Orlando António Fernandes da Costa (July 1929, Maputo − 27 January 2006) was a Portuguese writer of Goan paternal and Mozambican-French maternal descent whose writings express his experiences of life in Goa.[1] According to Everton Machado, his book O Último Olhar de Manú Miranda is a good introduction to know Indo-Portuguese literature.[2] He was the father of former Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa, by his first wife Maria Antónia Palla.[3]
Costa was maternal cousin to Sérgio Vieira, a politician in Mozambique.[4]
After being raised in Margao (Goa), Costa spent in the 1950s, 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 came in contact with many of the future leaders of the nationalist movements of the colonies, such as the MPLA, the FRELIMO and the PAIGC. Between 1950 and 1953, he was arrested three times by the Salazar government.[5][6] A few days before he died, on January 5, 2006, he received from Jorge Sampaio's hands the degree of Commander of the Order of Liberty.[7]
^Ben Antao, 'Goan Literature in English', Muse India, 64 (November–December 2015), "Welcome to Muse India". Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 30 December 2015..
