Angolan writer, Artur Carlos Maurício Pestana dos Santos (who adopted Pepetela as pseudonym) was born on October 29th 1941, in Benguela. In that city, he received elementary and secondary education, having finished the latter in Lubango. In 1958, he left for Lisbon to enter the Instituo Superior Técnico, beginning his literary, associative and political activity at the Casa dos Estudantes do Império. In 1962, he left for France and from there to Algeria, where he graduated in Sociology at the University of Algiers. He was co-founder of the Centre for Angolan Studies, where he actively represents MPLA.

In 1969, he was called in for the Cabinda Front, where he participated in guerrilla activities and eventually was appointed Director of the «Augusto Ngangula» Center. In 1973, he was nominated Permanent Secretary of the Education and Culture Department. In November 1974, he was part of the first delegation of MPLA in Luanda, having been nominated Director of the Department for Political Orientation on January 1975. From July of that same year, he was part of the Head of Defence of the Centre Front and, after the independence, he was appointed vice-minister of Education, a post he left in December 1982. In 1985, he became teacher at the University of Angola and member of the Directive Commission of the Angolan Writers’ Association.

In 1980, he received the Angolan National Literature Prize for his book Mayombe, a work that, together with Yaka, O Cão e os Caluandas, O Desejo de Kianda (1995) and Parábola do Cágado Velho (1996), confirms Pepetela as one of the most relevant names in Portuguese language contemporary literature. In 1997, he won the Camões Award, considered the most important literary award for Portuguese language authors.