Professor and literary critic Francisco Noa has been a member of the Lisbon Academy of Sciences since July 6. The Mozambican academic occupies the "seat" of the ACL among the foreign corresponding members of the class of letters, to which José Paulo Cavalcanti, Maria Encarnação Beltrão Sposito, Roberto Vecchi, Michel Dupuis, Allan Williams, Marc Flandreau and James Galbraith have also been admitted.

Noa says he received the invitation to join the Lisbon Academy with a mixture of satisfaction and added responsibility. "Furthermore, I felt deeply honored and privileged to be part of such a respectable and renowned institution," he revealed.

Francisco Noa said that his entry into the intercontinental organization of Lusophony could mean a greater projection of Mozambican literature, a challenge he is taking on together with the writer Mia Couto and Professor Lourenço de Rosário, who are also members of ACL.

"I think that our presence at the Academy should imply, on the one hand, and whenever possible, giving greater visibility to the literature that has been made and is being made in Mozambique and, on the other, sharing internally the dynamics of reflection at ACL on literature, and on culture in general," said Francisco Noa.

Founded on December 24, 1779, the Academy of Sciences of Lisbon has been in existence for more than two centuries, bringing together an enormous amount of intellectual and scientific activity, with a remarkable diversity of thinkers and scientists, highlighting its work in encouraging scientific research and stimulating the study of the Portuguese language and literature.

Thanks to the work carried out by ACL's Institute of Lexicology and Lexicography, it was possible in 2001, after thirteen years of collection and research, to make available the "Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa Contemporânea", the first most complete work of its kind on the Portuguese lexicon, with around 70,000 entries. (Text extracted from the Kilimar review, July 2023 edition)