Alberto da Costa e Silva

Alberto da Costa e Silva is a Brazilian poet, diplomat, and historian born in 1931 in Teresina, Piauí. He is one of the most distinguished Brazilian poets of the twentieth century and a leading historian of Africa, particularly of the African presence in Brazil and of the slave trade. He spent decades as a Brazilian diplomat, serving in numerous African and European capitals. Costa e Silva is the author of more than a dozen collections of poetry and several monumental works of African history, including A Enxada e a Lança (1992), Francisco Félix de Sousa, Mercador de Escravos (2004), and A Manilha e o Libambo (2002), a comprehensive history of African slavery. His historical work has done much to illuminate the African roots of Brazilian civilization. He received the Prémio Camões in 2014, recognizing both his poetic achievement and his outstanding contribution to the historical understanding of the Portuguese-speaking Atlantic world. Costa e Silva represents a rare combination of literary and scholarly achievement. His poetry is marked by an intimate, contemplative tone, and his historical work by a humanistic concern for the people — enslaved Africans — whose stories had been suppressed.