António Lobo Antunes's twenty-fifth novel, Commission of Tears (2011,
Comissão das Lágrimas) is set during the Angolan Civil War (1975-2002).
Angola attained official independence on November 11, 1975 and, while
the stage was set for transition, a combination of ethnic tensions and
international pressures rendered Angola's hard-won victory problematic.
As with many post-colonial states, Angola was left with both economic
and social difficulties which translated into a power struggle between
the three predominant liberation movements. The People's Movement for
the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), formed in December of 1956 as an
offshoot of the Angolan Communist Party, had as its support base the
Ambundu people and was largely supported by other African countries,
Cuba, and the Soviet Union.
In this novel, Lobo Antunes delves into this traumatic period of
Angola's history through the fragmented memories and dreams of a broken
woman. The author drew from the story of the commander of the female
battalion MPLA (Popular movement for the liberation of Angola) who was
tortured and killed following the state coup of May 1977. It is said
that while they tortured her she did not stop singing. This is the story
of Cristina, admitted in to a psychiatric clinic in Lisbon. In her
torrent of memories, dialogues and traumatic episodes, Cristina
remembers her early childhood in Africa, at the time when everything
inside her head was intertwined with her father´s voice, who was a
former Black priest and became one of the torturers of the "Commission
of Tears." Cristina's white mother, a cabaret dancer imported from
Lisbon to entertain Portuguese farmers in Angola, marries the Black
ex-priest because she finds herself pregnant with Cristina by her the
man who exploits her, the cabaret manager. The long, twisting narrative
weaves together the three voices of daughter, father, and mother as they
recall the terrors of their life in Angola, and their own suffering.
Their personal tragedies, scarred by racism and abuse, mirror those of
the country that is being torn asunder around them.
