Orlando da Costa

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Orlando da Costa (July 1929 - 27 January 2006) was a Portuguese writer of Goan descent, born in the capital of the former Portuguese colony of Mozambique, Maputo. He lived his youth in Goa, another Portuguese colony at the time. With 18 years he left Goa and travelled to Lisbon, where he made his studies on history and philosophy. In 1951, Costa published his first work, named A Estrada e a Voz, a poetry book. He continued publishing, not only poetry, but also drama and romance.

During the 1950s, Orlando Costa passed most of his time in the House of the Students of the Empire, an institution mainly built to house students from the colonies that were studying in the metropole. There he contacted with many of the future leaders of the nationalist movements of the colonies, such as the MPLA, the FRELIMO and the PAIGC.

Orlando Costa joined the Portuguese Communist Party in 1954, during the dictatorial regime of Oliveira Salazar, when the Party was still outlawed. He developed his work as a communist in the intellectual sector of the Lisbon region.