Book on santomense Conceição Lima wants to pave the way for further studies

O editor Filinto Elísio hopes that the collection on the work of Conceição Lima, to be launched on Thursday in Lisbon, will pave the way for further studies on the work of the poet Santomense.

“ We are perhaps opening a journey of studies” on the writing and life of Conceição Lima, Lusa Filinto Elísio, from the publisher Rosa de Porcelana and one of the presenters of “When the Micondó da Casa Florir in the Country – Written on Conceição Lima”.

The project still thought of the life of the poet and journalist, who died in May this year, came to count on the enthusiasm of the author, but his death, which considers “a thunderous loss” for literary and poetic production and for the thought of contemporary African authors, ended up adding the dimension of a tribute to this collection.

The title recovers the universe of “The Dolorosa Root of the Micondó”, one of the books of Conceição Lima (2006), whose central figure is the embondeiro, and which served as inspiration for the new formulation proposed by the teacher and friend Innocência Mata.

For Filinto Elysio, this choice refers to the aesthetic dimension of the work, but also to its ability to imagine the future of São Tomé and Príncipe. The book of Conceição Lima, he said, presents a “prospective poetry” about the desire of a new country.

The uniqueness of writing is, for the editor, one of the main marks of the poet, whose work describes how deeply visual and plastic.

“It was a profusion of colors, of movements”, said Filinto Elysio, evoking the aesthetic dimension of Conceição Lima’s poetry, which considered a “great steth”, someone who “writes as one who paints”.

“The presence of plants, animals, people and places in the archipelago allows us to recognize immediately its connection to São Tomé and Príncipe, without limiting the reading of its work to a national context,” he said.

“ She is a writer of deep Africanity ", stressed, highlighting the ancestry present in the images and metaphors of the author, but also her cosmopolitan dimension and openness to dialogue with the world.

“ He feels in the images he seeks, in the metaphors he seeks, a deep African ancestry, but at the same time also an extremely cosmopolitan person, who affirms his santumenity and his Africanity, but always with an open window to dialogue with the world ", he observed.

This complexity is also manifested in the way the poet crosses spatial, temporal, historical and existential references, articulating personal experiences and ancestral memories.

Among the poems he considers most representative of the author, Filinto Elysius highlighted “Afro-insularity”, by the way he combines the representation of colonial society with the hope of liberation.

Conceição Lima's intervention surpassed, however, the literary space, he stressed, describing it as an intellectual, journalist and citizen of strong civic participation, critical of power and the results of Santomense sovereignty.

“ She is not a passive citizen, who accepts ", said, considering that the author fully occupied the space of citizenship, both through poetry and public intervention.

Filinto Elysio believes that the collection will allow us to deepen the reading of a work that continues to arouse diverse interpretations.

The editor said it could be the starting point for other research projects on the life and work of Conceição Lima, defending the need for a continuous work of reading and dissemination.

The objective is to contribute to a broader knowledge of São Tomé and Príncipe, Africa and the aesthetics produced in the South, but also to the recognition of Conceição Lima among “the great contemporary authors of Portuguese”.

“There is a whole work of projection, of resonating something that has a vibrant potential like her work,” she concluded.

“Conceição dreamed a lot of this edition, which was instigated by Professor Innocência Mata”, shared the editor, remembering the will expressed by the author to “listen” in book form the various readings about his work.

“When the Micondó da Casa Florir in the Country – Written on Conceição Lima” opens this window, gathering 18 critical essays between creative texts, testimonials, chronicles and poems written by authors of different geographies.

Organized by the researcher Innocent Mata, the collection will be released on October 30, in the auditorium of UCLA, in Lisbon, and presented by the editor Filinto Elísio and Angolan poet Ana Paula Tavares.