DST Angola/Camões Literature Prize 2024 awarded

Jorge Arrimar was awarded the DST Angola/Camões Literature Prize 2024 at a Luanda, Angola, ceremony on Sunday, April 6, 2025.

The DST Angola/Camões Literature Prize is a joint initiative between dst group and Camões – Instituto da Cooperação e da Língua, celebrating books published in poetry and prose by Angolan artists. DST Angola is a subsidiary of the Portuguese group DST, whose main activity is engineering and construction, headquartered in Braga. Camões – Instituto da Cooperação e da Língua runs Premio Camões the biggest literary prize in Portugal. In 2018, DST Angola created an identical award in Angola, with the support of the Instituto Cultural Camões. Some previous winners have been João Melo, Pepetela, Zetho Cunha Gonçalves, and Benjamim M’Bakassy.

The 2024 edition was judged by José Mena Abrantes (President), David Capelenguela and Amélia Dalomba and awarded to Jorge Arrimar for his novel Cuéle – O Pássaro Troçador (English: Cuéle – The Mocking Bird) in November last year. They called it “a grandiose and very well documented fresco about a region of Angola rarely present in literature”. It stands out for its rigor in characterizing the ways of being, traditions and social behaviors of both Africans and Europeans, during the transition period from the 19th to the 20th century.

Born in Angola, Jorge Arrimar began his higher education in Luanda, later completing a degree in History, a postgraduate degree in Documentary Sciences and a PhD in Modern History in Portugal. Later, he obtained a PhD in Documentary Sciences in Spain.

With a career dedicated to teaching and historical research, he was a Professor in the Azores and Director of the National/Central Library of Macau between 1985 and 1998. Author of several works, his bibliography includes titles such as Ovatyilongo, Os Gambos, o Humbe, as Guerras do Nano e os Portugueses, O Planalto dos Pássaros and the award-winning Cuéle, o Pássaro Troçador (2022).

Jorge Arrimar received his recognition at a ceremony at the Pepetela auditorium, at the Instituto Camões in Luanda. Here are images from the event courtesy of organisers.