Echoes of the South Atlantic

The South Atlantic suggests multiple approaches, that range from the poetics between death and the maternal strength all the way to humanism, passing through the transformative power of the arts and the genocide of black populations in Brazil.

Humanism at the center

 
Abdulai Sila talking in Panel 4 | © Taylla de Paula

Source: (https://www.goethe.de/ins/br/en/kul/sup/echoes/eds/21262117.html)

After running the world and living 16 years outside of Guinea-Bissau, the engineer and writer Abdulai Sila understood that it would be necessary to “recreate humanity with humanism, having Africa as a crib.” When Sila was born, his country was not yet free. He believes, however, that to approach contemporary matters is harder than to conquer independence. “We defeated colonialism and I survived that. Now I feel like I am fighting my last battle.”

The work of Sila is vanguardist in the use of emerging technologies to accelerate the development of the country. He is co-founder of Eguitel Communications, the first internet service provider of Guinea-Bissau, and also of INEP, National Institute of Research. But the battle that he refers to has a deeper meaning, of assuming a global blackness. “Five centuries after one of the most cruel ways of subjugation of all Africans, including the diaspora, we share this feeling, this sort of essence, where our history is,” he explains.

It is not about redemption or rehabilitation, situates the writer. He defends the redefining of the African identity. Abdulai Sila believes that, just like the center of political decisions go through Europe, the United States, and currently, Asia, the African continent will be next. “For now, it is still not normal that countries outside of Africa want to be members of the African society. But this new identity is growing,” he bets.

About the risk that this international protagonism repeats “disasters from the past,” he ponders that it is "out of the question.” For Sila, who currently presides the Writers Association of Guinea-Bissau, this will be equated by humanism. “Societies can coexist and fight together for current matters, be it the environment, poverty, or injustice.”