We Killed Mangy Dog and Other Stories

Blurb

We Killed Mangy Dog and Other Mozambique Stories is a collection of short stories by Mozambican writer Luís Bernardo Honwana. The book was originally published in Portuguese in 1964 and translated into English in 1969.
The book consists of seven stories, including one with the same title as the book: "Nós Matámos o Cão-Tinhoso" [We Killed Mangy Dog], "Papa, Cobra, Eu" [Dad, Snake, and Me], "As Mãos dos Pretos" [The Hands of Blacks], "Inventário de Móveis e Jacentes" [Inventory of Furniture and Effects], "A Velhota" [The Old Woman], "Nhinguitimo," and "Dina" [Lunchtime]. The writer, who is also a documentary filmmaker and photographer, wrote the novel when he was 22 years old, while a political prisoner of PIDE. According to Patrick Chabal, "Honwana greatly influenced the post-colonial generation of younger prose writers and has rightly been regarded as stylistically accomplished." The Mozambican world is at the center of analysis in each of his narratives. Several of the stories are told from the point of view of children. The innocent and naive characters are used to expose "the inherent racism in the Portuguese colonial government."