SABURA

SABURA is a love story about the dreams of African and Afro-descendant youth like myself through the Guinean and, more generally, African historical-social lens. After the independence proclaimed by the liberation movement of the PAIGC, Guinea-Bissau inherited from the Portuguese colonial regime a State with a high level of inequity and poor infrastructure, dismissing all the prospects of popular cultures and traditional knowledge. Due to the disunity between various ethnic groups, each with its systems of society, coups d’états followed, which later resulted in civil war. The future of this country turned ruinous at the cost of young people like Cadija and Tony. Therefore, the younger generations end up seeking better opportunities in Europe, where life is not much simpler: An endless wait for foreign documents, living a great distance from family, and a strange new language, all in the hurried pace of a modern city where everyone is a stranger to everyone else. It is the reality of immigration in Portugal. This diversity is meaningful because language is identity, expression, history and part of the city’s identity. This leads me to the title I borrow from Guinean Creole, meaning contentment or delight. It refers to the Sabura they feel when tasting the peaches, a delicious reminder of home and youth, of their rebellious, stupid and stubborn love. Years ago, their country lived through times of enthusiasm, opportunity and progress. But while they imagine the peach tree of the land they left, both realize that all this is now beyond their reach, only a faraway memory of this post-independence disenchantment. Suddenly, they’ve grown up, no longer those children who used to steal peaches. Faced with an uncertain future for their entire generation, perhaps the sweet, nostalgic love of the past is not enough. Now it is necessary to choose a home, a land and a path.