Russell Hamilton: A Pioneering Scholar of the Cultures and Literatures of Portuguese-Speaking Africa

At several moments of my academic life, especially as a faculty member at PUC Minas (Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil), where I have taught African literatures in Portuguese since 1995, I experienced the great pleasure of interacting with Russell Hamilton. Before meeting him, I had read some of his works, particularly the two volumes of Literatura Africana—Literatura Necessaria, published in the 1980s. These volumes were very important, since they offered me a scholarly basis for teaching a number of courses in the graduate program in Literatures at PUC Minas while also providing a useful, although selective, view of the several African Literatures written in Portuguese.