capital Praia (on the island of Santiago) and on the island of São Vicente.

At the age of 18, Almeida joined the armed forces and served his duty in Angola. In 1972, he won a scholarship to study law in Lisbon. After completing his studies, he returned to Cape Verde. Almeida was appointed Attorney General of the archipelago in 1976. He held this office until 1979, after which he moved to Mindelo (São Vicente Island) to practice law there.

While working as lawyer, Almeida developed a penchant for writing. In 1983, he founded the magazine Ponto & Vírgula and in the same year published his first work Estórias (Stories) under the pseudonym Romualdo Cruz. In 1989, he joined the publishing house Ilhéu, through which he then published most of his works.

Almeida's works have been translated into numerous languages. He is one of the best-known writers in the Portuguese-speaking world outside of Portugal and Brazil. He is known for his writing style, in which he interweaves real or autobiographical elements with fictional and humorous elements.

In 2010, the then Cape Verdean President Pedro Pires honoured him with an award for literary excellence. In 2018, Almeida was the second Cape Verdean author to receive the annual Prémio Camões, the most important literary prize in the Portuguese-speaking world, after the poet Arménio Vieira.

(Source: German Wikipedia)

Selected publications

Germano Almeida : Frauen und Geschichte / Ineke Phaf-Rheinberger.
In: DASP-Reihe , Nr. 180/181, 19-28, 2019.

Germano Almeida – old fronts of high intensity of labor / Ineke Phaf-Rheinberger.
In: Communitas, [S. l.], v. 2, n. 4, p. 103–115, 2019.
https://periodicos.ufac.br/index.php/COMMUNITAS/article/view/2312.

A formação da identidade cabo-verdiana na obra de Germano Almeida / Pollyana dos Santos Silva Costa.
Tese (doutorado)—Universidade de Brasília, Instituto de Letras, Departamento de Teoria Literária e Literaturas, 2018.
https://repositorio.unb.br/handle/10482/32544

Entre engagement et distanciation : le dilemme d’un écrivain, Germano Almeida, dans la société post-coloniale du Cap-Vert / Maria Do Carmo Martins Pires.
Université Sorbonne Paris Cité; Universidade de Lisboa. Faculdade de letras, 2015.
https://theses.hal.science/tel-01950628

Germano Almeida, tradutor de uma nova realidade / Jane Tutikian.
In: Veredas: Revista da Associação Internacional de Lusitanistas, [S. l.], n. 7, p. 161–175, 2006.
https://revistaveredas.org/index.php/ver/article/view/160

O mar na lajinha : romance / Germao Almeida. - Lisboa : Caminho, 2004

A família Trago / Germao Almeida. - Lisboa : Caminho, 1998

Estórias contadas : crónicas / Germao Almeida. - Lisboa : Caminho, 1998

O testamento do Sr. Napumoceno da Silva Araújo : romance / Germao Almeida. Lisboa : Caminho, 1998

Os dois irmãos : romance / Germao Almeida. - Lisboa : Caminho, 1995

See also Christophe Chazalon's bibliography of Almeida's work on Lire Cap-Vert: https://www.lirecapvert.org/germano-almeidane-en-1945.html