Francisco Fanhais

He was born in Vila Nova da Barquinha on 17 May 1941, studied at the seminaries of Santarém, Almada and Olivais and was ordained a priest in 1965. Between 1968 and 1970 he was a secondary school (liceu) teacher and curate of the parish of Barreiro; in December 1968 he met José Afonso.¹

On the night of 31 December 1968, at the vigil for peace in the Church of São Domingos, he sang the “Cantata da Paz” (Cantata of Peace), which Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen had written for that night.²³ In 1969 he appeared on Zip-Zip and recorded Cantilenas; the cantata came out in 1970 on the record Canções da Cidade Nova (Songs of the New City).¹³

In 1970, for having attended the wedding of the former priest Felicidade Alves, he was barred from exercising the priesthood, from teaching in state schools and from singing in public.¹³ In April 1971 he left for France, getting a lift from José Afonso, took part in the recording of Cantigas do Maio (Songs of May) and became involved with the LUAR.¹ In 1973, in Paris, he gave an interview to the programme Página Um (Page One) together with José Afonso and José Mário Branco.⁴ In March 1974 he was billed at the 1st Portuguese Song Meeting (I Encontro da Canção Portuguesa), at the Coliseu, but he was banned from performing and watched from the audience.⁵

He returned after 25 April and sang at sessions in support of popular struggles, the Agrarian Reform, cooperatives and workers’ and residents’ committees, and in the MFA’s cultural dynamisation campaigns.¹ In May 1974, at the “free singing” show that the Emissora Nacional and RTP organised at the São Luiz Theatre, “Cantar Não É Talvez Suficiente” (Singing Is Perhaps Not Enough), a poem by Manuel Alegre set to his music, was heard.⁷ In June 1975 RTP filmed him at the Coliseu, accompanying José Afonso at a LUAR rally in support of the People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA).⁶ He later devoted himself to teaching music and to the José Afonso Association.¹