Background
Fortes was born in Mindelo on Cape Verde"s São Vicente island in 1933.
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Corsino Fortes
Edit ProfileDiplomat politician writer poet
Education
University of Lisbon.
Career
He served as the first Ambassador of Cape Verde to Portugal from 1975 until 1981 following his country"s independence. He is a graduate in law of the University of Lisbon (1966), chaired the Association of Cape Verde Writers (2003-2006) and is the author of some of the most significant works of Cape Verdean literature. He has worked as a teacher and a lawyer and he served as Cape Verde"s ambassador to Portugal.
He was a judge in Angola and joined several governments in the Cape Verde Republic.
Corsino Fortes"s first book Pão & Fonema (Bread & Phoneme), which appeared in 1974, made an immediate impact. 1974 was a momentous year for Portugal and its African colonies as it was the year in which the authoritarian Estado Novo regime was overthrown, an act which began the process that led to the decolonisation of the Cape Verde Islands in 1975.
After Pão & Fonema he published Arvore e Tambor (Tree and Drum) in 1986. He finished what he had long seen as a trilogy in 2001 with Pedras de Sol & Substância which was collected with the previous two books under the title A Cabeça Calva de Deus (The bald head of God)., Sinos de Silencio was his very last book published in 2015.
In the final years of his life, he was interviewed by RTC, the national television network in 2010 and by the country"s major weekly newspaper A Semana in October 2013.
Cosino Fortes died in Mindelo, Cape Verde, on July 24, 2015, at the age of 82. He was survived by three children.
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Born
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Died
July 24, 2015 (aged 82) -
Nationality
Cape Verde -
Political Party
African Party for the Independence of Cape Verde