“Honoring the memory and legacy of Carlos Matos Gomes, and following his direct instructions, we will proceed with the publication of his last book, ‘Otelo, the Heretic’, the original manuscript he left us and which he worked on with us until the last moment,” states a communiqué released today.
Carlos Matos Gomes had previously published ‘A Conquista das Almas. Cartazes e Panfletos da ação psicológica na guerra colonial’ (2016) with his comrade in arms Aniceto Afonso at the publisher Tinta-da-China. Later, alongside the historian Fernando Rosas, he contributed to ’25 de Abril, quinta-feira’ (2023), by Adelino Gomes, also published by this publisher.
The introduction of the new book on Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho (1936-2021), who like Matos Gomes was one of the April military figures, reads: “Without Otelo, that April 25, 1974, would not have existed. He was the yeast that turned water and flour into bread. Without Otelo, we would have had flour, water, and salt, but not bread. Otelo was and is the historical figure who turned a coup d’état into a revolution, who turned unleavened bread into leavened bread, with soul. A heresy that November 25, 1975, excommunicated.”
Colonel Carlos Matos Gomes, one of the Captains of April, passed away at the age of 78 last Sunday in a hospital in Lisbon.
Matos Gomes, under the pseudonym Carlos Vale Ferraz, published several books on the theme of the Colonial War, including ‘Nó Cego’, ‘A Última Viúva de África’, which earned him the Fernando Namora Prize in 2018, and ‘Os Lobos não Usam Coleira’ (1995), which was adapted into the film ‘Os Imortais’ (2003) by António-Pedro Vasconcelos.
Last year, in his own name, Matos Gomes published ‘Geração D’ which he defined in an interview as a tribute and an autobiography of his generation, the one that experienced the dictatorship, the Colonial War, and carried out the April 25, 1974, revolution.
The partnership of Matos Gomes with Aniceto Afonso produced about 12 titles, seven of them about the Portuguese participation in World War I (1914-1918) and, within the theme of the Colonial War, ‘Guerra Colonial – Um Repórter em Angola’ (2001).
Carlos Matos Gomes regularly collaborated with the press and participated in activities of the Contemporary History Centers of the universities of Lisbon and New Lisbon, as well as with the Center for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra.
The soldier, writer, and researcher was born on July 24, 1946, in Vila Nova da Barquinha. He was a Cavalry officer and served tours in Angola, Mozambique, and Guinea-Bissau, integrated within the Commandos.
