1929–1940: Early life José Afonso was born in
Aveiro on 2 August 1929. His parents were José Nepomuceno Afonso dos Santos, a
magistrate, and Maria das Dores Dantas Cerqueira, a primary school teacher. In 1930, his parents travelled to
Angola, a Portuguese colony at the time, where his father had been placed as a judge in the city of Silva Porto (present-day
Cuíto). For health reasons, Afonso stayed in Aveiro, in a house near the Fonte das Cinco Bicas, with his aunt Gigé and his uncle Xico, a "republican and anticlerical" man. In 1933 Afonso travelled to Angola at his mother's request. On the ship he met a missionary who became his companion during the voyage. Afonso stayed for three years in Angola, where he began his primary education. From 1964 to 1967, Afonso was in
Lourenço Marques (now Maputo) and
Beira, in Mozambique, with his second wife Zélia, where he reunited with his children. In his last two years in the overseas province, he taught in Beira and composed music for the
Bertolt Brecht play
The Exception and The Rule. In 1965 his daughter Joana was born and by 1967, marked by the colonial reality and the
Portuguese Colonial War, he returned to Lisbon. He left his older son, José Manuel, with his grandparents in Mozambique. The state censorship still operated in the event, and Afonso was forbidden from performing some of his songs with more political messages, such as "Venham Mais Cinco" and "A Morte Saiu à Rua". "Grândola, Vila Morena", however, was not seen as a subversive song and was allowed to be performed.
1974–1980: Revolutionary period ,
Sérgio Godinho,
Vitorino and others, in 1979 In December 1974, Afonso released the album
Coro dos Tribunais ("Courthouse Chorus"), which was recorded in London, again at the Pye Studios, with musical arrangements by
Fausto Bordalo Dias. The album includes two
Brechtian songs, composed in Mozambique in the period between 1964 and 1967: "Coro dos Tribunais" and "Eu Marchava de Dia e de Noite". in the RALIS, a leftist military stronghold. Afonso established a collaboration with the far-left movement LUAR (Revolutionary Action and Unity League). LUAR released his single "Viva o Poder Popular" (Hail to the People's Power). In Italy, the revolutionary organizations
Lotta Continua,
Il Manifesto and
Avanguardia Operaia released the album
República, recorded in Rome on 30 September and 1 October 1975. The money received from the sales of the album went to support the striking workers of the newspaper
República. == Legacy ==