The story of an Angolan heel between Luanda and Lisbon

Abstract

Displacements across identity boundaries imposed in Western modernity configure the main contemporary issues, whether these boundaries are those of nationality, race, gender, or efficiency and aptitude. In this sense, the novel Luanda, Lisboa, Paraíso, published in 2018 by the Angolan/Portuguese writer Djaimilia Pereira de Almeida, is very elucidative. The characters Cartola and Aquiles migrate from Angola to Portugal due to a malformation in the heel of the latter. Thus, the black and disabled body challenges modern body normativity, becoming unwanted in the former metropolis, and therefore a victim of racism and ableism. Hence, this work proposes to analyze the body of the character Achilles in his displacement, understanding this as of fundamental importance for the understanding of the conditions of mobility and immobility imposed on the colonized subjects. Theoretical support is formed by Disability Studies and Postcolonial Studies.