Clapping Ghosts Back

Since 2011, filmmakers Sana na N’Hada, Filipa César and many others have been collaborating in the recovery and dissemination of the audiovisual memory of the Guinea Bissau liberation movement through the project Luta ca caba inda (The struggle is not over yet). In 2017, the poet, architect, and multidisciplinary artist Marinho de Pina joined the group. This collaboration culminated in the collective building of Abotcha – Mediateca Onshore in the community of Sana na N’Hada, a traditional Balanta village in Malafo. The Mediateca is now a laboratory for archival practice, community gatherings, and communion with the ancestors’ knowledge, nature and new technology. The film performance is two-layered: the backdrop navigates the process of the transformation and working the materials towards the construction of the building Abotcha; on top of this space, the event follows the course of Satna Fai, a women farmer collective, gathering, listening to the voices from the archive on women’s condition and emancipation.