The Angolan writer Pepetela begins this Monday to be honored in Benguela, Angola, by the Escritaria event, a literary festival originally organized in the Portuguese city of Penafiel, which this year makes its international debut in that African country, the organization reported.
According to the Chamber of Peñafiel, the organizing entity, the event will be exhibited for 15 days at the facilities of the Piaget Institute, in Benguela, but will then travel to other Angolan cities.
Lubango, Undjiva-Cunene and Luanda are the next destinations of the Office in honor of Pepetela, in Angola, on dates to be announced.
The writer was invited to the inauguration of the festival, in his homeland, scheduled for 10:00 a.m. this Monday, says the Portuguese municipality, highlighting the role of the Piaget Institute in this tribute to Pepetela.
Throughout two weeks, as happened in Peñafiel in 2018, this time Pepetela will be honored with various activities, on the Piaget Institute campus, with free admission.
This event will feature an exhibition made up of materials similar to those that usually mark the Escritaria festivities in the Portuguese city.
“Large-format exhibition structures, the writer’s phrases scattered everywhere, as well as portable literature materials, such as cardboard boxes, among others, are part of a tribute route to Pepetela, in Benguela, which also has music, recitation of texts by the honored writer, among other initiatives”, reports the organization.
The mayor of Peñafiel, Antonino de Sousa, who will be present at the inauguration, speaking with Lusa, recalled the edition dedicated to the writer, in 2018, and highlighted the “new stage of the Writing Festival, which is already 15 years old, but which constantly reinvents itself, in this case with internationalization by Portuguese-speaking countries”.
The mayor thanked the writer Pepetela, the Jean Piaget Higher Polytechnic Institute of Benguela, and the local authorities, “who made this first step a reality.”
The president of the Piaget Institute Association of Angola, Mário Rui Ferreira, pointed out that “copying the Escriaria de Penafiel is only the obligation to reactivate and promote the pleasure of reading a good book, especially good authors in the Portuguese language.”
As happened in Penafiel in 2018, a sentence by the Angolan author, winner of the Camões Prize in 1997, will be placed in Benguela, his hometown, to mark the moment.
Source: TSF
