Under the pseudonym Carlos Vale Ferraz, Matos Gomes authored several novels prominently featuring Africanist themes, notably in the context of the Colonial War, with his debut being ‘Nó Cego’ in 1983.
His most recent work, ‘Geração D’, released under his real name a year ago in March 2024, was described by the author as “the reverse of ‘Nó Cego’.”
“The first novel I wrote intended to convey to others what my generation experienced during the Colonial War [1961-1974]. How each of us, from various places—and each aggregated into a specific military unit subjected to various forces of dissolution—how that group, representing my generation, reacted and faced such a critical situation,” he stated last year.
His bibliography under the pseudonym includes just over ten titles, among them ‘Soldadó’ (1988), ‘Os Lobos Não Usam Coleira’ (1991), adapted into a film by António-Pedro Vasconcelos, ‘Os Imortais’ (1991), which featured performances by Nicolau Breyner, Joaquim de Almeida, and Rogério Samora, and ‘A Última Viúva de África’, which earned him the Fernando Namora Literary Prize in 2018.
In the realm of essays, he published several works in collaboration with his comrade Aniceto Afonso, the latest being ‘Guerra Colonial’ (2020). He was a regular contributor to the press and involved in activities at the Contemporary History Centers of the universities of Lisbon and New Lisbon, and with the Center for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra.
The collaboration with Aniceto Afonso produced around 12 titles, seven focusing on Portugal’s involvement in World War I (1914-1918), another entitled ‘A Conquista das Almas. Cartazes e panfletos da ação psicológica na guerra colonial’ (2016), and within the theme of the Colonial War, ‘Guerra Colonial – Um Repórter em Angola’ (2001).
Apart from ‘Geração D’, he also published ‘Moçambique 1970’ under his real name in 2002.
Last year, on the eve of releasing ‘Geração D’, he expressed that it was not a novel but a book in the form of a “fictionalized autobiography of a generation.” Concerned with inheritance, the author wished to present it under his registered name, stating, “It is an assumption of this person who is me, creating fiction with the narrator as the main character, who is also me.”
Carlos Matos Gomes was born on July 24, 1946, in Vila Nova da Barquinha. He studied at Colégio Nuno Álvares in Tomar and later at the Military Academy in Lisbon. He specialized in the Cavalry Corps of the Portuguese Army and served three military commissions in Angola, Mozambique, and Guinea-Bissau, with the Commandos, an elite army troop. For his military services, he was decorated with the War Cross of 1st and 2nd Class.
