A Conversation with Ungulani Ba Ka Khosa

Abstract

The author of six books, Khosa’s career took off with the 1987 publication of Ualalapi. The text won the Grand Prize of Mozambican Fiction in 1990, and in 2002, a panel of judges in Accra, Ghana ranked Ualalapi one of the 100 best works of African fiction of the 20th century. Next, Khosa published two collections of short stories, Orgia dos Loucos (1990) and Histórias de Amor e Espanto (1993), followed by the novel No Reino dos Abutres (2002). His novel Os Sobreviventes da Noite (2005), a portrayal of the use of child soldiers and child concubines in the Mozambican war of destabilization, won the José Craveirinha Award in 2007. This interview primarily focuses on Khosa’s most recent novel, Choriro, published in 2009 by the Mozambican publishing house Alcance.