Francisco Sousa Lobo - Gente Remota

Gente Remota is a fictional book that was born out of four long interviews with anonymous ex-combatants from the so-called African wars—conversations I had in 2014.

Nothing is invented when it comes to the war experiences of Alfredo Jacinto; I wouldn’t have the ability to fabricate such things. Neither the PIDE’s crime, nor Alfredo’s salvific action and presence of mind in saving a soldier from moral collapse—none of that is made up. I merely shuffled the deck.

This is a small story about Portugal, that country with no conscience issues, with a selective memory—both sincere and senile at the same time. It is a story of the crossing of ideas, of clashes of perspective. I am nowhere in this book. Or perhaps I am everywhere. The issue of racism is always a bottomless pit. Uncomfortable, urgent, with ramifications that deeply touch everyone. My relationship with our colonial past is complex. I myself was born in Mozambique, surrounded by servants and colonial privilege. Then came April 25th—a clean slate, glorious in a way, but one that hides our history and absolves us of any guilt. Then came primary school, where we were taught hostility toward the Spanish, and later high school, where The Lusiads were rammed down our throats. This book is perhaps the resulting pâté. Hope is what suffers.
— Francisco Sousa Lobo