Home » Cape Verde » Germano Almeida » O Testamento do Sr. Napumoceno da Silva Araújo(The Last Will and Testament of Senhor da Silva Araújo)
Germano Almeida: O Testamento do Sr. Napumoceno da Silva Araújo(The Last Will and Testament of Senhor da Silva Araújo)
Napumoceno da Silva Araujo was well known on the island of Sāo Vicente. He was serious, self-made businessman, respected by everyone. He was born an orphan and never married nor, indeed, was never known to have had any sort of romantic relationship. He was careful with his money, owning only one good suit though he was the first person on the island to own car. When there was serious flooding, he helped those who lost their homes.
When he died, he would obviously leave all his money to his nephew and business partner, Carlos.
The reading of the will was quite an event as he had not written a will in the traditional sense but his memoirs. It was suggested that only the key provisions be read out but this was refused. The law required the whole document to be read. I took the whole afternoon and more than one person to read the will but finally it was read and formally witnessed. Carlos was not the main beneficiary. Dona Chica had been his cleaning lady. She had left suddenly many years ago and hidden herself away, subsequently giving birth to Maria da Graça. No-one connected this event to Napumoceno or, if they did, they kept very quiet about it. Dona Chica received a regular pension from an unknown source, though when she learned of his death,she broke down, fearing she would lose her sole source of income.
In his will he is critical of his former partners but also, to some degree, of his nephew. He calls him ungrateful. Carlos also been an orphan at young age and his uncle had taken care of him. Carlos did not do well at school. It was a sheer waste of time and money, he has no knack for learning, for five years he did nothing but loaf in class. He was sent to work for another firm where he did well before joining his uncle’s firm. At his uncle’s firm he also did well, gradually taking over. His uncle resented how he was focussed solely on business and was happy to drop long -standing partners and suppliers if they were not bringing in much money.
Napucemeno was involved less and less and takes on other interests such as a study of World War II, travel (including to the Unites States, where he became somewhat obsessed with US technology) and local politics – Cape Verde became independent from Portugal at this time.
Almeida does not tell his story chronologically but veers backwards and forwards in time.We get excerpts from the memoirs-will but also from others, particularly his daughter, who, as the heir, wants to know a lot more about the man she now knows was her father. She is an intrepid sleuth and unearths notebooks he has left and is interested in two particular issues: what crime Carlos committed to be disinherited and also her father’s love life. We get glimpses of the way Carlos annoys his uncle, particularly after Napumoceno’s three month travels. When he returns Carlos goes through the motions of kowtowing to his uncle but he is now firmly in control to his uncle’s annoyance who even thinks of selling the firm. However it is also later that we find the actual reason for the disinheritance.
As for her father’s love life Maria da Graça manages to get the story of her mother’s relationship with her father . She also learns a bit about his casual flirtatious . However the key issue is Adelia. She is mentioned in her father’s notebooks on numerous occasions and seems to have been the love of his life. the relationship seems to have been complicated, starting slowly and then building up. She seemingly leaves him for another man who has just returned from abroad but then comes back to him. Maria da Graça tries to track her down with the help of the lawyer. She does find anAdelia on the island but she is sixty with six children and clearly not the right Adelia. She claims to be the only Adelia on the island. She hears rumours of an Adelia who had lived on the island but had left many yeas ago. Was Adelia an imaginary girlfriend? Maria da Graça is convinced she was real and is determined to track her down.
The key issue from our perspective is that Napumoceno has two sides. As mentioned he is well respected, does good works, gets involved in local politics to do good and seemingly lives an unblemished life. However there is another side to him. As we know he rapes his cleaning woman and only acknowledges his daughter after his death. He has had various unsavoury relationships and even gets gonorrhoea. In business he can be unscrupulous and breaks the rules and cheats his bosses in his early days, yet has a reputation for being honest and decent. He does not join the Gremio Club, a place of perdition that began with lies and ended with prostitution in his words, simply because no-one asks him to join and he feels slighted, so much so that he is finally asked, he declines.
Maria da Graça finds out a lot more about her father from his notebooks such as his meticulous time-keeping. He seemed to everything at exactly the sane time every day, even when it came to brushing his teeth and also about his extramural activities such as painting, reading and writing. No detail is too trivial for him to note However it is of course Adelia that obsesses her the most.
In short this is the story of a man of many contradictions who, perhaps like most of us, does good things and bad things but of course wants to be known for the good things.
.
Publishing history
First published in1989 by Ilheu Editora
First English translation in 2004 byNew Directions
Translated by Sheila Faria Glaser