Guilherme de Melo

Guilherme José de Melo (20 January 1931 – 29 June 2013) was a Portuguese journalist, novelist and poet. Born in Lourenço Marques, Portuguese Mozambique, he began his journalistic career in Mozambique in the early 1950s and later moved to Portugal in 1974, where he worked for Diário de Notícias until his retirement.

Melo was also an openly gay writer and became associated with early public discussions of homosexuality and LGBT rights in Portugal. His autobiographical novel A Sombra dos Dias (1981) addressed homosexual desire, identity and the experience of growing up gay in colonial Mozambique. His literary work also dealt with colonial society, racism, the Mozambican War of Independence and the social transformation of Portugal and Mozambique.

Early life and journalism

Melo was born on 20 January 1931 in Lourenço Marques, the capital of Portuguese Mozambique. He completed his secondary education there and initially entered the civil service. Around the age of 20, he left government employment to pursue journalism.

He began working as a journalist in 1952, initially for Notícias da Tarde and later for the newspaper Notícias in Lourenço Marques, where he eventually became deputy editor.

Alongside journalism, Melo was involved in literary and cultural activities. His early poetry appeared in Mozambican publications including Itinerário, Capricórnio and Paralelo 20, as well as in literary publications in Portugal.

Between 1956 and 1959, he also contributed to a radio theatre programme at Rádio Clube de Moçambique directed by Reinaldo Ferreira, writing original plays and adapting works by authors including Henrik Ibsen and Federico García Lorca.

Literary career

Melo initially published poetry, short stories and fiction in Mozambique. His first book, A Menina Elisa e Outros Contos, was published in 1960, followed by the short-story collection A Estranha Aventura in 1961.

His 1965 novel As Raízes do Ódio, which dealt with racism in colonial Mozambique, provoked controversy and was seized by the PIDE, the Portuguese political police.

In 1969 he published Moçambique, Norte – Guerra e Paz, a work of reportage on the colonial war in Mozambique. The book received the Prémio Pêro Vaz de Caminha.

Move to Portugal

In October 1974, during the political upheaval preceding Mozambican independence, Melo left Mozambique and settled in Lisbon.

After arriving in Portugal, he worked for the Instituto de Apoio ao Retorno de Nacionais (IARN) and later joined the staff of Diário de Notícias in January 1976. He remained with the newspaper until his retirement at the end of 1996.

His move to Portugal marked a new phase in his literary career. He returned to fiction with the publication of A Sombra dos Dias in 1981, followed by several novels dealing with sexuality, identity, memory and social change.

Sexuality and LGBT themes

Melo was openly gay and his literary work repeatedly addressed homosexual identity and desire. His work has consequently been discussed by scholars of Portuguese-language LGBT literature and queer studies.

His best-known work in this context is A Sombra dos Dias, published in 1981. The novel has an autobiographical character and follows the development of its protagonist's identity and homosexual experiences in colonial Mozambique. Literary scholarship has examined the novel in relation to homoeroticism, colonial identity and resistance.

The theme continued in later works including Ainda Havia Sol (1984) and O Que Houver de Morrer (1989).

Melo also discussed homosexuality publicly in interviews and television appearances. His participation in a 1982 Portuguese television programme devoted to homosexuality has been cited as an early example of public discussion of the subject in Portugal following the Carnation Revolution.

Later works

Melo returned to African themes in Os Leões Não Dormem Esta Noite (1989), a fictionalized biography of Gungunhana, the ruler of the Gaza Empire. The book drew on Melo's memories of Mozambique and his later meeting with Samora Machel.

His later novels included Como um Rio sem Pontes (1992) and As Vidas de Elisa Antunes (1997). Gayvota, published in 2002, addressed homosexuality from a more explicitly nonfictional and autobiographical perspective, while Crónicas dos Bons Costumes followed in 2004.

Although poetry was present in his work from the beginning of his literary career, Melo published his first and only poetry collection, A Raiz da Pele, in 2011.

Selected works

• A Menina Elisa e Outros Contos (1960)
• A Estranha Aventura (1961)
• As Raízes do Ódio (1965)
• Moçambique, Norte – Guerra e Paz (1969)
• A Sombra dos Dias (1981)
• Ainda Havia Sol (1984)
• O Que Houver de Morrer (1989)
• Os Leões Não Dormem Esta Noite (1989)
• Como um Rio sem Pontes (1992)
• As Vidas de Elisa Antunes (1997)
• Gayvota (2002)
• Crónicas dos Bons Costumes (2004)
• A Raiz da Pele (2011)

Death

Guilherme de Melo died in Lisbon on 29 June 2013, aged 82.

External links

• Guilherme de Melo at Via Atlântica, University of São Paulo
• Olhar Moçambique: A sombra dos dias de Guilherme de Melo
• Guilherme de Melo morreu hoje aos 82 anos in Diário de Notícias