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One of the most acclaimed Portuguese-speaking writers argues that the language shared by Angola, Brazil, and Portugal deserves a new name, reflecting centuries of cultural exchanges between peoples from different continents and erasing the colonial reference that still marks its official designation.
José Eduardo Agualusa, an internationally awarded Angolan writer translated into more than 30 languages, returns to Rio de Janeiro — a city where he lived for two years, over two decades ago — to participate in the free cultural festival Remexe Rio, whose first edition takes place this Saturday at the Paço Imperial, in the historic center of the capital of Rio de Janeiro.
The author is considered one of the most representative voices of contemporary Lusophone literature, with works that navigate between historical fiction, magical realism, and journalistic narrative, captivating readers in countries as diverse as Germany, the United States, France, and Japan throughout his literary career over the past three decades.
In a conversation with GLOBO before the event, Agualusa presented a provocative reflection on the language that unites Portuguese-speaking countries: according to him, the language has been constructed and refined over the centuries through intense contact with dozens of other languages and cultures from different parts of the world, making it much more than a mere colonial legacy.
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Among the languages that contributed to shaping what is today called the Portuguese language, the writer highlights Arabic, Kimbundu, Guarani, Kikongo, Umbundu, and Macua, each responsible for leaving deep marks on the vocabulary, phonetics, and cultural identity of those who speak this language in its multiple countries and regions.
This historical trajectory of encounters and reciprocal influences is, for Agualusa, sufficient argument to question the current nomenclature of the language, which still carries in its name an exclusive reference to the Portuguese colonial origin, without contemplating the plurality that the language has accumulated throughout its evolution across different territories, cultures, and generations around the globe.
The solution proposed by the writer is to replace the designation with something like “General Language”, an expression that, in his view, would more accurately represent what the language effectively is today: a territory of encounters and affections, collectively constructed by distinct peoples over centuries of coexistence, resistance, and cultural transformation on different continents of the globe.
Debate at Paço Imperial brings together writers from Angola and Portugal
The proposal will be formally debated this Saturday at 5:30 PM during a conversation that Agualusa will have with the Portuguese writer Marco Franco in the Sala dos Archeiros, at the Paço Imperial, in an event open to the public without any ticket charges and without prior distribution of passes or any kind of pre-registration required to participate.
The Remexe Rio festival brings together writers, artists, and thinkers around discussions on culture, language, and Brazilian identity, transforming the Paço Imperial — a space historically associated with the arrival of the royal family in Brazil in the early 19th century — into a stage for debates on literature, cultural diversity, and the directions of artistic expressions in the Portuguese language.
Besides the debate on the language’s nomenclature, the event also marks the launch of Agualusa’s new novel, ‘Tudo sobre Deus’, published by Tusquets, set in the Angolan desert and centered on themes such as finitude, guilt, redemption, and memory through the tense and deep relationship between a father and his daughter along a journey of self-discovery.
The book is part of an extensive and internationally recognized literary production, with works already translated into more than 30 languages and awarded in different countries, establishing Agualusa as one of the essential references of literature produced in Portuguese-speaking countries worldwide over the last three decades of intense creative activity.
For those who wish to participate in the debate, just show up at the Sala dos Archeiros, at the Paço Imperial, at 5:30 PM this Saturday, as the event is completely free and does not require any kind of registration, subscription, or advance ticket withdrawal, making access to the discussion about the Portuguese language accessible to anyone interested in the topic.
The African Brazil that enchants the Angolan writer
When asked about what enchants him the most and what saddens him the most when thinking about Brazil, Agualusa responded with the clarity and precision that mark his literary style, revealing an intense emotional connection with the country where he lived and which remains a constant reference in his creative and intellectual imagination throughout his entire career.
From the perspective of enchantment, the writer highlights the people, nature, joy, and generosity of Brazilians, classifying these traits as characteristics of the vast majority of the population and specially mentioning the African cultural legacy that crosses and defines the national identity in manifestations such as samba, cuisine, and the forms of affection that the country has developed throughout its history.
“I like the Brazil that invented samba, that embraced the ‘cafuné’ and ‘calulu’, that knows how to play and hug,” said Agualusa, citing words that exemplify the African influence on Brazilian culture, including “cafuné”, of Kimbundu origin, and “calulu”, a typical Angolan dish that found variations and adaptations also in the cuisine of Brazil’s coastal regions over the centuries.
On the other hand, the growth of intolerance, resentment, brutality, and lack of elegance in Brazil is what saddens him the most — and the writer is emphatic in stating that this phenomenon is not exclusive to the country, but part of a global movement he observes with deep concern in different societies and political contexts around the contemporary world.
The author also spoke about his fascination with the origins of words, citing “cafuné”, derived from Kimbundu, and “capim”, originating from Guarani, as concrete examples of how the language has accumulated influences through contact between distinct cultures that have shaped contemporary Portuguese over the centuries of its historical formation in multiple territories and social contexts.
Another word he mentioned is “oxalá”, of Arabic origin, which entered Portuguese through the Islamic expansion across the Iberian Peninsula during the Middle Ages and today is part of the everyday vocabulary of speakers in different countries, demonstrating the extraordinary ability of the language to integrate, transform, and preserve external influences over time in a natural and permanent way.
Agualusa also highlighted the beauty of pairs of words like “mar” and “mãe”, almost identical in Portuguese, as examples of the musicality and semantic richness of a language that, according to him, deserves to be celebrated not only as a colonial heritage but as a collective and living construction of multiple peoples and generations that over the centuries have given it new and permanent forms, sounds, and meanings.
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