Associação dos Escritores
Moçambicanos (AEMO), 1982-

Dossier MZ-0056 [part 1]

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AEMO, the Associação dos Escritores Moçambicanos, the Association of Mozambican Writers, was established thirty years ago, on 31 August 1982, and remains active to the present. Its website can be consulted here. The offices of the AEMO secretariat are at Avenida 24 de Julho 1420 in Maputo (see photograph at left).

This MHN page is one of a planned series of literary pages on such topics as literary criticism, literary and cultural periodicals and individual writers such as Calane da Silva, José Craveirinha, João Dias, Luís Bernardo Honwana, Mia Couto, Noémia de Sousa, Orlando Mendes and Rui Noronha. This page offers a modest collection of contemporary reports from the 1980s on AEMO’s founding and early activities; for detailed current AEMO information and contact details, please go to the official AEMO website.

AEMO logo

Above: The logo of the Associação dos Escritores Moçambicanos, AEMO. Click on the image to go to the AEMO website (in Portuguese), which includes a short history of the organisation and contact numbers for leading officials.

AEMO’s founding conference was attended by all the literary giants of the period, such as Luís Bernardo Honwana, Marcelino dos Santos and José Craveirinha, as well as such figuras as Aquino de Bragança and Carlos Cardoso. Its defined objectives included promoting Mozambican literature at home and abroad, helping and encouraging Mozambican writers, and publishing, as well as preserving and promoting the work of earlier and forgotten Mozambican writers. To its everlasting credit, AEMO – which quickly became a major publisher – has also published a handful of works in local languages such as Shangaan.

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MHN Resources

◊ 20 August 1982
Para breve constituição da Associação dos Escritores. Notícias [Maputo] (20 August 1982). In Portuguese. Click here to download a PDF file, size 29 kb. Announces that AEMO will be founded in the Salão Nobre of the Assembleia Popular on 31 August.

◊ 23 August 1982
Exposição bibliográfico-documental assinala constituição da Associação dos Escritores. Notícias [Maputo] (23 August 1982). In Portuguese. Click here to download a PDF file, size 65 kb. Announces that the founding ceremony will be accompanied by a book exhibition.

◊ 26 August 1982
Quero ser tambor: sarau de poesia na oficialização da Associação dos Escritores. Notícias [Maputo] (26 August 1982). In Portuguese. Click here to download a PDF file, size 49 kb.

◊ 5 September 1982
Escritores moçambicanos: buscar fundo as nossas raízes e assumirmos a nossa moçambicanidade. Domingo [Maputo] (5 September 1982), p.20. In Portuguese. Click here to download a PDF file, size 303 kb.

◊ 12 September 1982
Da escrita das armas à organização das armas literárias: criada Associação dos Escritores Moçambicanos. Tempo [Maputo] no.622 (12 September 1982), p.53-58. In Portuguese. Click here to download a PDF file, size 2.1 Mb.

◊ 12 August 1983
Maria Augusta. Escritores preparam semana literária. Notícias [Maputo] (12 August 1983). In Portuguese. Click here to download a PDF file, size 195 kb.

◊ 11 September 1983
Escritores moçambicanos no limiar de nova fase. Tempo [Maputo] no.674 (11 September 1983), p.50-52. In Portuguese. Click here to download a PDF file, size 565 kb.

◊ 9 October 1983
Associação dos Escritores: literatura em movimento de base. Tempo [Maputo] no.678 (9 October 1983), p.10-11. In Portuguese. Click here to download a PDF file, size 239 kb.

◊ 24 November 1983
Associação de Escritores editará seis livros. Notícias [Maputo] (24 November 1983). In Portuguese. Click here to download a PDF file, size 88 kb.

◊ 13 September 1985
De língua portuguesa: escritores reunidos em Maputo. Notícias [Maputo] (13 September 1985). In Portuguese. Click here to download a PDF file, size 369 kb.

◊ 17 September 1985
De língua portuguesa: escritores preparam congresso. Notícias [Maputo] (17 September 1985). In Portuguese. Click here to download a PDF file, size 319 kb. AEMO holds a preparatory meeting for the first Congresso dos Escritores de Língua Oficial Portuguesa, soon to be held in Portugal.

◊ 21 December 1986
AEMO lança «Espelho dos Dias». Domingo [Maputo] (21 December 1986). In Portuguese. Click here to download a PDF file, size 30 kb. AEMO was by this time the major publisher of literary works (poetry and fiction) in Mozambique. Espelho dos Dias was a book of poetry by Armando Artur.

◊ 12 March 1987
Daniel da Costa. Literatura e ensino: um debate na Associação dos Escritores Moçambicanos. Domingo [Maputo] (12 March 1987), p.14. In Portuguese. Click here to download a PDF file, size 372 kb.

◊ 15 October 1989
Rui Knopfli apresenta comunicação na AEMO. Tempo [Maputo] (15 October 1989). In Portuguese. Click here to download a PDF file, size 179 kb.

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