Young poets ask libraries and avenues to eternalize Noahmia of Sousa

“Do we need to talk about Noahmia and how do we talk about it? Making the book of Noahmia circular. It has already been published with great cost “Blood Negr.

In the Mafala neighborhood, where poet and journalist Carolina Noémia Abrantes de Sousa grew up, Taruma considers that the celebration of the author's centenary is important for representing the genesis of Mozambican poetry and the persistence of her legacy.

Therefore, he understands that the name of Noémia de Sousa should be more exalted, at a time when it remains less celebrated and known than some contemporaries, such as José Craveirinha or Rui Nogar.

Taruma also defends the spread of letters and correspondence from the writer as a way to deepen knowledge about her thinking and how she reflected the country.

The poet also considers it important that publishers rescue scattered texts of Noémia de Sousa and publish them in new editions.

“ We are in a centennial, but I feel little noise (...) but it takes much more, until I leave these private spaces and go to school, because they are fundamental figures in the creation of the thought of the ideological direction of our country and it is necessary to revisit these figures and understand more deeply how these people saw the country ", he defended.

“If the name is there, if the streets bear the name of our poet, the avenues, the schools and if the libraries, training center, people will be curious to find out who this figure is that is patent on the avenue or street,” he added.

Taruma recalls that the first contact with the poet's writing took place in primary education, stating that this reading continues to influence the way she looks at the world.

“Nohemia is a poet who has always been concerned about the human condition, the Mozambican migrant worker to work so slave in the mines of South Africa, worried about the work and condition of the woman, so we have those poems as ‘The girls of the docks’, worried about the question of race, blackness, the affirmation of all African people, Mozambican, regardless of their color”, he said, referring that they are themes that are also part of his literary work.

Also the young poet Nick de Rosario told Lusa that the name of Noémia de Sousa should occupy the same prominent space as his contemporaries, defending the creation of permanent initiatives to ensure greater visibility to the writer.

“ We have several houses that welcome literature and an event that could be done in two days, but that we only talk about Noahmia, that we declare texts of Noahmia and make more anthologies, that are called more women to write poetry, because at this moment we have few women in poetry ", suggested.

Nick knew the writing of Noémia de Sousa in primary school, but it was at the university that deepened the study of the author, describing her poetry as a writing “very hard”.

“ She has that literature of her generation with a lot of strength, a lot of will and that in a certain way I can say that she has transformed some minds and the way she looks at Mozambican poetry, so I believe that for her it has to be made a tribute to the height”, she noted.

The Mafallala Museum, located in the neighborhood where Noémia de Sousa grew up, currently has a library named after the writer and a collection dedicated to Mozambican literature. The space manager, Ivan Laranjeira, explained that the initiative seeks to stimulate the taste for reading among children.

“ We feel that in fact Noahmia is very little publicized, perhaps by the fact that spending most of her life in exile has contributed to her not knowing more about her, however, the impact of her work is tremendous and it is a rich work, considering that she only published one and only book, but, even so, what she addresses, her poetry is tremendous and remains quite current ", told Lusa Ivan Laranjeira.

The Mafala Museum also works on a program to mark the centenary of the poet, while, since the beginning of the year, it promotes lectures in schools in the neighborhood and other points of Maputo to disseminate the life and work of Noémia de Sousa.

Born on September 20, 1926, in Catembe, today Maputo, Carolina Noémia Abranches de Sousa Soares, better known as Noémia de Sousa, was the first black woman to publish poetry in Mozambique, making writing a form of resistance to colonialism and repression of the International State Defense Police (PIDE).

Although he produced most of his work between 1948 and 1951, his texts remained dispersed by newspapers and magazines, being gathered only in 2001 in the book Black Blood, at the initiative of the Association of Mozambican Writers.

Noémia de Sousa died on December 4, 2002, in Cascais, Portugal.