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121-607: A Portuguese Angolan , Pepetela was born in Benguela , Portuguese Angola , and fought as a member of the MPLA in the long guerrilla war for Angola's independence. Much of his writing deals with Angola's political history in the 20th century. Mayombe    [ pt ; de ] , for example, is a novel that portrays the lives of a group of MPLA guerrillas who are involved in the anti-colonial struggle in Cabinda , Yaka follows

242-586: A vassal state of the Abbasids ) 800 AD–909   Fatimid Caliphate 909–972   Zirid dynasty (As a vassal state of the Fatimid Caliphate ) 972–1014   Hammadid dynasty 1014–1082   Almoravid Empire 1082-1151   Almohad Caliphate 1151–1235 [REDACTED] Thaaliba , ( tributary of the Tlemcen ) 1235-1516 [REDACTED] Regency of Algiers , ( tributary of

363-651: A Estepe , while it does deal with Angola, continues to reflect the internationalization of Pepetela's themes in the past decade. The book deals with a love affair between a white Angolan and a Mongolian whom he met while studying in Moscow. The novel also returns to some of Pepetela's earliest themes of discovering Angolan nature through its descriptions of the protagonist Júlio's childhood in Huíla province . In addition to dedicating himself to his writing, Pepetela also taught. From 1982 until his retirement from teaching in 2008 he

484-575: A betrayed utopia". The next year he published a different sort of novel, A Gloriosa Família . This work examines the story of the Van Dúnem family, a prominent Angolan family of Dutch descent. Pepetela spent years researching the story of the Dutch in Angola in order to write the novel. This novel does not display the same cynical and disillusioned tone as his other novels of the decade did, instead being

605-503: A breathtaking monument that sits above the Martyrs National Museum. Other landmarks include Djamaa el Djazaïr , the 3rd biggest mosque in the world; Botanical Garden Hamma ; Culture Palace Moufdi Zakaria; Grande Poste d'Alger , located adjacent to Kilometre zero ; Ketchaoua Mosque ; Notre-Dame d'Afrique ; Emir Abdelkader Square as well as Martyr's Square. The city also contains a UNESCO World Heritage Site ,

726-534: A broad historical narrative that does incorporate a somewhat magical realist tone. While this novel stands quite apart from much of the author's other work, the fascination with Angolan history prominent throughout his career probably comes to its truest fruition in this work. As the situation in Angola in the 1990s grew more and more dangerous, Pepetela began spending more time in Lisbon and Brazil . By this point in his life his writing had brought him renown throughout

847-531: A day , but there were not enough flights to cover demand. On arrival in Portugal, those who had been able to draw their savings in Angola could not exchange more than 5,000 Angolan escudos (about US$ 200) into Portuguese escudos. Back in Angola, the new government gave all remaining Portuguese settlers a few months period to choose between Angolan citizenship or to leave the country. A significant minority of them opted for Angola and some of them actively took part in

968-531: A decade. On December 11, 2007, two car bombs exploded in Algiers . One bomb targeted two United Nations office buildings and the other targeted a government building housing the Supreme Court of Algeria . The death toll was at least 62, with over two hundred injured in the attacks. However, only 26 remained hospitalized the following day. As of 2008 , it is speculated that the attack was carried out by

1089-509: A deep love for Angola, a desire to explore Angola's history and culture, a revolutionary spirit, and a didactic tone. The novel was written and published while Pepetela was fighting the colonial government on the Eastern Front in Angola. By contrast, Muana Puó and Mayombe were also written while he was serving on the front, but were not published until after Angolan independence. When Angola gained independence in 1975, Pepetela became

1210-478: A detail Pepetela made clear in an interview with Michel Laban. The author had written the novel as an exercise for himself and several of his close friends to read; nevertheless, the novel was published in 1978, during Pepetela's tenure in the Angolan government. In 1972, Pepetela published his first novel, As Aventuras de Ngunga , a work that he intended for a small student audience. In this text, Pepetela explores

1331-519: A dominant one in Pepetela's work. The final years of the 2000s have seen a continuation of Pepetela's prolific career, with novels appearing in 2007, 2008 and 2009. The 2007 novel O Terrorista de Berkeley, Califórnia is entirely set in the U.S. and has minimal connection to Angola. The book deals with current attitudes about terrorism and also with aspects of technology present in modern society. As with several of his earlier novels, Pepetela claimed in

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1452-474: A global disaster, congregate on a small piece of land in Africa (that Pepetela stresses is very close to where humanity is thought to have originated) and are challenged with attempting to create some kind of new world. This book continues the trend begun with O Terrorista de Berkeley... in that it is not set in Angola, nor does it deal explicitly with the Angolan reality. The last novel of the 2000s, O Planalto e

1573-509: A heated moment later referred to as "fly-whisk incident", the Dey struck the French consul in the face with the handle of a fly-whisk . In an attempt by Charles X of France to increase his popularity amongst the French, he sought to bolster patriotic sentiment , and turn eyes away from his domestic policies, by treating the incident as a public insult and demanded an apology. Failure to respond

1694-732: A leftist priest, Padre Noronha, who taught him about the Cuban Revolution and kept him abreast of current events. Upon finishing his schooling in Lubango, Pepetela travelled to Portugal where he began to study engineering. While at the Instituto Superior Técnico in Lisbon he befriended other Angolan students who were associated with the Casa dos Estudantes do Império , the student association of Portuguese students from

1815-687: A levy intended to suppress the Barbary pirates . In 1516, the amir of Algiers, Selim b. Teumi, invited the corsair brothers Oruç Reis and Hayreddin Barbarossa to expel the Spaniards . Oruç Reis came to Algiers, ordered the assassination of Selim, and seized the town and ousted the Spanish in the Capture of Algiers (1516) . Hayreddin, succeeding Oruç after the latter was killed in battle against

1936-471: A middle-class upbringing in Benguela, attending a school where students of all races and classes intermingled. He has claimed that being raised in Benguela gave him more opportunities to befriend people of other races, because Benguela was a much more mixed city than many others in Angola were during the colonial era. He also claims that he began to develop a class consciousness during his school days, noticing

2057-600: A minority of " Pieds-noirs ", Jews and European settlers due to laws and regulations put by the French government that granted French citizenship to them under the Crémieux Decree while releasing Code de l'indigénat giving inferiority to the "Arabs" and "Muslims" which were getting forcibly removed from their land in favor of building settlements. Many parts of the city were only accessible by settlers in an attempt to separate "Alger" by race , religion and language . Many Europeans settled in Algiers, and by

2178-493: A murder and rape that eventually leads him to a South African counterfeiter named Karl Botha, a reference to former South African prime minister P.W. Botha , who had mandated the South African intervention in Angola in the 1970s and 1980s. The second novel, Jaime Bunda e a Morte do Americano , published in 2003, is set in Benguela instead of Luanda, and deals with American influence in Angola, as Jaime Bunda investigates

2299-697: A pivotal role in the Algerian War (1954–1962), a bloody independence struggle in which hundreds of thousands (estimates range between 350,000 and 1,500,000) died (mostly Algerians but also French and Pieds-Noirs ). In particular, it saw the Battle of Algiers when the 10th Parachute Division of the French Army, starting on January 7, 1957, and on the orders of the French Minister of Justice François Mitterrand (who authorized any means "to eliminate

2420-725: A political entity dominated by religious conservatives called the Islamic Salvation Front engaged in a political test of wills with the authorities. In the 1992 elections for the Algerian National Assembly, the Islamists garnered a large amount of support in the first round. Fearing an eventual win by the Islamists, the army canceled the election process, setting off the civil war between the State and armed religious conservatives which would last for

2541-503: A recent interview with the Angolan Diário de Notícias that this novel was not intended to be published, but rather that he wrote it for himself. His next novel, O Quase Fim do Mundo (2008), was also written as a personal exercise. It is a work that begins to touch on the realm of science fiction, portraying the challenges facing people who find that they are the last living beings left on earth. These characters, who have survived

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2662-574: A scathing critique of Angola's ruling classes, O Quase Fim do Mundo , a post-apocalyptic allegory, and O Planalto e a Estepe , a look at Angola's history and connections with other former communist nations. Pepetela won the Camões Prize , the world's highest honour for Lusophone literature, in 1997. "Pepetela" is a Kimbundu word that means "eyelash," which is a translation of his Portuguese surname, "Pestana". The author received this nom de guerre during his time as an MPLA combatant. Pepetela

2783-596: A scholarship to study Sociology in Algiers , where he was approached by Henrique Abranches from the MPLA to help create a Center for Angolan Studies. This Center became the focus of the young Pepetela's work for the next decade. Until 1969, Pepetela, Abranches, and other MPLA members worked together to document Angolan culture and society and publicize the MPLA's struggle. In 1969, the Center moved from Algiers to Brazzaville in

2904-418: A very critical stance. The novel, spanning three decades, is divided into four parts, each of which covers an important aspect of Angola's 20th century, including Portuguese colonial oppression , the war for independence , the civil war, and the brief respite from the war that occurred in the early 1990s. Pepetela's interest in history remained evident in this book, but his criticism of the Angolan establishment

3025-409: A young ballerina who is dancing the role of Lueji in a contemporary piece. In the words of Ana Mafalda Leite, "The author writes chronologically of the two women, whose lives eventually begin to merge in the novel." In the novel, Pepetela recreates the history of seventeenth century Angola . This is a project that he would undertake again with the 16th century in his 1994 novel A gloriosa família . In

3146-539: Is a conflict which defines the foundation of the 'fatherland'". After leaving the government at the end of 1982, Pepetela began to focus exclusively on his writing, beginning work on his most ambitious novel to date, Yaka . Yaka , first published in 1984, is a sweeping historical novel that examines the lives of a family of Portuguese settlers who came to Benguela in the 19th century. A clear desire to research his own origins can be seen in Pepetela's choice to write Yaka . Pepetela himself, as mentioned earlier in this entry,

3267-400: Is a descendant of Portuguese settlers in Benguela. Like Muana Puó , Yaka also incorporates traditional Angolan spiritual objects in its narrative technique. Where the first novel focuses on masks, Yaka uses a traditional wooden statue utilized by the yakas, social organizations dedicated to the prosecution of war, to structure the narrative. Ana Mafalda Leite writes, " Yaka symbolises at once

3388-461: Is a parody of James Bond, whose name stems from his oversized backside ("bunda" in Portuguese). The character is obsessed with both James Bond films and American private-eye novels, something that Henighan claims is "ideologically charged" and illustrates elements of Angola's underdevelopment. In the first of the novels, Jaime Bunda, agente secreto , published in 2001, the protagonist investigates

3509-531: Is divided into aisles by columns joined by Moorish arches. The New Mosque ( Jamaa-el-Jedid الجامع الجديد), dating from the 17th century, is in the form of a Greek cross , surmounted by a large white cupola, with four small cupolas at the corners. The minaret is 27 metres (89 ft) high. The interior resembles that of the Grand Mosque. The church of the Holy Trinity (built in 1870) stands at

3630-402: Is estimated that around 250,000 left the country in 1975 and by 1976 only 30,000 to 40,000 remained in Angola. Among the departed Portuguese civilians, many were only able to take with them a single suitcase, while some were able to dispatch their household goods and even cars by ship. The majority left everything behind. They boarded planes at Luanda's Craveiro Lopes Airport at the rate of 500

3751-423: Is notable for using the story of a German shepherd's wanderings through Luanda to structure it, and for containing a variety of narrative voices. In 1989, he published Lueji , a work similar to A Revolta na Casa dos Ídolos in that it draws parallels between Angolan history and the contemporary situation in the country. The novel juxtaposes the princess Lueji, an important figure in 17th-century Angolan history, with

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3872-549: Is sheltered from all winds. There are two harbours, both artificial—the old or northern harbour and the southern or Agha harbour. The northern harbour covers an area of 95 hectares (235 acres). An opening in the south jetty affords an entrance into Agha harbour, constructed in Agha Bay. Agha harbour has also an independent entrance on its southern side. The inner harbour was begun in 1518 by Khair-ad-Din Barbarossa (see History, below), who, to accommodated his pirate vessels, caused

3993-706: The Al Qaeda cell within the city. Indigenous terrorist groups have been actively operating in Algeria since around 2002 . Algiers is located in the north-central part of Algeria , extending along the Bay of Algiers and into the Mitidja plain and on top of and around the "Sahel of Algiers" and the Bouzaréah massif . It sits at roughly 2 m above sea level, while the highest point is at 407 m. The Oued El Harrach meets

4114-512: The Angolan Civil War , generally on the side of the MPLA . After Angola abandoned in 1991 the socialist regime adopted at independence in 1975, many Portuguese Angolans returned to Angola. Due to Angola's economic boom, which started in the 1990s, an increasing number of Portuguese without previous attachment to Angola have migrated to Angola for economic reasons, most importantly the recent national economic boom . As of 2008, Angola

4235-543: The Angolan War of Independence , but several hundreds of thousands have either returned or emigrated to live in Angola. In 1482, Portuguese caravels commanded by Diogo Cão arrived in the Kingdom of Kongo . Other expeditions followed, and close relations were soon established between the two states. The Portuguese brought firearms and many other technological advances, as well as a new religion (Christianity); in return,

4356-635: The Battle of Cirta , Numidia got a hold of the town along with its neighboring regions at around 202 BC, after which the Punic wars started weakening the Berber nation. On 104 BC, following the capturing of Jughurta and executing him in Rome , the western half of his nation was given to Mauretania under the rule of Bocchus I . At around 42 AD, Claudius divided Mauretania into two provinces, Mauretania Caesariensis that included Icosium as one of its towns;

4477-576: The Casbah or citadel, that is a prominent example of Casbah and Medina. This metropolis has hosted many sports events such as the 1975 Mediterranean Games , the 1990 African Cup of Nations alongside Annaba , the 1978 All-Africa Games and 2007 All-Africa Games , the 2018 African Youth Games , the 2022–23 CAF Confederation Cup , the 2023 Arab Games with 4 other cities; the 2022 African Nations Championship with 3 other cities. Sonatrach Petroleum Corporation and Air Algérie are headquartered in

4598-758: The Eastern Roman Empire , making Icosium a part of the empire. In the early 7th century, "Beni Mezghenna" who are a Berber tribe belonging to the Sanhaja as cited by Ibn Khaldoun , settled on the plains of Icosium and the surrounding areas. Shortly after, in the late 7th century, the Muslim conquest of the Maghreb brought the Umayyad Caliphate into the region, but were faced with resistance from Berber forces led by Kahina and Kusaila in

4719-602: The French Republic " according to a formal annexation declared on June 22, 1834. France focused their interest into areas inhabited by locals, this in turn was the French conquest of Algeria that shared goals with its pacification efforts; Establishing a European cultural , economic and political presence in Africa without considering the indigenous population 's lifestyle or connection to their land. The city had

4840-622: The Houari Boumediene Airport and Algiers Ferry Terminal. Algiers possesses notable mass transit options, that includes the Algiers Metro , the city's subway system that recorded about 46 million passengers in 2023, alongside the Algiers tramway and several Gondola lift lines helping with the difference in elevation , in addition to many bus lines connecting the suburbs and major population centers. Algiers houses many museums, art galleries and cultural centers,

4961-535: The Inquisition . Algiers Algiers ( / æ l ˈ dʒ ɪər z / al- JEERZ ; Arabic : الجزائر , romanized :  al-Jazāʾir ) is the administrative, political and economic capital and largest city of Algeria as well as the capital of the Algiers Province . The city's population at the 2008 census was 2,988,145 and in 2020 was estimated to be around 4,500,000. Located in

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5082-729: The Kingdom of Tlemcen in 1235 AD. The town once again came under the dominion of the Ziyanid sultans of the Kingdom but experienced a large measure of independence under Thaaliba amirs who settled the Mitidja plain at around 1200 AD. The Kingdom of Tlemcen was the target of the Spanish Empire 's and the Portuguese Empire 's campaigns and conquests against its coasts, beginning in 1501 AD. However, Algiers continued to be of comparatively little importance until after

5203-770: The Kingdom of the Netherlands , destroying the corsair fleet harboured in Algiers. France and the Regency of Algiers had a commercial–political conflict called the Bakri-Busnach affair which has been bothering both nations in the 19th century. On April 29, 1827, foreign consuls and diplomatic agents gathered in the Palace of the Dey for a conference with the Regency of Algiers ruler Hussein Dey . Tensions were high because of France 's failure to pay outstanding debts. In

5324-653: The Maghrawa forces there and their leader; He pressed on and by 1082 AD he had captured "Jazaʾir Banī Mazghanna". In 1151 AD, Abd al-Mu'min launched an expedition to the east, conquering Bejaia in August 1152, the capital of the Hammadids; on their way, Beni Mezghanna did not succumb and was now under the Almohad Caliphate 's control. The caliphate suffered from states breaking out of its rule, most notably,

5445-682: The Maghreb resulted in the breaking of two nations, the Idrisid dynasty and the Aghlabid Emirate but acted as agents of the Abbasids in Baghdad . Icosium fell into the hands of Aghlabids and abandoned the town. They were then overthrown by the Fatimids in 909 AD, who went on to control all of Ifriqiya by 969 AD. The present city was re-founded in 972 AD by Buluggin ibn Ziri , who

5566-528: The Mediterranean Sea aids in moderating the city's temperatures. As a result, Algiers usually does not see the extreme temperatures that are experienced in the adjacent interior. Algiers on average receives roughly 600 millimetres (24 in) of rain per year, the bulk of which is seen between October and April. The precipitation is higher than in most of coastal Mediterranean Spain , and similar to most of coastal Mediterranean France , as opposed to

5687-523: The Ottoman Empire ) 1516–1830 [REDACTED] France , ( French Algeria ) 1830–1962 [REDACTED]   Algeria 1962–present The city's history is believed to date back to 1200 BC, but it was a small settlement without any significance until around the 3rd century BC when "Ikosim" became a small port town in Carthage where Phoenicians were trading with other Mediterranean ports. After

5808-587: The Republic of Congo . After the move to Brazzaville, Pepetela became more active in the MPLA's armed resistance against the Portuguese in the Cabinda region of Angola and on the Eastern Front. This time in the late 1960s and early 1970s served as the inspiration for one of Pepetela's most recognized works, the war narrative, Mayombe . During this time, Pepetela also wrote his first novel, Muana Puó . The novel

5929-411: The expulsion of the Moors from Spain, many of whom sought asylum in the city, after which the Spanish led by Pedro Navarro established a fortified base and garrison on one of the islets off the coast of Algiers, and named it "Peñón de Argel" or Peñón of Algiers, . By that time, Algiers had an emir , Salim al-Thumi who had to "swear obedience and loyalty" to Ferdinand II of Aragon who also imposed

6050-487: The "action and incidents" experienced by the nationalist fighters. Ana Mafalda Leite considers the novel to be both critical and heroic, both attempting to highlight the ethnic diversity supposedly celebrated by the MPLA and also illustrating the tribal divisions present in Angolan society, which would lead to the eventual civil war that tore the nation apart in the years from independence until 2002. Leite writes that "the theme of war assumes an heroic and epic dimension since it

6171-400: The 1,450 European residents of Luanda, 721 were exiled criminals, degredados . Before the 1920s, despite government incentives, very few Portuguese went to Angola willingly. In 1960, Angola had up to 172,000 Portuguese settlers, who significantly contributed to its economy. The majority of whom came from rural agrarian backgrounds in Portugal, who saw engaging in commerce in Angola as one of

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6292-418: The 16th century Algiers turned to piracy and ransoming. Due to its location on the periphery of both the Ottoman and European economic spheres, and depending for its existence on a Mediterranean that was increasingly controlled by European shipping, backed by European navies, piracy became the primary economic activity. Repeated attempts were made by various nations to subdue the pirates that disturbed shipping in

6413-428: The 1990s, Pepetela's writing continued to exhibit interest in Angola's history, but also began to examine the political situation in the country with a greater sense of irony and criticism. His first novel of the decade, the 1992 A geração da utopia , addresses many of the issues first raised in Mayombe , but from the perspective of the post-independence reality of Angola. The Angolan Civil War and intense corruption in

6534-431: The 1998 and 2008 Censuses: There are many public buildings of interest, including the whole Kasbah quarter, Martyrs Square ( Sahat ech-Chouhada ساحة الشهداء), the government offices (formerly the British consulate), the " Grand ", " New ", and Ketchaoua Mosques, the Roman Catholic cathedral of Notre Dame d'Afrique , the Bardo Museum , the old Bibliothèque Nationale d'Alger —a moorish palace built in 1799–1800 and

6655-432: The 2022 IPCC Sixth Assessment Report , Algiers is one of 12 major African cities ( Abidjan , Alexandria , Algiers, Cape Town , Casablanca , Dakar , Dar es Salaam , Durban , Lagos , Lomé , Luanda and Maputo ) which would be the most severely affected by the future sea level rise . It estimates that they would collectively sustain cumulative damages of U$ 65 billion under RCP 4.5 and US$ 86.5 billion for

6776-432: The 680s, who opposed the advancing Islamic armies. However, Hassan ibn al-Nu'man and Musa ibn Nusayr later defeated both Berber leaders, killing Kusaila at the Battle of Mamma (688) and killing Dihya at the Battle of Tabarka (702), leading to the subjugation of the Berber tribes, bringing Islamic rule into North Africa. The Abbasid Caliphate succeeded Umayyad Caliphate at around 750 AD. Independence movements across

6897-426: The European and African residents of the city, describing a situation in which "the 'civilised' live like rats in holes" whereas "the 'barbarians' live in solitude, in well-being". However, these plans were ultimately ignored by the French administration. During World War II , Algiers was the first city to be seized from the Axis by the Allies in Operation Terminal , a part of Operation Torch . Algiers also played

7018-410: The French Revolution, something that influenced him profoundly. When he was 14, the young Pepetela moved to Lubango (then Sá da Bandeira), to continue his studies because there was no high school in Benguela at the time. In Lubango, Pepetela claimed that he became more aware of the problems of race in Angola, as Lubango was a much more segregated community than Benguela. In Lubango he was influenced by

7139-428: The King of the Congo offered plenty of slaves, ivory, and minerals. The Portuguese colony of Angola was founded in 1575 with the arrival of Paulo Dias de Novais with a hundred families of colonists and four hundred soldiers. Luanda was granted the status of city in 1605. Many Portuguese settlers married native Africans, resulting in a mixed-race ( mulato , later generally called mestiço ) population. In 1881, of

7260-428: The Portuguese-speaking world. In 1997 he was awarded the Camões Prize, the world's highest honour for Lusophone literature. Pepetela is the first Angolan and the second African author to win this prestigious award. Pepetela has continued to be a prolific writer throughout the 2000s. His work has taken a satirical turn with the series of "Jaime Bunda" novels, detective novels that cast a satirical view on life in Luanda in

7381-412: The Spaniards in the 1518 fall of Tlemcen , was the founder of the pashaluk , which subsequently became the beylik , of Algeria. Barbarossa lost Algiers in 1524 but regained it with the 1529 Capture of Peñón of Algiers , and then formally invited the Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent to accept sovereignty over the territory and to annex Algiers to the Ottoman Empire . Algiers from this time became

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7502-422: The Vice Minister of Education in President Agostinho Neto 's government. The author was a part of the government for seven years, submitting his resignation in 1982 to dedicate more time to his writing. During his tenure as Vice Minister he published several novels, including Mayombe , a novel that had been written when he was an active MPLA combatant in the early 1970s, the publication of which only came about with

7623-419: The area. Led by Mazdali ibn Tilankan , the army defeated the Banu Ya'la in battle near the valley of the Moulouya River and executed their commander, the son of Tlemcen's ruler. However, Mazdali ibn Tilankan did not push to Tlemcen right away as the city of Oujda was too strong to capture. Instead, Ibn Tashfin himself returned with an army in 1081 AD that captured Oujda and then conquered Tlemcen, massacring

7744-461: The authorities (more than 300 dead), but the movement constituted a turning point in the political history of modern Algeria. The 1989 Algerian constitutional referendum took place and a new constitution was adopted that put an end to the one-party rule and saw the creation of more than fifty political parties, as well as official freedom of the press. The city became the theatre of many political demonstrations of all descriptions until 1993. In 1991,

7865-430: The chief seat of the Barbary pirates . In October 1541 in the Algiers expedition , the King of Spain and Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor sought to capture the city, but a storm destroyed a great number of his ships, and his army of some 30,000, chiefly made up of Spaniards, was defeated by the Algerians under their pasha , Hassan. Formally part of the Ottoman Empire but essentially free from Ottoman control, starting in

7986-513: The city. The city's name is derived via French and Catalan Alger from the Arabic name al-Jazāʾir ( الجزائر ), "The Islands". This name refers to the four former islands which lay off the city's coast before becoming part of the mainland in 1525. Al-Jazāʾir is itself a truncated form of the city's older name Jazaʾir Banī Mazghanna ( جزائر بني مزغانة ), "islands of Banu Mazghanna", used by early medieval geographers such as Muhammad al-Idrisi and Yaqut al-Hamawi . The name

8107-412: The coasts of today's Tunisia and Algeria . The Western Roman Empire that was ruling the area allowed the Vandals to settle when it became clear that they could not be defeated by Roman military forces. Though the city was damaged again due to the fighting between the two armies, the town was still slowly growing in population. In 534 AD, the Vandal kingdom was subjugated by the general Belisarius of

8228-421: The complexities of the actual mise en scène". As mentioned above, Pepetela published several novels during his time as a government minister. Of these Mayombe is among the best known. The novel is an account of Pepetela's time as a guerilla in the MPLA. The novel functions on two levels, one in which the characters' thoughts about the nature of the struggle for independence are explored, and another that narrates

8349-414: The consciousness of traditional values and 'the anticipated spirit of nationality' of the new country". Yaka won the 1986 Angolan national prize for literature. Pepetela continued to write throughout the decade, publishing O cão e os Caluandas , a novel that looks at the inhabitants of Luanda and the changes that they have undergone since independence, one year after the publication of Yaka . The novel

8470-629: The course of the 20th century, due to the waves of new settlers arriving from Portugal, their language became practically identical with European Portuguese. Some Portuguese Angolans have a lesser or greater mastery of one of the Bantu languages – notably Kimbundu , Umbundu , and Kikongo – but their number has diminished dramatically after independence, and hardly anybody now uses an African language as second languages. The vast majority of Portuguese Angolans are Christians , mostly Catholics , although many of them do not practice their religion. A very small number of them are Jews , whose ancestors escaped

8591-400: The differences between his own lifestyle and the lives of friends who lived in a nearby slum area. In an interview with Michel Laban, he claims that his upbringing also influenced his political views. He had an uncle who was a journalist and writer and who exposed him to many important leftist thinkers. His father also had a considerable library that allowed the young Pepetela to learn more about

8712-489: The early 20th century they formed a majority of the city's population. During the 1930s, the architect Le Corbusier drew up plans for a complete redesign of the colonial city. Le Corbusier was highly critical of the urban style of Algiers, describing the European district as "nothing but crumbling walls and devastated nature, the whole a sullied blot". He also criticised the difference in living standards he perceived between

8833-539: The explicit support of President Agostinho Neto. During this period, Pepetela diversified his writing, also writing two plays that focused on Angolan history and on revolutionary politics. Pepetela was part of the governing board of the Angolan Writers' Union throughout this period as well. Pepetela's plays written during his government tenure also reflect the themes in As Aventuras de Ngunga . The first of

8954-471: The few means of upward social mobility available to them. As the Angolan war of independence began in 1961, triggering off a late colonial development of Angola, there was an influx of Portuguese military personnel, as well as civil servants and other people. As a consequence, the number of Portuguese living in Angola went up to about 350,000. This number would have been higher, had a significant part of

9075-482: The foot of the Casbah, was before independence in 1962 the cathedral of St Philippe, itself made in 1845 from a mosque dating from 1612. The principal entrance, reached by a flight of 23 steps, is ornamented with a portico supported by four black-veined marble columns. The roof of the nave is of Moorish plaster work. It rests on a series of arcades supported by white marble columns. Several of these columns belonged to

9196-401: The government both led to a questioning of the revolutionary values espoused in the earlier novel. Ana Mafalda Leite describes the novel as "a critical and sceptical book, not to say a book of disillusionment, certainly one far removed from Mayombe's heroic virtues." In this novel, Pepetela analyzes his characters psychologically in greater depth than he had done in his earlier works and assumes

9317-457: The growth of Ngunga, a young MPLA guerrilla, using an epic and didactic tone. The novel introduces the reader, through the eyes of Ngunga, to the customs, geography, and psychology of Angola. Pepetela also used this work to create a dialogue between Angolan tradition and his revolutionary ideology, exploring which traditions should be nurtured, and which should be altered. As aventuras... is a novel that exemplifies Pepetela's early career, exhibiting

9438-457: The high-emission scenario RCP 8.5 by the year 2050. Additionally, RCP 8.5 combined with the hypothetical impact from marine ice sheet instability at high levels of warming would involve up to US$ 137.5 billion in damages, while the additional accounting for the "low-probability, high-damage events" may increase aggregate risks to $ 187 billion for the "moderate" RCP 4.5, $ 206 billion for RCP 8.5 and $ 397 billion under

9559-484: The high-end ice sheet instability scenario. Since sea level rise would continue for about 10,000 years under every scenario of climate change, future costs of sea level rise would only increase, especially without adaptation measures. The Casbah is on a list of 10 African World Heritage Site most threatened by sea level rise. The city (and province) of Algiers is composed of 13 administrative districts, sub-divided into 57 communes listed below with their populations at

9680-402: The inhabitants left unharmed. The heroine, a character named Carmina Cara de Cu, leaves her career as a government bureaucrat and becomes an arms dealer. In an essay on the novel comparing the collapse of the buildings that is the focal point of the novel to the attacks of September 11, 2001, Phillip Rothwell writes that the novel "in some ways continues Pepetela's profound and damning portrayal of

9801-456: The insurrectionists" ), led attacks against the Algerian fighters for independence. Algiers remains marked by this battle, which was characterized by merciless fighting between FLN forces which carried out a guerrilla campaign against the French military and police and pro-French Algerian soldiers, and the French Army which responded with a bloody repression, torture and blanket terrorism against

9922-476: The interior North African semi-arid or arid climate. Snow is very rare; in 2012, the city received 100 millimetres (4 in) of snowfall, its first snowfall in eight years. A 2019 paper published in PLOS One estimated that under Representative Concentration Pathway 4.5 , a "moderate" scenario of climate change where global warming reaches ~2.5–3 °C (4.5–5.4 °F) by 2100, the climate of Algiers in

10043-427: The island on which was Fort Penon to be connected with the mainland by a mole . The lighthouse which occupies the site of Fort Penon was built in 1544. Algiers was a walled city from the time of the deys until the close of the 19th century. The French, after their occupation of the city (1830), built a rampart , parapet and ditch , with two terminal forts, Bab Azoun باب عزون to the south and Bab-el-Oued اد to

10164-399: The lives of members of a white settler family in the coastal town of Benguela, and A Geração da Utopia reveals the disillusionment of young Angolans during the post-independence period. Pepetela has also written about Angola's earlier history in A Gloriosa Família and Lueji , and has expanded into satire with his series of Jaime Bunda novels. His most recent works include Predadores ,

10285-471: The lower city (al-Wata, or 'the plains') which was the administrative, military and commercial centre of the city, mostly inhabited by Ottoman Turkish dignitaries and other upper-class families. On August 27, 1816, the Bombardment of Algiers took place city by a British squadron under Lord Exmouth (a descendant of Thomas Pellew, taken in an Algerian slave raid in 1715 ), assisted by men-of-war from

10406-718: The most notable of which are Algiers Opera House , the Algerian National Theater Mahieddine Bachtarzi , Bardo National Museum (Algiers) , the National Museum of Fine Arts of Algiers , The National Museum of Antiquities and Islamic Art ; the "National Museum of Miniatures, Illumination and Calligraphy" located inside of Dar Mustapha Pacha ; " Palais des Rais "; Algerian Admiralty Museum; the Central Military Museum adjacent to Maqam Echahid (Martyrs Memorial),

10527-503: The murder of an American and tries to seduce an American FBI agent. This novel also presents Pepetela's critique of U.S. foreign policy, as the heavy-handed behavior of the Angolan police mirrors the ways that Americans dealt with suspected terrorists during the same period. The novels were published by the Portuguese publisher Dom Quixote and were extremely popular in Portugal, having also had some success in other European countries, such as Germany, where Pepetela had been relatively unknown in

10648-595: The native population. The demonstrations of May 13 during the crisis of 1958 provoked the fall of the Fourth Republic in France, as well as the return of General de Gaulle to power. Algeria achieved independence on July 5, 1962, with Algiers as its capital. Since then, despite losing its entire pied-noir population, the city has expanded massively. It now has about five million inhabitants, or 10 percent of Algeria's population—and its suburbs now cover most of

10769-575: The new National Library , built in a style reminiscent of the British Library . The main building in the Kasbah was begun in 1516 on the site of an older building, and served as the palace of the deys until the French conquest. A road has been cut through the centre of the building, the mosque turned into barracks , and the hall of audience allowed to fall into ruin. There still remain a minaret and some marble arches and columns. Traces exist of

10890-549: The new decade. Stephen Henighan writes that the character of Jaime Bunda, a bumbling detective with roots in two of Angola's most prominent families, represents the changes that the Luanda Creole population has undergone in the view of Pepetela. Rather than representing a revolutionary vanguard that will create a new Angolan identity, the Creoles of Luanda are depicted in the novels as a kleptocratic oligarchy. Jaime Bunda

11011-576: The new name of Icosium was absorbed into the Hammadid dynasty who in 1067 AD relocated to Bejaia and carried on a lively trade while most of North Africa was under a state of anarchy . In 1079 AD, Ibn Tashfin , a Sanhaja leader of the Almoravid Empire sent an army of 20,000 men from Marrakesh to push towards what is now Tlemcen to attack the "Banu Ya'la", the Zenata tribe occupying

11132-578: The north-central part of the country, it extends along the shores of the Bay of Algiers in the heart of the Maghreb region making it classified among the biggest cities in North Africa , the Arab world and the Mediterranean Sea , making it a major center of culture , arts , gastronomy and trade . The city contains the largest infrastructure facilities in the country; railway and highway connections with neighbouring cities and international links via

11253-452: The north. The forts and part of the ramparts were demolished at the beginning of the 20th century, when a line of forts occupying the heights of Bouzareah بوزريعة (at an elevation of 396 metres (1,299 ft) above the sea) took their place. Notre Dame d'Afrique , a church built (1858–1872) in a mixture of the Roman and Byzantine styles, is conspicuously situated overlooking the sea, on

11374-443: The original mosque. In one of the chapels was a tomb containing the bones of Geronimo . The building seems a curious blend of Moorish and Byzantine styles. Algiers possesses a college with schools of law, medicine, science and letters. The college buildings are large and handsome. The Bardo Museum holds some of the ancient sculptures and mosaics discovered in Algeria, together with medals and Algerian money. The port of Algiers

11495-472: The other side consists of five guerilla fighters of various ethnicities representing the MPLA. The next play that Pepetela wrote, A Revolta da Casa dos Ídolos, takes place in the past, drawing parallels between the Kongo kingdom in the 16th century and Angola's struggle for independence. Leite writes, "The play remains didactic but it is innovative both in terms of its use of historical material, and especially in

11616-734: The overseas. After two years of study he decided that engineering would not fulfill his interests, and he tried to enter the History course at the Faculty of Letters of the University of Lisbon. However, with the start of the Portuguese Colonial War home in Angola, he was summoned to serve in the Portuguese Armed Forces and decided to flee Portugal. Pepetela first went to Paris and then, in 1963, earned

11737-486: The past. Pepetela also published other types of novels during the decade. His first book to be published in the 2000s was A Montanha da Água Lilás (2000), a children's book that also looks at the roots of social injustice. In 2005, after the success of the Jaime Bunda novels, he published Predadores , his sharpest critique of the Angolan ruling class yet. The novel takes place in post-independence Angola and follows

11858-493: The period. The primary source for knowledge of Algiers of this period, since there are no contemporary local sources, is the Topografía e historia general de Argel (1612, but written earlier), published by Diego de Haedo, but whose authorship is disputed. This work describes in detail the city, the behavior of its inhabitants, and its military defenses, with the unsuccessful hope of facilitating an attack by Spain so as to end

11979-419: The piracy. A significant number of renegades lived in Algiers at the time, Christians converted voluntarily to Islam , many fleeing the law or other problems at home. Once converted to Islam, they were safe in Algiers. Many occupied positions of authority, such as Samson Rowlie , an Englishman who became Treasurer of Algiers. The city under Ottoman control was enclosed by a wall on all sides, including along

12100-460: The plays, A Corda , was the first full-length dramatic work to be published in post-independence Angola. It is a play that, in the words of Ana Mafalda Leite, is "didactic and more than a little ideological, making it of limited literary interest". The play is in one act and features two sides playing a game of tug-of-war over Angola. One side includes the Americans and their Angolan clients, while

12221-524: The sea while crossing near El Harrach , a neighbourhood of the city hence the name, while Mazafran River ends near the far western suburbs dividing Algiers Province and Tipaza Province ; Both of these are called "Widan" which help in supplying agricultural needs in "Mitidja" which borders the Tell Atlas mountain range which could be spotted from the city. Algiers has a Mediterranean climate ( Köppen climate classification Csa ). Its proximity to

12342-537: The seafront. In this wall, five gates allowed access to the city, with five roads from each gate dividing the city and meeting in front of the Ketchaoua Mosque. In 1556, a citadel, Palace of the Dey was constructed at the highest point in the wall. A major road running north to south divided the city in two: The upper city (al-Gabal, or 'the mountain') which consisted of about fifty small quarters of Andalusian , Jewish , Moorish and Kabyle communities, and

12463-509: The second province was Mauretania Tingitana and were deemed as Roman Municipiums , additionally they were given Latin rights by the emperor Vespasian . In 371-373 AD, Mauretania revolted with the help of Firmus in hopes of installing an independent State and Icosium was raided and damaged. Some clues show the presence of bishops in the region at this time. In 435 AD, the Vandal Kingdom took control of northern Africa along

12584-524: The settlers not left for other countries, especially Namibia , Brazil , South Africa and the United States . While most Portuguese then living in Angola sided with Portugal's efforts to suppress the anti-colonial revolt, a minority sympathized with the nationalist movements, and a few even joined them in their fight. The Angolan author Pepetela is among these. When the Salazar regime in Portugal

12705-676: The southern end of the rue d'Isly near the site of the demolished Fort Bab Azoun باب عزون. The interior is richly decorated with various coloured marbles. Many of these marbles contain memorial inscriptions relating to the British residents (voluntary and involuntary) of Algiers from the time of John Tipton, the first English consul, in 1580 (NB Some sources give 1585). One tablet records that in 1631 two Algerine pirate crews landed in Ireland , sacked Baltimore , and enslaved its inhabitants. The Ketchaoua Mosque ( Djamaa Ketchaoua جامع كتشاوة), at

12826-410: The story of Vladimiro Caposso, a lowly bureaucrat who becomes a businessman. Igor Cusack describes the protagonist as a "murderous, philandering businessman gangster ... living in a sea of fellow sharks". Though he began criticizing the nouveau riche class in Angola as far back as A geração da utopia , it can be seen through the Jaime Bunda novels and Predadores that by the 2000s this theme had become

12947-573: The surrounding Mitidja plain. Run by the FLN that had secured independence, Algiers became a member of Non-Aligned Movement during the Cold War . In October 1988, one year before the fall of the Berlin Wall , Algiers was the site of demonstrations demanding the end of the single-party system and the creation of a real democracy baptized the "Spring of Algiers". The demonstrators were repressed by

13068-411: The vaults in which were stored the treasures of the dey. Djamaa el Kebir ( Jamaa-el-Kebir الجامع الكبير) is the oldest mosque in Algiers. It was first built by Yusuf ibn Tashfin , but reconstructed many times. The pulpit ( minbar منبر) bears an inscription showing that the building existed in 1097. The minaret was built by the sultan of Tlemcen , in 1324. The interior of the mosque is square and

13189-523: The western Mediterranean and engaged in slave raids as far north as Iceland. By the 17th century, up to 40% of the city's 100,000 inhabitants were enslaved Europeans. The United States fought two wars (the First and Second Barbary Wars ) over Algiers' attacks on shipping. Among the notable people held for ransom was the future Spanish novelist, Miguel de Cervantes , who was held captive in Algiers for almost five years, and wrote two plays set in Algiers of

13310-502: The western coast of the Regency near what is today Sidi Fredj on June 14, 1830. The Algerian forces met their French opponents in the "Battle of Sidi Fredj" on June 19, 1830, to which the Dey 's forces were defeated, this enabled the colonial army to advance into the city and made Hussein Dey surrender to French General de Bourmont on 5 July 1830. Under French rule, Algiers became the capital of French Algeria , "an integral part of

13431-595: The year 2050 would most closely resemble the current climate of Perth in Australia . The annual temperature would increase by 2.6 °C (4.7 °F), and the temperature of the warmest month by 1.9 °C (3.4 °F), while the temperature of the coldest month would be 3.8 °C (6.8 °F) higher. According to Climate Action Tracker , the current warming trajectory appears consistent with 2.7 °C (4.9 °F), which closely matches Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 4.5. Moreover, according to

13552-864: Was Latinized as Icosium under Roman rule . The Greeks explained the name as coming from their word for "twenty" ( εἴκοσι , eíkosi ), supposedly because it had been founded by 20 companions of Hercules when he visited the Atlas Mountains during his labors . Algiers is also known as el-Behdja ( البهجة , "The Joyous") or "Algiers the White" (French: Alger la Blanche ) for its whitewashed buildings.   Phoenicia and Punicia pre 202 BC   Numidia 202 BC–104 BC   Mauretania 104 BC-42 AD   Roman Empire 42-435   Vandal Kingdom 435–534   Byzantine Empire 534-700s   Umayyad Caliphate 700s–750   Abbasid Caliphate 750 AD-800   Aghlabids (As

13673-672: Was a professor of sociology in the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Angola, now known as the University of Agostinho Neto . He was a visiting professor at Rutgers University in 2002 and the University of California Berkeley in 2003 and 2004. Portuguese Angolan Portuguese Angolans ( Portuguese : luso-angolano ) are citizens of Angola who are either descended from Portuguese people or Portuguese emigrants permanently living in Angola . The number of Portuguese Angolans precipitously dropped during and immediately after

13794-410: Was abolished by a military coup in Portugal, in 1974, and independence was granted to the colonies by the new government, whites overwhelmingly left Angola after independence in 1975. Most of them went to Portugal , where they were called retornados and were not always welcomed, while others moved to neighboring Namibia (then a South African territory), South Africa or Brazil, or United States. It

13915-706: Was appointed by the Faṭimid caliph al-Muʿizz as governor of al-Qayrawān and any other territory his nation, the Zirid Dynasty might reclaim from its enemies, the Zenata tribesmen. His state accordingly expanded its boundaries westward. In approximately 1014 AD, under the reign of Badis ibn al-Mansur , the dynasty was divided between the Zirids at al-Qayrawan in the east, and the Hammadids at Qal'at Bani Hammad ; "Jazaʾir Banī Mazghanna", commonly known as "Algiers" as

14036-586: Was born in Benguela, Portuguese Angola , to Portuguese Angolan parents. His mother's family had been an influential commercial and military family in the Moçâmedes (present-day Namibe ) region of Angola, his great grandfather having been a major in the Portuguese Army. His mother's family had been in Angola for five generations, whereas his father was born in Angola to Portuguese parents and spent much of his childhood in mainland Portugal . Pepetela had

14157-524: Was given by Buluggin ibn Ziri after he established the city on the ruins of the Phoenician city of Icosium in 950. During Ottoman rule, the name of the capital, al-Jazā'ir, was extended over the entire country, giving it the English name Algeria derived from the French name Algérie. In classical antiquity , the ancient Greeks knew the town as Ikósion ( Ancient Greek : Ἰκόσιον ), which

14278-562: Was met by operations against the dey. A naval siege on the port of Algiers by the French Navy began the following days which lasted 3 years and impacted the French and Algerian economies due to their former extensive trade treaties. Tensions only continued rising while the French Armed Forces were preparing for the 1830 invasion of Algiers . The naval fleet departed from Touron on May 25, 1830, and successfully reached

14399-399: Was something new that would reappear again and again. His next novel of the decade, O Desejo de Kianda , published in 1995, continues to manifest the disillusionment exhibited in A Geração da Utopia . The novel takes more of a magical realist approach than any of Pepetela's former works, positing a situation where several of Luanda's largest buildings collapse into Kinaxixi square with all

14520-572: Was the preferred destination for Portuguese migrants in Africa. Portuguese nationals numbered an estimated 120,000 in 2011, reaching about 200,000 in 2013. Notable Angolan people of Portuguese descent include: Their native language is Portuguese, which today is the official language and lingua franca of Angola. Their communities existing in Luanda, Benguela and Moçâmedes spoke until the early 20th-century Portuguese mixed with numerous elements from African languages, especially Kimbundu and Umbundu. In

14641-481: Was written during his time in Algiers and deals with Angolan culture, using the metaphor of traditional masks of the Chokwe people to expose different dichotomies present in Angolan culture. His novel displays the knowledge of indigenous Angolan cultures that Pepetela gained during his time on the Eastern Front of the war for independence. Muana Puó    [ pt ; fr ] was never intended to be published,

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