Pepetela was born Artur Carlos Maurício Pestana dos Santos to Portuguese settler parents in Benguela, western Angola, on the 29th of October 1941. In 1958 he went to Lisbon, Portugal, to study engineering. This was followed by a move to Paris and, finally, graduation in sociology in Algiers, Algeria in 1966. It was during this time that he became interested in Marxist liberation theory and, as a result, joined the Movimento Popular Libertação de Angola (Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola, or MPLA) in its drive to liberate Angola from Portuguese colonial rule. Importantly, it was here, too, that he began to use the name Pepetela [Umbundu word for eyelash] as his nom de guerre. As a member of the MPLA, Pepetela was deployed to fight in the Cabinda enclave north of Angola in…
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Citation: Rogers, Sean. "Pepetela". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 18 February 2009 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=12300, accessed 22 November 2024.]
