The Mozambican writer Juvenal Bucuane will launch his book "Masingita ou a Subtileza do Incesto" at 5:30pm next Wednesday, in Maputo, at Camões Center - Portuguese Cultural Center.

The book results from an article published in June 2020 in a newspaper of the square with the following content: "Woman who became pregnant of her own son, has already given birth: (...) a woman of her 44 years of age became pregnant of her own son of 21 years of age, in Maputo, specifically in the Chamanculo area, in September last year..." in a fully involuntary circumstance, for both of them and after nine months of gestation, she gave birth to a baby who, in the normal social relational tract, would be her grandson, were it not biologically her son, the second, son of her firstborn.

Quoted in a communiqué received by our newsroom, the author says that he has used this unusual case to bring the case to the public, in what he himself describes as an extensive "summary".

The novel fictionalizes a practice that, existing in Mozambican society, is often ignored, incest, an illicit union between close relatives, to a degree prohibited by law.

At the center of the narrative are Marta and Pepuka, who, for the author, represent the personification of real people. However, in order not to hurt susceptibilities, the author has taken due care, sometimes subverting the profile of the characters, sometimes giving them particular existence. "In fact, all the characters in the book are fictitious, as are the places-scenarios and acts.

"I spent the different stages of my growing up in various suburban neighborhoods of the Mozambican capital and I know enough of them to be able to tell how one lives in those places," said the writer.

The writing of "Masingita ou a Subtileza do Incesto" was, for Juvenal Bucuane, an arduous exercise, for his great challenge was beyond mere fiction, "for it implied something that seemed to me deep and true, factual, that to be approached with any probity, had to be done with recourse to some precedent case, which occurred at some time and in some place. So I sought reminiscences of what I had studied long ago about antiquity in universal history, specifically, the relationship between King Oedipus and Queen Jocasta, which served as the basis for Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic research."

This novel was written during the second half of 2021, at a time when the writer was confined at home because of covid-19.

Juvenal Bucuane's new book, his first for Editorial Fundza, will be presented at Camões - Portuguese Cultural Center in Maputo by journalist and essayist José dos Remédios.