Xanana Gusmão

Who is Xanana Gusmão?

José Alexandre "Xanana" Gusmão was born on 20 June 1946 in Manatuto, then Portuguese Timor. After the Indonesian invasion of December 1975, he joined the armed resistance and, following the death of independence leader Nicolau Lobato in 1978, took over leadership of the movement, organising the first National Conference of Fretilin in 1981 and becoming Commander-in-Chief of the Falintil guerrilla forces and later leader of the broader National Council of Timorese Resistance. Captured by Indonesian forces in 1992, he was imprisoned in Jakarta until Timor-Leste's 1999 independence referendum, directing the resistance from his cell. He became the country's first president after formal independence in 2002, serving until 2007, and later served as prime minister. Beyond politics, Gusmão is a published poet and painter; his poem "Grandfather Crocodile", drawn from his 2002 collection "Mar Meu — Poemas e Pinturas de Xanana Gusmão", was selected to represent Timor-Leste in the BBC's "The Written World" project for the 2012 London Olympics.

Sources: Xanana Gusmão biography, IMF seminar documentation (2013) · Government of Timor-Leste, official biography (timor-leste.gov.tl) · Scottish Poetry Library, "Grandfather Crocodile" by Xanana Gusmão (The Written World, BBC, 2012)