- Caetano da Costa Alegre
Caetano da Costa Alegre (
April 26 ,1864 -April 18 ,1890 ) was a Portuguese poet. Born to a "Crioulo" family in the Portuguese colony ofSão Tomé , off the coast ofAfrica , he settled in Portugal in 1882 and attendedmedical school inLisbon , hoping to become a naval doctor, but died oftuberculosis before he could fulfill his dream.In 1916, a friend, journalist Cruz Magalhãez published the poetry he wrote during the eight years Costa Alegre lived in Portugal. The work, written in the popular romantic style of the time, was an immediate success, not least because of how it celebrates his
Africa n origins, expresses longing for his home in São Tomé, and describes the sense of alienation he feels because of his race. He expresses his sorrow after being rejected by a white woman because of the color of hisskin in one of the earliest attempts by an African poet to deal with issues of race.Though distinctly
Europe an in style, the themes of Costa Alegre's work make him a precursor to later African authors and poets, who dealt with issues of race, alienation, and nostalgic reveries for the past (in his case, his reminiscences about São Tomé).
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.