Óscar Ribas

Óscar Bento Ribas was born on August 17, 1909, in Luanda to a Portuguese father and an Angolan mother. Blinded by illness in his early twenties, he refused to abandon his intellectual calling, transforming his acute sense of hearing into an extraordinary ethnographic instrument.

Ribas dedicated seven decades to collecting the myths, religious ceremonies, and spoken traditions of Luanda. His celebrated books—including Uanga (1950), Ecos da minha terra (1952), and Ilundo: Espíritos e Ritos Angolanos (1958)—stand as irreplaceable monuments of Angolan cultural anthropology. He was awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of Prince Henry, living to the grand age of ninety-four.