Maputo — The Mozambican authorities, according to the Deputy Minister of Culture, Luis Covane, are making every effort to bring the body of the country's greatest poet, Jose Craveirinha, back to Maputo as soon as possible from South Africa, where he died on Thursday morning.
It is hoped that the body will arrive on Friday morning. No programme for the funeral ceremonies has yet been announced.
Although the 80 year old Craveirinha had been ill for some time, his death still came as a shock. Condolences, and messages of appreciation for the poet's work, have been pouring in from across the world - particularly from the Portuguese speaking world. Craveirinha was widely regarded as one of the finest writers of Portuguese verse of the 20th century.
Among the first messages to arrive were those from the leaders of the newest Portuguese speaking nation, East Timor.
Timorese President Xanana Gusmao, himself a poet, declared "Craveirinha enriched us all in bringing his sense of Mozambican identity to his writing".
The 1998 Nobel literature laureate, Portuguese novelist Jose Saramago, declared "this is a severe blow, not only because he was a great poet of our language, but also because we were friends".
Mozambican writer Fernando Couto, whose company Njira published Craveirinha's work in partnership with the Portuguese company Caminho, told AIM "there's no doubt that Craveirinha's poetry influenced a whole generation of Mozambican writers. He had a profound knowledge of lyrical poetry, a knowledge that was evolving over the years".
He recalled how Craveirinha's nationalism led him to be harassed, arrested and tortured by the Portuguese political police, the PIDE, in the 1960s, who believed he was the head of the clandestine network of the liberation movement, FRELIMO, in the entire south of the country.
Couto's son, the novelist Mia Couto, described Craveirinha as "a master and a close friend. He was a partner in many battles and many campaigns".
For a younger poet, Eduardo White, the death of Craveirinha was the loss of "a major reference point for Mozambicans".
Craveirinha's life was "an example of struggle, persistence and, above all, consistency", he said.
White described Craveirinha as "profoundly committed to his dreams, and deeply disappointed when they were not achieved".
The general secretary of the Association of Mozambican Writers (AEMO), Armando Artur, said that Mozambican literature was in deep mourning since, in the space of two months, it had lost two of its greatest practitioners. Craveirinha's friend, the poetess Noemia de Sousa, died in Lisbon in December.
