Craveirinha, Jose

▪ 2004

José G. Vetrinha 

      Mozambican writer (b. May 28, 1922, Lourenço Marques, Portuguese East Africa [now Maputo, Mozambique]—d. Feb. 6, 2003, South Africa), was generally considered Mozambique's greatest poet as well as one of the best contemporary poets writing in Portuguese. Craveirinha began working as a journalist, and his first poems were published in newspapers for which he wrote articles. He was chairman of the Lourenço Marques African Association in the 1950s and joined the anticolonial organization Frelimo. His first poetry collection, Chigubo, appeared in 1964, but Portuguese authorities jailed him for his political activities from 1966 to 1969. Craveirinha was one of the leading figures of the Negritude movement in African poetry, and his poems, most of which had a political cast, evoked an Africa ruled by Africans. He was awarded the Camões Prize for poetry in 1991, the third person to be so honoured.

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▪ East African writer

pseudonym of  José G. Vetrinha  

born May 28, 1922, Lourenço Marques, Portuguese East Africa [now Maputo, Mozambique]

died February 6, 2003, South Africa

      Mozambican journalist, story writer, and poet.

      Craveirinha was the son of a Portuguese father and a black Mozambican mother. He was an ardent supporter of the anti-Portuguese group Frelimo during the colonial wars and was imprisoned in 1966. He was one of the pioneers of Negritude poetry in Mozambique, a poetry that concentrated on an examination of past African traditions and the emphatic reaffirmation of African values.

      Craveirinha's poetry utilizes imagistic appeals to the African landscape, the African languages, and, above all, to an Africa governed by Africans. His poem “Grito negro” (“Black Shout”) is an outcry against colonialism that blends a sense of African rhythms with the nasal sounds of the Portuguese language. Craveirinha's literary works are chiefly of a political nature. They appeared in various anthologies and in such collections as Chigubo (1964), Cantico a un dio di Catrane (1966; “Canticle to a Catrane God”), Karingana ua Karingana (1974; “Once Upon a Time”), Cela I (1980; “Cell I”), and Obra poética (1999; “Poetic Work”). He also wrote for Noticias da Beira, O brado Africano, voz de Moçambique, and Caliban.

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