Performance and the Mobilization of Identity in Pepetela's Lueji. O Nascimento de um Império.

Pepetela's novel Lueji consists of two interweaving stories: firstly, how Queen Lueji founded an empire in Lunda some 400 years ago and secondly how a ballerina, Lu, recreates the tale of Lueji on the stage in modern-day Luanda. This paper explores how Pepetela, building on various nineteenth- and twentieth-century accounts of oral renditions of the myth of Lueji, attempts to recreate in the novel that element of performance that is so characteristic of orature. By linking the past and the present Pepetela builds a unifying tale of the origin for the new Angolan nation and, assisted by the shared experience of performance, helps mobilize a sense of Angolan national identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]