Parts of Africa (1991)

a colonial mosaic

Abstract

Published in 1991, Parts of Africa, the first novel by the Portuguese writer Helder Macedo (1935-), is a mosaic of narratives of personal and national memories by a narrator who closely followed the process of Portuguese colonization in some African countries. The sense of lack of belonging and the anti-colonial position with which the protagonist, son and grandson of administrators of the Portuguese colonies, and the introspective, documentary and biographical way of narrating the imbrications and impact of the Portuguese colonial project on the African continent demonstrate the historical, social and critical engagement with which the work is committed. The border space in which the narrator spends his childhood but does not identify himself, in addition to representing the divisions that colonialism created between people, draws our attention to the impact it had on the ethical and social formation of civilizations.