With the sleeves of his button-down shirt rolled up, the man
stood on an open-air stage before an audience of hundreds and
read his poems with dramatic pauses, varied inflection and a
sense of purpose that comes naturally to those accustomed to
holding court. The man, 65-year-old Xanana Gusmão, is a former
guerrilla leader and the current Prime Minister of East Timor,
an island nation in Southeast Asia, which was the world's
youngest country until South Sudan gained independence last
year. That he was reading his poems in Portuguese, a language
understood by a small fraction of the population, spoke to the
close but often convoluted relationship between language,
identity and politics in newly independent states. Modern-day
East Timor was claimed by Portugal in the 16th century. In 1975,
no longer a global power, Portugal withdrew. Indonesia
immediately invaded, claiming precolonial ownership of the
island. Gusmão joined the main armed resistance group, Fretilin.
A gifted orator and writer, he would become it