Ondjaki is a pen name of Ndalu de Almeida, born in 1977 in Luanda. The memories from his childhood spent in the Angolan capital inspired him to write the novel Bom Dia, Camaradas (Good Morning, Comrades) (2001) and a collection of short stories Os da Minha Rua (The Ones From My Street) (2007). After completing secondary education in a public school in Luanda, he moved to Portugal where he was awarded a degree in Sociology at ISCTE in Lisbon in 2002. He published his first book, a collection of poetry Actu Sanguíneu (2000) after winning the second prize in the António Jacinto literary competition. Since then, he has published several books of poetry, short stories, novels and children literature. For Os da Minha Rua, Ondjaki was awarded Grande Prémio de Conto Camilo Castelo Branco 2007 in Portugal and his children book Avó Dezanove e o Segredo do Soviético (Grandma Nineteen and the Soviet Man's Secret) (2008) won Prémio Jabuti, the most important Brazilian literary prize, in the category of children literature. Besides his literary production, Ondjaki experiments with different forms of art and cultural activity. He played in an amateur theater, wrote the play Os Vivos, o Morto e o Peixe-Frito (The Alive Ones, the Dead One and the Fried Fish, 2009) and had two individual art exhibitions. He also writes scripts for television and cinema. In 2006 he co-directed (with Kiluanje Liberdade) a very well received documentary about Luanda Oxalá Cresçam Pitangas – Histórias de Luanda (Hope the Pitangas Cherries Grow – Stories of Luanda). Since 2007, Ondjaki lives in Rio de Janeiro (Brasil). Except mentioned books he also published Momentos de Aqui (Moments From Here, short stories, 2001), O Assobiador (The Whistler, novela, 2002), Há Prendisajens Com o Xão (poetry, 2002), Ynari: A Menina das Cinco Tranças (Ynari: A Girl With Five Braids, for children, 2004), Quantas Madrugadas Tem a Noite (How Many Dawns Does the Night Have, novel, 2004), E Se Amanhã o Medo (And If Tomorrow the Fear, short stories, 2005), O Leão e o Coelho Saltitão (The Lion and the Jumping Rabbit, for children, 2008), Materiais Para Confecção de um Espanador de Tristezas (Materials To Make a Duster of Sadnesses, poetry, 2009), O Voo do Golfinho (The Flight of the Dolphin, for children, 2009), Dentro de Mim Faz Sul, seguido de Acto Sanguíneo (Inside Of Me There's South, followed by Blood Act poesia, 2010), A Bicicleta que Tinha Bigodes (The Bicycle That Had Mustache, for children, 2011), Os Transparentes (The Transparent, novel, 2012), Uma Escuridão Bonita (A Beautiful Darkness, for children, Brazil/Portugal, 2013), Sonhos Azuis Pelas Esquinas (Blue Dreams by the Corners, short stories, Portugal, 2014), O céu não sabe dançar sozinho (The Sky Doesn't Know How To Dance Alone, 2014). The novel The Transparent won Saramago Prize 2013.
The Nation by Ondjaki:
"To write fiction is also to rewrite the personal story and the story of the country. As regards social concerns, these are very obvious and they spring from a world that is still being built on social inequality so that fiction itself – or the fictionalized version of reality – is never far removed from these very real social problems. What you find in my work is, variously, a literary, theatrical and comical perspective on se of the social issues that affect Angolan society. This debate ought to be, at one and the same time, the dream of those who colonized and those who were colonized. But the African continent suffers from something which cannot be ignored: because of the many years of slavery and also of bad government, our most pressing problems are different. Either we are at war or we are trying to find the solution to some war or another. Either we live at the end of a war, or we live in the first post-war years. So this African reflection on the post-colonial condition happens only very timidly. It is not, and this is understandable, one of the priorities for national debate in African countries. One day, it will be. At least, I hope it will be."
