Francisco Santos (swimmer, born 1962)
Francisco José Ribeiro Lopes dos Santos, known mainly as Francisco Santos is an Angolan/Portuguese multi-talented artist. He is known by many names in various industries. As a swimmer, he uses the name, Francisco Lopes Santos. In visual arts, he is known as Xesko. In poetry, he used the name Elias Karipande. In fantasy and science fiction, Francisco used the name Alan J. Banta, whose works were published in English and Portuguese.
As a sportsman, he represented Angola in swimming at the 1980 Summer Olympics.
He represented his country in other international games, including the Algiers 1978 All-Africa Games, the Moscow 1979 Seventh USSR Summer Spartakiade, and the Mexico 1979 Summer Universiade.
He was honored by the Angolan Olympic Committee in 2014 for being one of the first Angolan Olympic ambassadors.
Biography
Francisco's parents were Portuguese, and immigrated to Angola in 1959, where he grew up immersed in the African quarters of Luanda.Since a young age, he was dedicated to the arts and sports. He began writing at 14 and painting at 16 years old. In that time, he published some short stories and poems in several magazines and newspapers.
In secondary school, he was the founder and publisher of the magazine "The Bantalas" entirely dedicated to the arts. He participated in a contest of Art Painting whose objective was the creation of a poster commemorative of the anniversary of the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola obtaining the 1st place.
In sports, he obtained several titles of National Champion, in Swimming and Chess. He also represented his nation abroad several times, being the last time in the 1980 Summer Olympics.
Francisco abandoned politics when he moved to Portugal in 1986. In Portugal, he began a career as a musician under the name of Francis Riba, and created several musical groups, the better known being the psychedelic rock band ZEM.
From 1982 to 1999, he was involved in several musical and theatrical projects as a technician, musician, producer and director, writing several adaptations and two original pieces.
He graduated in the Soviet Union in 1986 in Chemical Engineering, where he frequented the courses of "Scientific Drawing" and "Creative Thought in Post-Modernism". In Portugal, he graduated in Data Processing, Systems Engineering and Programming. He also frequented the Courses of “Improvement in Painting Techniques for Oil Portraits”, promoted by the Fine Art-Painter Master Almaia, “Photograph and Graphic Design”, from, “Aesthetics and Theories of the Contemporary Art" and "Art Painting and Visual intervention”, from SNBA.
He has an MA of Contemporary Fine Arts from the Sheffield Institute of Arts, Sheffield, England, and has several works displayed in public places and he is represented in several private and official collections in Portugal, Russia, France, Spain, Brazil, UK and Angola.
Works
Alan J. Banta
''''''Elias Karipande
''''''Xesko
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