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Love and War in Old Malaca

Joe Conceicao

The author wrote his book in 2011, which year marked the 5th Centenary after the Portuguese Conquistadores landed in Malaca in 1511.They grabbed the rich emporium from the Malay Sultan and ushered in over a century of strife. Their legacy today is a small population of Kristang people, Kristang a Creole language which is fast fading in use, a well-known culinary art, and a hopping dance rhythm and tune still adverted to on occasion. Joe Conceicao comes from that community.

Love and War is a partly imaginative recall of that time when the Portuguese conquered and settled in Malaca. They found their external foes constantly forcing them to stay within the impregnable fortress they lived in. Joe's story shows how, in his imagination, the settlers met their joys and struggles. The tale is worth telling because, today remains of Portuguese culture, however ragged, may be found scattered over the shores of Africa and Asia, as recent research has shown.