Santoméan poet Alda Barros tackles mental health prejudices

Santoméan writer Alda Barros has launched her book “Outros Silêncios”, a collection addressing the need to share one's feelings and seek help from the right people, in order to combat prejudices linked to mental health. “It speaks of silences. Of what cannot be shared just anyhow. We must find a place where we feel better to share [with the right person],” the author said at the presentation, according to Rádio Somos Todos Primos.

In the book, Alda Barros explores the different meanings of silence and stresses that not everything one feels should be shared indiscriminately. According to her, some personal matters require trust, respect and choosing someone with whom one feels genuinely comfortable speaking. “There are many silences in a single book. There are people who have what depression becomes and who are afraid to see a doctor,” she added, referring to the importance of seeking help when facing situations affecting mental health.

Writer and poet Ivanick Lopandza believes the work stands out for the way the literary subject, the lyrical “I”, approaches feelings and their relationship with the country throughout the poems. “Silence here cannot be seen as an absence of speech, but it is an absence that shows, in some way, what is not said,” he said.

The publication comes some time after the highlighting, on 9 October, of progress in eye care in São Tomé and Príncipe, another area of health in the archipelago.