South African education shaped Portuguese literary giant Fernando Pessoa

Richard Zenith, a scholar and author, visited South Africa to launch his 1,055-page biography of Portuguese writer Fernando Pessoa.

Zenith, a naturalised Portuguese citizen who has lived in several countries including Colombia and Brazil, spent four decades researching and translating the works of Pessoa. His biography was a finalist for the 2022 Pulitzer Prize for Biography and Autobiography. Pessoa moved to Durban, South Africa, at age seven because his stepfather served as the Portuguese consul.

This move took the boy away from his home in Lisbon and placed him in a different cultural environment. While in Durban between 1896 and 1905, Pessoa attended St Joseph’s and Durban Boys High, where he received an imperial education in English. This period of his life influenced his literary style and philosophy. Pessoa discovered William Shakespeare and other English-language classics, which helped him develop his concept of heteronyms.

These were distinct literary alter-egos with their own biographies and political views. By the time Pessoa returned to Lisbon at age 17, his time in South Africa had already shaped his creative sensibility and his approach to depersonalisation in his writing.