Voices Made Night     by Mia Couto, Translated by David Brookshaw Original title: Vozes anitecidas Original language: Portuguese Original year: 1986 Country: Mozambique   Published by Heinemann Pub. Date: July 1990 Format: Paperback, 115 pages Dimensions: 0.50 x 7.75 x 5.25 in. ISBN: 0435905708 List Price: $9.95, £4.99 Buy online from Amazon.co.uk for £4.99 Published by Heinemann African Writers Pub. Date: 1990 Pub. Place: UK Format: Paperback, 115 pages Not available for ordering

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These two collections of stories from Mozambique are set mainly in the post-independence period, some of them reflecting directly the war which assailed the country between 1978 and 1991. While a few of the stories focus on city life, Couto’s favourite setting is the rural or semi-rural environment of the suburbs, where traditional African culture meets and seeks to adapt to modern urban values. The most tangible result of this cultural encounter is found in Couto’s unorthodox use of language, which derives its inspiration from the way the language of the Portuguese colonialists has been transformed in the mouths of Mozambicans.


One of the constant themes which runs through all Couto’s tales is the way the human imagination is fueled by adversity. Fantasy is at once a destructive force, capable of tragic and cruel consequences, but it can also be a source of beauty, and poetry. Man’s ability to explain mythically the events which affect him in his daily life, is the stuff of which Couto’s stories are made. Another important feature of Couto’s work is the way women are portrayed as bearers of values such as constancy, stoicism and compassion, which make of them morally stronger characters than men. In many of his tales, Couto demonstrates great sadness at the plight of his characters, and the attempted solutions to their problems, but he never fails to show understanding and solidarity with them, often extracting humour from their situation.


On the other hand, his pen is more sharply ironic in its depiction of the excesses of petty bureaucracy, the abuse of power by officials, and the empty use of revolutionary political slogans by those who either do not understand their meaning, or unashamedly quote them while cynically pursuing their own ends.

‘“Each man’s boat is in his own heart” (Makua proverb from Northern Mozambique)

We live far from ourselves , in distant make-believe. We vanish into concealment. Why do we prefer to live in this inner darkness? Maybe because the dark joins things, sews together the threads of separation. In the warm embrace of night, the impossible wins us to suppose we can see it. Our fantasies come to rest in such illusion.’ p51 Every Man is a Race