About water and people: identity writing

Abstract

The fictional production of João Paulo Borges Coelho currently represents an important contribution to the rethinking of identity issues in the Mozambican space, through the recovery of collective memory, both pre- and post-independence. In Água. Uma novela rural - Water. A rural novel (2016), the author resumes the representation of rivers as a central metaphor in the construction of the narrative, presenting a pertinent reflection on the construction of identities, in a complex relationship between tradition and modernity, countryside and city, native and foreign, young and old. The situation of extreme drought in the village aggravates latent social conflicts, and the novel unfolds in a dialogue punctuated by perplexity and contradictions, similar to the water itself, which is not to be trusted, as the narrator warns, early in the novel. Scarce at first, then torrential, water punctuates the lives of the people and signals the arrival of a time when the borders are crumbling and blending becomes necessary.