Racial and Cultural Bridges in Mia Couto’s O Outro Pé da Sereia
Abstract
In this essay, I propose to show how Mia Couto’s novel, O Outro Pé da Sereia, makes an important contribution to understanding race relations between Portugal and Mozambique. O Outro Pé da Sereia is what may be call a laboratory of personal experiences regarding skin color. In the novel, Couto brings into perspective different personal points of view to make the reader more sensitive to the fact that not everything is either black or white. There is always a grey area that becomes either enabling or disabling for human encounters. This essay further explores the possibility that Couto and other writers from the Lusophone world are the ones who are most responsible for opening a space for the discussion and critique of race relations in Portugal. Ultimately, my argument serves as a practical demonstration of the need for both fiction and history in order to create a balanced account of the past, one that remains attuned to perspectives of the oppressed and marginalized.