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<em><span lang="EN-US">Muana Puó </span></em><span lang="EN-US">was the first novel written by Pepetela. It was written in 1969 but its publication was made only in 1978. Its title refers to a tchokuê mask that symbolizes the rite of passage to adulthood, and that worked as a mot­to, so the Angolan writer could construct an allegory based on the fight between crows and bats as oppressors and oppressed as well. In a 1987’s article about this narrative, I declared that “to adopt as justification the position of oppressed, to explain the use of the language treatment, en­gaged and even leafleted, is unbearable”. In 2012, twenty-five years later, I reread the novel under the prism of the witness, reevaluating the relations between ethics and aesthetics, having as support the outcomes provided by Adorno in “O que significa elaborar o passado” (1959) and the analysis of Marcelo Caetano (“O enigma de Muana Puó”, 2004) and Laura Padilha (“A força de um olhar a partir do Sul”, 2009). </span>