Beyond the Colonial Empire: Can we decolonise Uaná – An African Narrative, by João Ferreira?

Resumen

This article proposes a critical and decolonial reinterpretation of João Ferreira’s (1927-) novel Uaná – narrativa africana (1986), in order to rescue it from selective academic oblivion and its reductive classification as “colonial literature” or Lusocentric propaganda in Guinea-Bissau. It analyses the critical reception of the narrative Uaná, marginalised and considered outside the scope of Guinean culture and literature. This paper argues that the novel should be understood as a contribution to Guinean culture and national identity, due to the way it constructs the figure of the national hero (Uaná) and the heroine queen (Iangará), based on the valorisation of individual and collective freedom and human dignity. It highlights the centrality of female emancipation to the construction of a free society, a point that brings the novel closer to Amílcar Cabral’s political ideals on the social transformation of Guinea-Bissau.