{{Short description|Cape Verdean poet, human rights activist, government minister and politician}} {{Infobox person | name = Vera Duarte | birth_name = Vera Valentina Benrós de Melo Duarte Lobo de Pina | birth_date = {{birth date and age|1952|10|2}} | birth_place = Mindelo, São Vicente, Cape Verde | occupation = poet, human rights activist, government minister, politician | awards = U Tam'si Prize for African Poetry | image = }} '''Vera Valentina Benrós de Melo Duarte Lobo de Pina''' (born October 2, 1952), also known as '''Vera Duarte Martins''',<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PprRVX9VNq0C&q=%22prima+donna+magistrato%22&pg=PA47|title=Isole della Sodade. Viaggio a Capo Verde|last=Mori|first=Orietta|date=1999|publisher=EDT srl|isbn=9788870633818|language=it}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ETPkPSRwS5YC&q=vera+duarte+first+judge+cape+verde&pg=PA283|title=The Making of the Cape Verdean|last=Costa|first=Manuel E. Sr.|date=2011-05-20|publisher=AuthorHouse|isbn=9781463401368|language=en}}</ref> is a Cape Verdean poet, human rights activist, government minister and politician.
==Biography== Duarte was born in Mindelo on the island of São Vicente. She spent her first years of school in Cape Verde. She studied abroad in Portugal at the University of Lisbon.
She returned to Praia in Cape Verde and became a counsellor judge at the Supreme Court. She later became an advisor to the President of the Republic.
Duarte was the recipient of the inaugural North–South Prize in 1995, along with musician, Peter Gabriel.<ref name=coe>{{cite news|title=Ms. Vera Duarte, Minister of Education, Cape Verde |url=http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/nscentre/20th_anniversary/Testimonies/Interview_VeraDuarte.pdf |work=Council of Europe |access-date=2011-11-03}}</ref> The North–South Prize is awarded annually to recipients in the field of human rights by the North–South Centre of the Council of Europe. She is also a founding member of the Lisbon Forum.<ref name=coe/>
Duarte is the only Capeverdean to have the U Tam'si Prize for African Poetry won in 2001.<ref>{{cite web |last= Panapress|first=lson|title=Vera Duarte wins African poetry award |publisher=Panapress|date=17 August 2001 |url=http://www.panapress.com/Vera-Duarte-wins-African-poetry-award--13-550028-17-lang2-index.html}}</ref>
Duarte co-founded and chaired the National Commission for Human Rights and Citizenship of Cape Verde in 2003.<ref name=coe/> Most recently, Duarte has served as the Cape Verdean Minister of Education.<ref name=coe/>
==Works==
===Poetry=== * 1993 – ''Amanhã amadrugada'' * 2001 – ''O arquipélago da paixão'' * 2005 – ''Preces e súplicas ou os cânticos da desesperança'' * 2010 – ''Exercícios poéticos'' * 2018 - ''A reinvenção do mar''
===Novels=== * 2003 – ''A candidata'' (''The Candidate'') * 2017 - ''A matriarca – uma estória de mestiçagens'' (''The Matriarch'') * 2021 - ''A Vénus Crioula'' (''The Creole Venus'')
===Essays=== * 2007 – ''Construindo a utopia'' (''Constructing Utopias'')<ref>{{Cite web |title=Wayback Machine |url=http://www.fecilcam.br/educacaoelinguagens/documentos/v2n2/09-22.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141210081118/http://www.fecilcam.br/educacaoelinguagens/documentos/v2n2/09-22.pdf |archive-date=2014-12-10 |access-date=2025-03-17 |website=www.fecilcam.br |url-status=dead }}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
{{Tchicaya U Tam'si Prize for African Poetry |state=collapsed}} {{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Duarte, Vera}} Category:Cape Verdean human rights activists Category:Government ministers of Cape Verde Category:1952 births Category:Living people Category:People from Mindelo Category:Cape Verdean women poets Category:Cape Verdean novelists Category:20th-century Cape Verdean poets Category:21st-century poets Category:21st-century women poets Category:21st-century novelists Category:21st-century women novelists Category:Women essayists Category:21st-century essayists Category:20th-century women writers Category:21st-century women writers Category:21st-century judges Category:21st-century women politicians Category:Women government ministers of Cape Verde Category:Cape Verdean women novelists Category:Cape Verdean women activists Category:Women human rights activists Category:20th-century women poets
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