Jose Manuel de S Lopes

An African youngster, Zé da Guiné, arrives to Lisbon looking for an abundant city, a wonderful World, where all dreams can come true. By that time, in the mid-70s, the city is only abundant in its motion and words. There was no other richness, that richness of the cornucopia he was expecting. He tries to get used to this idea, which is facilitated by the size and movement of the city. He grasps the opportunity and does what he can do best, and which is taught by experience to every African: making the new with the old. He becomes acquainted and friend with all new currents’ protagonists, from arts to the media. He reinvents fashion and invents the night. It is the Brown, the Souk, the Rockhouse, the Noites Longas, the Bebop. Lisbon prevails the night, a colorful night, where all quadrants and all chapels meet and recognize each othr in the mythical Fridays of Noites Longas. Lisbon grows, proud of its people from so many places, and creeds. Before Zé da Guiné, nights were dark, cold and scary. A quarter of a century after, what remains of all this?