Alda Ferreira Pires Barreto de Lara Albuquerque, known as Alda Lara (9 June 1930, Benguela, Angola – 30 January 1962, Cambambe, Angola) was a Portuguese-language Angolan poet.
Early life and education
Alda Lara was born on 9 June 1930 in Benguela, Portuguese Angola. She came from a wealthy family and received a Christian education, which gave her a spirit of liberalism according to one commentator. Her brother was the noted poet Ernesto Lara Filho. Lara attended a women's school in Sá da Bandeira (now Lubango) before moving to Portugal to finish her secondary schooling. She attended University of Lisbon and resided at the Casa dos Estudantes do Império (House of the Students of the Empire). She had an active student life and began her writing career by publishing poetry in the literary journal Mensagem, a publication specifically for Africans. Lara later attended the University of Coimbra and earned a degree in medicine. Much of her poetry reflect a dissatisfaction with the colonial status quo. Movimento, the second album of Aline Frazão released in 2013, features a poem by Lara set to music.
Books (posthumous)
- Poemas (1966)
- Tempo da Chuva (1973)
- Poesia (1979)
- Poemas (1984) (her collected poems)