TITLE: Amor Deus

According to a report by the UNSDG (United Nations Sustainable Development Group), 24% of the world's urban population lives in slums, favelas, or shantytowns. Bairro de Boa Esperança is a favela neighborhood northeast of Sal Rei, the main city on the island of Boa Vista in the Cape Verde archipelago.
My project, which began in July 2024, was born out of a desire to highlight the huge gap between life in this area of Sal Rei and the privileged life of tourists, immersed in the holiday ‘bubble’ of all-inclusive resorts on the island's coast, resorts whose employees mostly come from Bairro de Boa Esperança. The history of the neighborhood dates back to the beginning of the new millennium, when migrants began arriving from other islands in the archipelago, Senegal, and Guinea, attracted by the job opportunities that followed the construction of tourist villages. Due to rents that were too high and disproportionate to their wages, the new inhabitants began to build shacks with makeshift materials such as sheet metal, cardboard, and reclaimed boards.
However, the local government has begun a project to redevelop the area. The aim is to improve the living conditions of residents and integrate the neighborhood into the urban fabric of the city by reallocating the inhabitants to public housing, some of which has already been built. However, the scars of poverty remain evident and progress is slow.
Through my photographs, I want to document this transition phase: a community suspended between a past of deprivation and the hope of urban integration, but also to question the deep social divide generated by global tourism in one of the world's most celebrated tropical paradises.

AUTHOR: Anna Consilia Alemanno (Italy)

Anna Consilia Alemanno, a professional journalist and freelance photographer based in Milan and Athens, uses photography to tell stories and document reality, often focusing on social and environmental issues. Her work has been published in Perimetro, Witness Journal, Doog Reporter, and Africa Rivista. She participated in the OFF Circuit of the 2024 Lodi Festival of Ethical Photography.