Ungulani Ba Ka Hhosa e Mia Couto: o desafio na construção da memória cultural moçambicana no pós-independência

Abstract

In the current literary scene, Ungulani Ba Ka Khosa and Mia Couto stand out as two of the most prominent Mozambican writers from PALOP and CPLP, being well-known names due to their decisive role and commitment to the social problems of their country in terms of concerns the reaffirmation of cultural identity and the search for the revaluation of ancestral roots. At the same time, the two writers have made invaluable contributions to the advancement of our Portuguese language, through their works imbued with rich linguistic elements and traits that mark the linguistic peculiarity of their sociocultural environment. In this work, we analyze the novels Ualalapi, by Khosa, published in 1987, and the trilogy As sands of the emperor, by Couto, published between 2015 and 2017 in the volumes entitled: Women of Ashes, Shades of Water and The Drinker of horizons. The study was supported by comparative analysis and a qualitative approach, seeking to emphasize the construction of the characters and the narrators' point of view as a strategy adopted by the authors to understand how the mytho-heroic figure of Emperor Ngungunhane is used as a representative symbol in the construction of “collective memory” of the Mozambican people in the post-independence period.