Cozinhas minhas - 2

1 – O gato da Okutiuka, Huambo, Angola – 2 – Peixes fritos na panela da Nanda, São-Tomé and Príncipe – 3 – Idem – 4 – Roça Monte Forte, São-Tomé and Príncipe – 5 – Bananas, Roça Soldedade, São-Tomé and Príncipe – 6 – Caixão Grande, São-Tomé and Príncipe – 7 – Jovens vendedoras na Estrada, São-Tomé and Príncipe.

Illustration in Cape Verde and São Tomé & Príncipe

2011 Mica Faculty Exhibition

Where these pictures have been taken?

From May to August 2010, for an illustrated book project called "Vozes de Nós", I went to three African countries: Guinea Bissau, Angola and São Tomé and Principe. Countries I know well, having been there repeatedly since 2000. In each of these countries, I have coordinated illustration/writing workshops and conducted a lot of interviews. Here, I report the daily life of workshops. I took these photos between two workshops, first for my own pleasure, but also for the information they contain. 

How the book project called Vozes de Nos/Our voices, started?

Alone and with two writers, Pedro Rosa Mendes and Jean-Yves Loude, I have already published some books about these countries. One of them: “Noticias do Quelele, bairro de Bissau” (News from Quelele) is at the origin of this project.

 

As an author and illustrator publishing for several years in the Portuguese market, I noticed the lack of books about the former Portuguese colonies in Africa. So I decided to start a book collection project about Guinea Bissau, Angola, Cape Verde, Mozambique and Sao Tome. The idea was to produce books that tell the African reality rather than rantings written by a European artist. For this reason, I thought it would be more interesting to let the Africans themselves write and illustrate these books. In 2003, I went to Bissau to start my first illustration/writing workshop. Four years after I managed to publish, “Noticias do Quelele” with the support of a Portuguese NGO.

In 2007, the Portuguese book market was too small and too timid for projects of this sort, and the collection has never emerged. Myself, I moved to Baltimore the same year.

Despite everything, I wholeheartedly wanted to continue this project. In 2009, I received the support of NGOs mentioned below, so I could come back to Africa. The substance of the project has changed somewhat but is still about the African point of view,  and not mere fiction created by a Western artist. 

For that project, I received an economic and a logistic support from several Non-Governmental Organizations, or NGOs: ACEP in Portugal, AMIC in Guinea, OKUTIUKA in Angola, and NOVO FUTURO in São Tomé. The community of Portuguese Language Countries, CPLP, and the Gulbenkian Foundation has assumed much of the funding.

In January 2011, the interviews, their drawings and my photographs have been be published by ACEP. 

Poemas de Odete Costa

Nélio e os amigos

Algumas paginas encontradas num caminho qualquer no bairro do Quelele. Tive pena e fiquei com elas. Fazem parte dum livro educativo publicado em 1999 pela Editora Escolar (Editora da república da Guiné Bissau). As ilustrações são do Jan-Olof Sandgren. 

Some pages found on a road in the neighborhood of Quelele. They are part of an educational book published in 1999 by Editora Escolar (Publisher of the Republic of Guinea Bissau), and illustrated by Jan-Olof Sandgren.

UORI - Stórias de lama e philosophia

Teresa Montenegro e Carlos de Morais publicaram esse livro de contos guineenses na editora Ku Si Mon em 1988. Capa de Fafali Koudawo, ilustracões do Katalá.  

São 202 paginas de bellisimos contos da Guine Bissau. Aqui vai o texto de apresentação

 da contra capa: " O conto crioulo é um milagre sempre recomeçado. Miragem dos grandes e dos pequenos, realidades para todos e apesar de tudo, ele transforma o verbo em júbilo pela magia de uma língua mutante, feita de raízes africanas e de palavras mestiças. Filho da mistura, o conto crioulo faz viver e vive da palavra que anima personagens, familiares. Sejam eles Caçador, Feiticeiro, Combossa, Pauteiro, Bajuda submissa ou rebeldes, estes arquétipos articulam-se segundo esquemas dinâmicos. 

Tal como o jogo Uori, que com as mesmas pecas compõe, decompõe e recompõe combinações até o infinito, o conto faz, desfaz e refaz episódios de vida com figuras que, de uma historia a outra, são habitadas por novas paixões, envoltas em novas enigmas, animadas por exaltações renovadas sem cessar. Da lama à filosofia.

Através dos espécimes mais representativos de contos ou de lágrimas, e de filosofia ou de alegria, este livro faz igualmente reviver a história das palavras crioulas, remontando às fontes e repertoriando num glossário inovador de mais de trezentas entradas, as etimologias, as filiações, as evoluções do vocabulário de base do crioulo".

Money love

Saudades da jangada que atravessava o rio Cacheu.