African children literature in Brazil: a bibliographical research

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to analyze some works from Portuguese-speaking African countries (PALOP) writers published in Brazil intended to child readers. Nowadays, in the PALOP, there are two well-stablished literary systems: Angola and Mozambique. The first country has a great concern about culture and literature after its independence in 1975. The Angolan Writers Union (UEA) and the National Book and Disc Institute (INALDI) promoted and published several works intended to the formation of a child reader audience. In Mozambique, the Mozambican Writers Association (AEMO) engaged in the same task. We notice that well-known children’s literature authors in the PALOP were not published in Brazil, for example: Gabriela Antunes, Dario de Melo and Cremilda Lima. However, well-known writers such as Mia Couto, Ondjaki, José Luandino Vieira, José Eduardo Agualusa and Ungulani Ba Ka Khosa, for example, have published works available in our country. Thus, young Brazilian readers have access to quality works in which African culture is shown by writers from the PALOP. We intend, therefore, to ponder about some of these books, in order to contextualize and, mainly, prove the relevance of these lesser-known works in Brazil.