Roberto Francisco de Almeida

Roberto de Almeida
President of the National Assembly
In office
3 June 1996 – 30 September 2008
Preceded byFernando José de França Dias Van-Dúnem
Succeeded byFernando da Piedade Dias dos Santos
Personal details
Born
Roberto António Victor Francisco de Almeida

(1941-02-05) 5 February 1941 (age 83)
Kaxikane (Cachimane),[1] Catete, Bengo, near Luanda, Overseas Province of Angola, Portugal
Political partyMPLA

Roberto António Victor Francisco de Almeida (born 5 February 1941) is an Angolan activist and politician for the MPLA liberation movement and party, lawyer, journalist, writer and poet. He served as Deputy Foreign Minister (1976-1978), Minister of Foreign Trade (1978-1979), Minister of Planning (1979-1981), and the President of the National Assembly of Angola (1996-2008).[1][2][3]

Besides being a politician, Almeida is also an established Portuguese-language writer, under the pseudonym Jofre Rocha.[1][4]

Publications

Rocha's publications include:[5][6]

Poetry

  • Rocha, Jofre (1973). Tempo de cicio [Time cycle]. Cadernos Capricórnio, 6 (in Portuguese). Capricórnio. 32 pages. Poetry.
  • Rocha, Jofre (1977). Assim se fez madrugada : canções do povo e da revolução [This is how dawn broke: songs of the people and the revolution]. Colecção Autores angolanos, 9 (in Portuguese). Lisboa: Edições 70 (Ed. 70). OCLC 463073408. 78 pages. Poetry.
  • Rocha, Jofre (1985). Crónicas de Ontem e de sempre [Chronicles of yesterday and forever]. Cadernos Lavra & Oficina, 47 (in Portuguese). Luanda: UEA - União dos Escritores Angolanos. LCCN 89191431. OCLC 21077361. 53 pages.
  • Rocha, Jofre (1988). 60 canções de amor e luta : põesia [60 songs of love and struggle : poetry]. Contemporâneos (in Portuguese). Luanda: União dos escritores angolanos. OCLC 499453133. 82 pages. Poetry.

Anthology

  • Rocha, Jofre (2014). Neto, Akiz (ed.). Contingência : afectos, revoltas e ternura : poesia de Jofre Rocha, antologia [Contingency : affections, revolts and tenderness : poetry by Jofre Rocha, anthology] (in Portuguese). Luanda, Angola; Lisboa: Ministério da Cultura, Comissão Organizadora do II Festival Nacional de Cultura ; Mercado das Letras. OCLC 1352000355. 217 pages. Poetry.

Prose

Short stories

  • Rocha, Jofre (1977). Estórias do Musseque [Stories from the Musseque (slum)]. Colecção Autores angolanos, 3 (in Portuguese). Lisboa / São Paulo: Edições 70 / Ática. OCLC 863325218. 88 pages. Short stories.

Politics

  • Rocha, Jofre (2002). 10º aniversário da Assembleia Nacional [10th anniversary of the National Assembly, 1992-2002] (in Portuguese). Luanda: Assembléia Nacional. OCLC 940755050. 116 pages. Prose.
  • Rocha, Jofre (2011). Peço a palavra : peças de oratória parlamentar [I request the floor: parliamentary oratory pieces]. Discursos, entrevistas & communicações, no. 1 (in Portuguese). Luanda: Kilombelombe. ISBN 9789898368157. OCLC 820553468. 460 pages. Prose.

Public service

Political offices
Preceded by
 Deputy Foreign Minister
1976-1978 		Succeeded by
Preceded by
 Minister of Foreign Trade
1978–1979 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Minister of Planning
1979–1981 		Succeeded by
Preceded by President of the National Assembly of Angola
1996-2008 		Succeeded by

Quote

The first lines of Rocha's Poem of Return are:


When I return from the land of exile and silence

Do not bring me flowers.

Bring me rather all the dews,
Tears of dawns which witnessed dramas.
Bring me the immense hunger for love
and the plaint of tumid sexes in the star-studded night.
Bring me the long night of sleeplessness
with mothers mourning, their arms bereft of sons.

...

— Beier & Moore 2007, p. 40.

References

  1. ^ a b c Beier, Ulli; Moore, Gerald (2007). The Penguin Book of Modern African Poetry. Penguin Classics (4th ed.). London: Penguin Books. p. 301. ISBN 9780140424720. OCLC 466152546. 448 pages. First edition 1963.
  2. ^ "Perfil - Assembleia Nacional". www.parlamento.ao (in Portuguese).
  3. ^ "Jofre Rocha. Biografia". portaldaliteratura.com (in Portuguese). Portal da Literatura. Cofomark, Carnaxide, Portugal. 2024. Retrieved 18 November 2024.
  4. ^ "Biografia" (in Portuguese). tirodeletra.com.br. Retrieved 3 Mar 2019. Nasceu em 05/02/1941, em Caxicane, Angola. Advogado, Cientista social, contista e poeta, participou, ativamente, da guerrilha para libertação do seu país. [He was born on 05/02/1941 in Caxicane, Angola. Lawyer, social scientist, short story writer and poet, he took an active part in the guerrilla war to liberate his country.]
  5. ^ "Find items in libraries near you". search.worldcat.org. OCLC, Inc. 2024. Retrieved 18 November 2024. Search for "Jofre Rocha".
  6. ^ "Pesquisa bibliográfica" [Bibliographical search]. memoria-africa.ua.pt (in Portuguese). Aveiro, Portugal: O Portal das Memórias de África e do Oriente (The Portal of Memories of Africa and the Orient). Universidade de Aveiro. Fundação Portugal-Africa. Retrieved 18 November 2024. Search for "Rocha, Jofre".
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