VOICES OF EXILE: RESISTANCE AND IDENTITY IN SABOR DE MABOQUE BY DULCE BRAGA

Abstract

Sabor de Maboque, by Dulce Braga, is an autobiographical novel that retrieves the author’s childhood and youth memories in Angola, abruptly interrupted by the outbreak of the Civil War in the 1970s. The maboque fruit, with its bittersweet taste, emerges as a central sign, capable of triggering dormant recollections and activating the work of memory. Through the sensory experience of seeing and tasting the fruit, Braga reconstructs a past marked by affections, losses, and displacements, revealing the intertwining of individual remembrance and historical context. The narrative articulates images, emotions, and textual records in a process of remembrance that transcends the personal dimension, engaging with the collective experience of diaspora and identity rupture. Thus, the work not only preserves memories but also reflects on the power of writing as a way of organizing the disorder of memory and elaborating the pain of loss.