The other face of guinean writer Abdulai Sila

Abstract

Unpublished interview with the writer Abdulai Sila, realized between the months of October 2020 and January 2021, granted by e-mail and updated in person by Sila in Bissau (Guinea Bissau) on November 2021, in order to be published on Abril journal. Integrated to a Doctoral Thesis project vinculated to the Programa de Pós-Graduação em Literatura e Cultura of the Universidade Federal da Bahia, it raises biographical and critical questions connected to the literary and cultural productions of the writer about personal interests, the creative process and his relations with social and politic coordinates of Guinea Bissau, focusing on the book Memórias SOMânticas (2016), corpus of the ongoing academic project. Out of respect for cultural and linguistic diversity, it was decided to maintain the peculiarities of spelling, punctuation and syntax of the writer’s text. It depicts a continuous exercise on bilingualism or multilingualism, passing by interculturalities, in times of decolonialities, transits and dialogues through literature. Very interestingly, the initial testimony was marked by Sila as “Salvador, January 10th 2021”, date upheld on the final authorized revision and forwarded to the researchers.