The island of Muipíti: memory in the poetry of Mozambican poets Rui Knopfli and Luís Carlos Patraquim

Abstract

Poets Rui Knopfli and Luís Carlos Patraquim, both from Mozambique, are known for the way in which memory is configured in their poems. The poem “Muipíti”, published by Knopfli in A ilha de Próspero (1972), is based on his memories about the island of Mozambique, called Muipíti by the Macuas Africans, before the arrival of the Portuguese. Indeed, it is noted that the poem in question aims to mix individual experiences with those of Mozambique, the country where the island was the former capital. Subsequently, in the section “Os barcos elementares”, published in Vinte e tal novas formulações e uma elegia carnívora (1991), Patraquim takes up Knopfli's poem in “Muiphíti”, whose spelling of the island's name now gains an “h” more. In the poetic text, it is noted that memory is, once again, the central point. However, it is evident that the poem aims to take up another, the one
written by Knopfli, whom Patraquim pays homage to on other occasions. Therefore, the purpose of the communication is, from a theoretical-comparative perspective, to investigate the way memory is configured in the two proposed islands of Muipíti, Knopfli and Patraquim, considering the intertextual aspect that it involves the two poetic texts.