Luis Bernardo Honwana: We Killed Mangy-Dog

[Stewart]

No review, but just a mention at the moment for this small collection of short stories that I'm dipping in and out of. The volume I have is seems to have been published either in 1979 or in the early 1980s, although the copyright page says it was first published in 1969 (translated by Dorothy Guedes) in Heinemann's African Writers Series, although it doesn't seem to be available in their current selection.

I picked it up off eBay about a year ago, purely on the basis that I'd never heard of him, and had an attempt at some point on the first story, Dina. I never understood much. Now I think I do, because it isn't so much what Honwana says as what he doesn't say. The short stories (well, Dina and Inventory Of Furniture & Effects, being the only two I've read so far) have their details and incidents but these only serve half the purpose. Honwana seems to specialise in lacunae. Or, at least, specialised, as this collection is his sole literary work.

The stories deal with colonial issues, concerning Portuguese rule over his native Mozambique, and are quite stark on reflection. In Inventory Of Furniture & Effects, the story is barely more than a child telling of everything in the house with the barest mention of his father, who was taken away for reasons unknown. But looking around at the objects mentioned - books, for example - then there are hints (or suspicions) of resistance. And slowly the story comes together.

I'll keep reporting as I go. The title story, We Killed Mangy-Dog, is the seventh and final one in the collection.