From Pain to Words: The Poetry of Sílvia Bragança as an Act of Resilience and Transmission

Abstract

This article explores how the artist-poet Silvia Bragança, confronted with the tragic loss of her husband Aquino de Bragança (a key figure in the liberation struggles in southern Africa), inscribes her grief in a process of meaning-making, according to Robert Neimeyer's theoretical framework. Our analysis demonstrates that her poetry is not limited to a simple nostalgic tribute, but embodies an act of resilience. Silvia's commitment is rooted in her life before her marriage. Marked by her experiences in her native Goa, then in Portugal and Mozambique, in the wake of the Carnation Revolution and the decolonisation struggles, she developed very early  a graphic poetry denouncing oppression and exalting freedom and equality. After the 1986 accident, she refused to linger in the trauma and used her poetry as therapy. But Silvia is not content to be a guardian of memory; she becomes an actor in a committed transmission. She uses her poetry as a tool of liberation, not only for herself, but also for the people to whom she addresses her message.