Yes, Comrade!

Manuel Rui's early prose fiction focused on relations in colonial Angolan society and, in part, functioned as a contestation of Portuguese politics and culture. Rui's writing has never before been translated into English, despite his stature as one of Angola's most important contemporary writers. With the publication of "Yes, comrade!", the non-Portuguese reader will be introduced to this essential work of Angolan fiction. "Yes, Comrade!" comprises five short stories set in Angola during the revolutionary times of the 1960s and early 1970s. The stories communicate a sense of the atmosphere in a city that was occupied by rival nationalistic factions and a colonial power. The political center of consciousness is clearly the revolutionary MPLA (Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola), which won the struggle in the political and military arena. Based on immediate events and using cultural and linguistic codes, Rui explores the ramifications of political independence and nation-state formation. Fascinating and extremely intricate, the stories of "Yes, Comrade!" emerge as telling fictional portrayals of an extremely complex political and cultural scenario.
Manuel Rui, an Angolan, is one of the leading writers of postcolonial Angolan fiction. He has published several works of fiction and poetry, including "Regresso Adiado" (1973), "Memoria de Mar" (1980), and "Quem me dera ser onda" (1982). "Yes, Comrade!" (originally published as "Sim Camarada!", 1977) is the first of his works available in English translation. Ronald W. Sousa is the author of "The Rediscoverers: Major Figures in the Portuguese Literature of National Regeneration", and the translator of Clarice Lispector's "The Passion According to G.H." (Minnesota, 1988).