Tania Camara

11391405 The Soul of a People: Batuku an Everyday Holistic Healing Practice of Cape Verdean Women

Figure 1: A Batuku Performance, Batukadera Azul (2016), painting by Luis Levy Lima

University of Amsterdam

(July 2018)

Submitted in part fulfilment for the MA of Artistic Research

1 Contents Page

2 The Soul of a People: 1 Contents Page 2 Abstract 5 Introduction 6 Relevance of Research 6 Background/Context of Research 7 Overall Objectives 7 Methodology 8 Outline of Case Studies 9 Theoretical Framework 10 Short History of Cape Verde 12 Illusion of the Civilising Mission 13 History of Famine in Cape Verde 14 Slavery and Food Production 16 The Cape Verdean Diet: a Survival tactic 18 Forced Emigration: New mode of African Enslavement 20 Chapter One: What is Batuku? 21 History of Batuku 21 The Interdependent Features of Batuku: Finason, Txabeta and Torno 22 1.1 What is Finason? 23 1.2 What is Txabeta? 24 1.3 What is Torno? 25 Kriolu in the composition of Batuku 27 External relations of Batuku: Colonial Spectres 29 Always in a Circular Motion 32 Everyday Practices 33 Batuku as Embodied Memory and Knowledge 36 Chapter Two: Reaching Higher Consciousness through the Txabeta 38 Further exploring ‘Da Ku Torno’ 39 The Black Male Gaze 43 The White Male Gaze 44 The Oppositional Female Gaze 46 The Presence of the Physical Body 47 The Element of Trance in Batuku 49 Generating Aesthetic Space 50 Batuku, Resistance against Colonial Rule 52 Batuku, a rehearsal for rebellious acts 53

3 Sing in the Name of Freedom 56 Batuku, becoming a National Symbol 58 Social Call and Cultural response 61 Conclusion 66 Further research 70 Illustrations 71 Artworks 71 Bibliography 72 Journals 73 Videography 73 Youtube Videos Used 74 Websites 74

4

This work aims to explore what a Batuku performance is and what role it Abstract plays in the everyday lives of Cape Verdean women specifically during times of crisis, such as famine. This thesis examines every aspect of Batuku a) the finason, b) the txabeta and c) the torno. In order to understand what this performance is, what knowledge is embodied in it and how it was used during the Cape Verdean revolution that led to independence. Batuku Performance is represented as a holistic practice that has been and continues to be cultivated by Cape Verdean women, it is a mode of education, memory preservation, social affirmation, communication and resistance. It is the legacy of ancestors that survived the Maafa.

Keywords Batuku, Performance, Cape Verdean Revolution, Africanness, African Spirituality

5 Introduction

Relevance of Research

The research on the practice and performance of Batuku (Batuque or Batuko means ‘to beat’) is relevant because it is a tradition from the island of Santiago that is under represented in academia and artistic practice. Since, my artistic practice is interdisciplinary and consisted of all the aspects of

Batuku, spoken word, dance, music and performance. And I am doing a research masters’ that aims to bridge the gap between artistic practice and theory, I decided to research my own practice alongside my Cape Verdean heritage and my relationship with Batuku. This is not an attempt to classify Batuku in western frames of music, dance or cultural conceptions but rather an open exploration of the practice in terms of performance, ritual, improvisation and a form knowledge production. The cultivation of this practice has allowed for Cape Verdeans to formulate a hybridised identity and representation of themselves that derives from the their own image. The question I have been asking throughout my research has been what does the black African female body look like in resistance and not in despair, since I am interested in generating alternative images for the black

African woman. For this purpose I want to use the concept of Sankofa, which means, ‘we must return and claim our past in order to move toward our future. It is in understanding who we were that will free us to embrace who we are now.’ (DeGruy, 2005: 6) This concept will enrich the research further because it speaks not of origins, (or returning to an origin) but rather to the idea of using historiography from the past in the present, taking what used to be great about the self and bringing that knowledge into the present. This concept is important because it allows for the discussion of gender politics within this thesis to be centered within an African philosophical framework. I want to focus on Batuku and how it became a platform of visibility for Cape Verdean women, because for most of Cape Verdean history women have occupied an invisible and silent position and in the performance, they are visible in every sense. 6 Background/Context of Research

The current research on Batuku is based on its musical structure, the scholarly work on the subject of Batuku falls under the fields of Ethnomusicology, anthropology and musicology (Cardoso 1983;

Castro Ribeiro 1993, 1994, 2004, 2006, 2010, Cruz 1981; Hurley-Glowa 1997, 2001 and 2005;

Lopes 1949 and Varela da Silva 1985, 1988 and 1990). As well as Batuku as a form of resistance but the research done by Katherine Carter and Judy Aulette (2009), was short and superficial since it explored the practice in relation to colonial oppression and did not examine in depth what makes/ made Batuku such a power practice and performance. Batuku has not been studied in its entirety, but separately either as a music genre or a dance, there are 3 basic components that make up

Batuku, the Finason, the Txabeta and the Torno, through all of these mediums a story is narrated. I want to analyse Batuku as an interdisciplinary art form that incorporates three separate genres that stand on their own but when they come together they tell a story, a Cape Verdean national narrative.

I will take a different approach by analysing the practice and performance of Batuku as a holistic and/or spiritual practice. Therefore, I will explore this aspect of Batuku, by analysing it in depth its relation to African cosmological philosophies, the representation of African women in Batuku and

African spiritual practices and finally the call and response structure and how this helped build community and sisterhood.

Overall Objectives

The main aim/objective of this thesis is to research the cultural practice of Batuku and its cultivation during the famine of 1947 to independence in 1975. In order to investigate what role Batuku played, as a cultural practice as well as a form of healing for Cape Verdean women throughout this colonial period. I want to investigate how Batuku can be seen as a form of resistance against colonial rule,

7 resistance in everyday practices, a form of embodied knowledge, a communal memory preserver, an identity constructer, a form of liberation and release from everyday hardships, as an everyday ritual performance, a carrier of cultural values, a carrier of the kriolu language; and a form of healing. The question being explored throughout this thesis is in what ways could performing/practicing Batuku during the periods of 1947 to 1975 in Cape Verde serve as an act of self-claiming, self-defining and resistance for women. In order to investigate this topic, first there has to be an understanding of what the practice of Batuku entails and its history, alongside the history of slavery, colonial governance and famine in the archipelago.

Methodology

This research will use a non — empirical approach due to the time restrictions and lack of funds. I will examine archived material of the practice, such as, documentaries about the Batuku Groups, to begin with, Batuque: A Alma de Um Povo (2004) a documentary that follows the history of Batuku from the early settlement on the islands by the Portuguese and enslaved Africans, to the development and cultivation of the practice in this globalised era. This is done through the story of the Batuku group Raiz di Tamabarina (1971) here the members narrate their relationship with the practice from their first encounter to now. The group is one of many traditional Batuku groups but, their have a very interesting story because they are one of the few groups that was ‘officially’ founded straight after independence was gained. And so, in some of their songs they highlight the

Cape Verdean experience as it was happening, particularly in the case of the famine. Secondly,

Documentário Tradison di Terra (2011), where group Tradison di Terra discuss their development trajectory, how and why they formed a group. And what they have achieve as a group for the larger

Cape Verdean culture on the national and international level. Followed by the their CD and DVD

8 Nós Bandera (2011) and the group Kultura Esperansa’s CD and DVD Realidadi (2009).1 I will also analyse Finason/Batuku singer Nacia Gomi (Gomes) who was one of the oldest batukaderas of

Cape Verde, in this instance, the focus will be on the performer rather than on the music itself. I want to explore Nacia Gomi as a performer, the way she delivers her finason, how her body is incorporated into her delivery of the finason and her playfulness. This documented material of

Batuku facilitates the investigation of what the practice is and how it works and compensates for the lack of testimonies by practitioners about the practice. As well as official documentation from the colonial era that demonstrated the spaces the practice occupied in Cape Verdean society. However, there are many disadvantages in working only with documented materials, for starters, because

Batuku is a practice that uses oral history as a form of documentation, it is extremely difficult to find original materials that have not been influenced by the archivist and directors of the material. It is also difficult to get a sense of the atmosphere that is created during a Batuku performance from a recording because it looses its liveliness.

Outline of Case Studies

I will analyse the body of work of the following Batuku groups, Tradicon di Terra (2003) and Raiz di Tambarina (1971) Kultura Speranca (2000). While looking at these videos I want to examine every aspect of Batuku, (meaning the music, the lyrics, the dance and the imagery) in order to

1 This CD Nós Bandera (translates to Our Flag) is the first recorded work of Tradison di Terra (translates to Tradition of the land) and there are many different themes that run through this body of work. The main now is that of motherhood, the act of giving birth a child, nurturing, feeding and caring for them. The lyrics narrate stories of mothers raising their children, having to work in manual labour, having to gather sand and rock for the making of construction material, and selling fish at the markets. In order to put their children through school and to provide for their families. The gathering of women to form group and facing the stigma that some men hold against the practice and as a result of that stigma these men prohibit their wives from partaking in the Batuku group. Celebrating the Cape Verdean identity through the flag, by singing about what the flag represents to them. And finally, a longing for the motherland, waiting to reach out to Africans on the mainland and connecting with them over their shared history of slavery and colonialism.

This CD Rialidadi (translates to Reality) is the first that was composed by the group “Kultura Speranca”, (translates to Culture and Hope). The main theme that runs through this body of work is that of Cape Verdean cultural at large, from the early settlement on the islands and slavery, to the fight for independence, the vision Amilcar Cabral had for the development of Cape Verde and Guinea Bissau, the migration of many Cape Verdeans and their return to the islands to celebrate the day of the saint Santo Amaro that takes place in January, to overcoming addiction to drugs, homeless children and the importance of present mothers. And finally, love, the relationship between being in love and being in lust as well as being betrayed and abandoned by a romantic partner. 9 construct a narrative of what Batuku is and its importance in times of drought. Looking at the presentation of everyday Cape Verdean life that is represented in the music videos. In the following chapters I will explore Batuku in terms of its structural make up, examining what Finason, Txabeta and Torno are as individual forms that when combined under one space become the cultural practice of Batuku. In order to examine the disciples that are embedded in the practice, how it became a tool for education, since during the colonial period most of the women in the archipelago were considered illiterate in the Portuguese language. Therefore, looking at the cultural practice as a source of education for women and young girls, lessons that comes from lived experiences which is shared through the performances. As well as the importance of presence in the performance, focusing of the body which is intrinsic in the embodied practice of Batuku. In order to explore this, the song Tempo Antigo (2011) by the group Tradicon di Terra will be analysed in terms of the execution and presentation of the dance in the video. Therefore, I will focus on the internal relationship of the torno and the txabeta, examining how the dance is constructed, in order to explore the notion of the gaze; the power of the black female gaze, the black male gaze and the white male gaze. Lastly, focusing on Batuku as a cultural revolutionary practice by examining its relation to the P.A.I.G.C liberation movement and the formation of a national Cape Verdean identity post independence.2 In order to examine this, the song Liberdadi Ki Nu Kre (2009) by the group

Kultura Speranca will be analysed in terms of lyrical construction, the content in the lyrics and the message being transmitted throughout the song. Investigating the spaces Batuku has occupied over the course of its existence, from the periphery of society to the centre.

Theoretical Framework

The primary theorists I will draw from throughout this dissertation are, to begin with, Laura

Bigman’s History and Hunger in West Africa: Food Production and Entitlement in Guinea-Bissau

2 Partido Africano da Independência de Guiné e Cabo Verde 10 and Cape Verde (1993) where the author gives a compact historical narrative of Food Production and Entitlement in Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde. With this text, I will focus specifically on

Chapter 5 (Cape Verde Islands: Colonialism, Commerce and Crop Failures) and 6 (Cape Verde

Islands: Slavery, Sharecropping and Chronic Malnutrition) where the author explores the history of famine in the archipelago, highlighting the relationship between the Portuguese colonial administration (from the first settlement to just before independence) and famine. Focusing on, just to name a few, corruption, the history of slavery in relation to the economy, and forced migration.

This provides my research with a historical perspective into the situation of the people during the famine of 1947, which allows for further understanding of how the practice of Batuku survived during times of crisis. Since most of the population died due to hunger and many of those remaining were forced to migrate to the islands of São Tomé e Princípe and Mozambique to work in the plantations. Secondly, Richard Lobban’s Cape Verde: Crioulo Colony to Independent Nation

(1995) where the author offers a diversified exploration of the heritage of Cape Verdeans, the descendants of Africans, Europeans, and Luso-Africans. Discussing the economic and political journey of the islands, reflecting on the economic growth and developments, the transition from colony to independent nation state. This will further the understanding of the national Cape Verdean identity and how it was constructed as well as the history of the islands in relation to colonial administration and the economy. Thirdly, Amilcar Cabral’s Unity and Struggle: Speeches and

Writings of Amilcar Cabral (1979) where Cabral defines the importance of culture as an ‘essential element of a people’s history.’ (142) I will use this text because of the detailed statistics about the social, cultural, and political situation of Cape Verde, from the famine through to the struggle for independence. Alongside investigating the relationship between the practice of Batuku and Cape

Verdean nationhood by exploring the role Batuku played in the early construction of a national

Cape Verdean culture. As well as the space it occupied in the development of an independent nation state, in order to understand in what ways Batuku is as an act of culture and resistance against 11 colonial domination. I will also use Fernando Arenas’s Lusophone Africa (2011) to discuss the formation of Batuku and what its place is within the Cape Verdean musical scene. Katherine Carter and Judy Aulette’s Cape Verdean Women and Globalization: The Politics of Gender, Culture and

Globalization (2009) to analyse the practice of Batuku as a force of resistance against colonial rule as well as resistance to the hardships of everyday life in Cape Verde. Lastly, Jorge Ribeiro

Inquietação, memória e afirmação no batuque: música e dança cabo-verdiana em Portugal (2012) this text explores the social, political and cultural place of Batuku in a postcolonial context, the relationship between Cape Verde and Portugal. Looking at the practice from a standpoint of history, postcolonial theory and migration, focusing specifically on the Cape Verdean immigrant community in Portugal and how through the performance of Batuku that community affirm themselves socially and show memories of resistance.

Short History of Cape Verde

The Republic of Cape Verde is an Archipelago made up of ten islands that resides 455 kilometres off the coast of Senegal, West Africa. The archipelago was uninhabited when it was reached by the

Portuguese in 1456 and the islands were arranged into two categories, a leeward group that consisted of São Tiago, Fogo, Brava and Maio. And a windward group that consisted of São

Nicolau, Sal, Boa Vista, Santa Luzia, São Vicente and Santo Antão. The early Portuguese settlers and the enslaved Africans who were imported from various locations and carried with them different languages, values, musical and cultural traditions informed what was later to become the essence of Cape Verdean culture and identity. The geographical position of Cape Verde was considered a strategic point during the early development of the Atlantic slave trade, because it allowed the Portuguese to navigate throughout the West African coast, without having to spend huge amounts of time on the main land. The island of São Tiago (Santiago), specifically, Riberia

Grande (now known as Cidade Velha) was the primary port for the trading of enslaved Africans and 12 other goods. The slave trade was an intrinsic part of the developing Cape Verdean society and growing economy. Since the islands did not have any valuable natural resources that could strengthen the economy. As Colm Foy notes, ‘indeed, the slave trade was what made the development of Cape Verde into a fully settled colony possible at all. Without it, survival for the first white inhabitants would have been precarious in the extreme.’ (1988: 10) The living conditions on the islands were precarious at times, because the climate is similar to that of a desert, which means that it is subject to numerous periods of drought. As a result, the free flow of merchants and enslaved Africans alleviated the harsh living conditions for those that settled on the islands, on behalf of the Portuguese crown. The enslaved Africans were at the bottom of the developing social ladder, and they were categorised into three different groups ‘(1) escravos bocais or novos

(“African-born, ‘stupid’ or raw slaves”); (2) escravos naturais (“Cape Verdean-born slaves”), and

(3) escravos de confissão or landinos (“baptized or ‘civilized’ slaves”).’ (Lobban, 1995: 24) The process of landinizaçao consisted of teachings about the grounding principles of Roman

Catholicism, the basics of the Portuguese language and finally fundamental labour skills. The perpetuation of the Portuguese language alongside the practice of Catholicism was essential for the

Portuguese colonial project, because it facilitated the colonisers attempt to break with the notion of self of the enslaved Africans. The teaching of the Portuguese western civilisation maintain its domination over the enslaved population, by removing the self representations of the African population and attempting to assimilated Cape Verdeans into the political, cultural and social order of the Portuguese Crown. This resulted in assimilation into Portuguese society imposed by, the authorities of the time, the Catholic Church and the Portuguese colonists attempted to suppress any form of the native cultural practices.

Illusion of the Civilising Mission

13 This initial division between enslaved Africans facilitated the established social order that was beneficiary to Portuguese men that held the status of Capitão (Captain). The Roman Catholic church played a pre-dominant role in the history of the archipelago, during the colonial period ‘the priests and religious were almost entirely of Portuguese nationality and the colonial regime was unabashed in referring to them as agents of its “civilising mission”.’ (Foy, 1988: 175) The notion of humanitarianism and spiritual salvation, became a pretence for colonial powers to enslave people of

African descent. Without fear of punishment, because according to their religious beliefs, ‘the indoctrination of non-Christians and the ‘saving of their souls,’ (Rego, 2008: 146) was the work of civilisation and the will of their God. The civilising mission was a tactic that softened the impact of

European domination, it worked because the church and the state had an interdependent relationship at the time. In Yurugu: An Afrikan-Centered Critique of European Cultural Thought and Behavior

(2014) Anthropologist Marimba Ani discuses the notion of Eurocentrism that is present in Christian beliefs, ‘and so their lot was quite contrary of what it had been; since before they had lived in perdition of soul and body; of their souls in that they were pagans, without the clearness and the light of holy faith; and of their bodies, in that lived like beasts, without any custom of reasonable begins,’ (156) This statement demonstrates an attempt to justify the Portuguese slave trade, because

Africans were deemed uncivilised by the Europeans. Yet the very action of enslavement by the

Portuguese (and other European nations) was in itself barbaric behaviour; highlighting the contradictory nature of the Portuguese ‘civilising’ mission. Religion was a mechanism that facilitated the conquering of foreign lands, resources, and peoples.

History of Famine in Cape Verde

The archipelago has a long history of famine and drought because of factors like insufficient rain and negligent colonial administration. In History and Hunger in West Africa: Food Production and

14 Entitlement in Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde (1993) African Studies scholar Laura Bigman notes that:

‘Drought, floods, cyclones and invasions by hordes of insects have caused crop failure

year by year. Indeed, there were crop failures on some or all of the islands during the

following periods: 1580-1583; 1609-1611; 1685-1690; 1704-1712; 1719-1723;

1738-1742; 1748-1750; 1754-1755; 1764; 1773-1775; 1790-1791; 1810-1814;

1830-1833; 1845-1846; 1863-1865; 1875-1876; 1883-1886; 1894-1900; 1903-1904;

1911-1915; 1916-1918; 1921-1922; 1922-1924; 1941-1943; 1947-1948. In the famine of

1773-1775, 44 percent of the population died; between 1830 and 1833, over 42 percent

starved to death. In the years 1863-1865, 40 percent of the people lost their lives along

with 95 percent of the livestock.’ (80)

It is evident that the archipelago has suffered continuously with drought and that very little precautions were taken by the early Portuguese settlers to minimise the devastating effects of famine. During the period of slavery, commerce and trading was the most important factor for the

Portuguese colonial administration and the Portuguese crown. The ‘goods’ being traded consisted of enslaved Africans, Orchil, Grogo (Rum made with sugar cane) and Cape Verdean cloths. These

‘goods’ were exchanged with other goods, money was hardly used as a trading coin and this was one of the causes, that led to the underdevelopment of the Cape Verdean economy. Along with pirate attacks, drought and lack of precious natural resources, which led orchil to become the primary source of income. The trading of orchil was in high demand in Portugal (from 1460s to

1840s) but when the dye became to expensive to process and use in the European textile industry,

Cape Verde fell into further colonial neglect. And with the decrease in activity of Portuguese slave traders because other European ports, the archipelago seemed to no longer have a usefulness to the

Portuguese Crown. The Portuguese Crown and colonial administrators focused primarily on

15 specific rates of return, relating to investments in particular projects and this hindered any attempt to reduce the effects of drought. One of the strategies that they could have developed, was environmental development focusing especially in restoration and preservation of the natural ecological systems. Concentrating on poor planning by strategising in preparation for future drought periods, deforestation and desertification by planting trees and vegetation that could survive in extremely dry climates, soil erosion and overgrazing by limiting the space used by livestock (goats).

These strategies were only implemented in times of crises, when famines were already happening.

According to African studies scholar Robert J. Cummings,

‘Internal factors that generate famine can be categorized (not in order of priority) as

follows: (a) the insufficient development of human resources; (b) the continued

maintenance of inherited colonial institutions and structures; (c) the existence of too

many small economies; (d) the negative trends in food production; (e) poverty; (f) high

population growth rates; (g) increased dependence on food imports; and (h) the violation

of the delicate balance between Africa’s environmental realities and the dire necessity of

agricultural development.’ (1987: 112)

The internal factors outlined here reference the causes that prevent a nation to produce sufficient food, but in the case of Cape Verde, these internal factors are also combined with external facts of poor colonial administration, state and church corruption. That exploited the masses of Cape

Verdean people in terms of commerce and trading with the help of foreign ships that passed through the islands to resupply.

Slavery and Food Production

16 From the start those that suffered most with famine and drought periods, were the enslaved Africans and during the colonial period the landless masses and crop farmers that lived of the land.

According to Bigman, ‘during times of crisis, people sold their clothes, their kettles, whatever they owned, including the doors and tiles of their homes.’ (1993:80) These were desperate times and therefore required desperate measures, because the most important objective during the hunger crisis was that of survival. Fear of death resulted in a new system of slavery, one the one hand, the domination of the small food market trade and on the other, forced migration. But before exploring these systems, first the feudal economic system must be understood, the feudal economic system included ‘the feudal capitãos, the absentee landlords of the donatarios, the fidalgo nobility, the feitor and lancado merchants, and the foreign representatives.’3 (Lobban, 1995: 51) Those that held any of these tittles were placed in positions of power, they became the administrators of the islands and most were white. Whereas, the positions of servitude, be that in the cultivation of the land or the construction of public spaces where designated to the enslaved population, that later became the poor peasant masses of Cape Verdeans. As a result of this power division between Portuguese citizens and the African population, the best land lots was given as a birth right to the Portuguese citizens and was used as a planation. To begin with, the landlords used the land for cultivation of edible vegetation and pasturage for grazing livestock and later for sugarcane, due to its importance during drought periods, since it enable the production of the spirit grogo. In times of crisis, many landlords freed their slaves, leased them land so that they could cultivate food crops and sugar cane and in return, the tenants would give half of their harvest the landlords. However, this system had many disadvantages for both the landlords and the tenants, in many cases, ‘the parcels [of land]

3 According to Lobban, Capitãos (translates to Captains) is ‘a military governor representing the Portuguese Crown’. (1979: 34) Donatarios (translates to Grants) is ‘the system of local rule in Cape Verde and some other colonial holdings in which a Capitão (captain) was given a royal grant to administer with a high degree of local autonomy’. (1979: 43) Feitor (or Feitoria) is the Portuguese royal trade monopolies and private mercantile concerns were usually represented by a feitor, or local business agent, sometimes with very considerable powers’. (1979: 51) Lançados (translates to Outcast), were Portuguese settlers, including fugitives known for having courage and initiative; also, half-caste traders living on or near African coastal communities who maintained semi-autonomous control of local costal communities’. (1979: 67) Fidalgo, translates to nobleman. 17 allocated to the slaves were inadequate even in good years, and the slaves did not get enough to eat.’

(Bigman, 1993: 96) And this resulted in a new form of slavery that derived from the colonial control of the small food trade. In many cases, the landlords used the good parcels of land to grow sugarcane for exportation purposes instead of cultivating sufficient food crops. The labour in the production of the sugarcane was done by the peasant sharecroppers, according to Colm Foy, ‘it was this liquid which was ‘sold’ to the land lords at a price to be determined by him after a deduction had been made for the use of the press. Even in a good year these sales rarely achieved a value sufficient to allow the peasant to accumulate enough money in his hand to enter the cash economy.’ (1988: 8) The landlords dominated the cash economy and the small food trade and because of this, the peasant population fell into a reoccurring cycle of poverty, impoverishment, and debt, since they hardly made enough money from their own crop production. They found themselves accumulating debts with their landlords in order to feed themselves and their families,

‘typically, a peasant family would be forced to have supplies on credit throughout the growing season of the sugarcane from the estate shop.’ (Foy, 1988: 9) The debt accumulated before the harvest was then deducted from the buying price of the product being ‘sold’ by the farmer.

The Cape Verdean Diet: a Survival tactic

In Cape Verde women are responsible for food preparation in their homes and due to crop failures there was not much variety in the prepared dishes. The typical Cape Verdean diet consisted of beans and maize corn, there are many dishes in which corn is the main ingredient and it may be used in various forms. Beginning corn flour which is used for cuscus (a breakfast dish); corn on the cob and dried corn used in the traditional dish cachupa, this dish is very important because it tells the devastating story of famine and drought that haunts the islands. The basic make up of cachupa is of dried corn and beans, but those that had better resources could add fish or meat and vegetables such 18 as, cabbage and carrots. Cachupa is a dish that has a long preparation time, because the dried corn would have to be pounded and then boiled for four to five hours so that it would be ready to combine with the beans.

Figure 2: Women pounding corn, Midju Pilon Pilon (2017), painting by Luis Levy Lima

On top of that, ‘women may spend upwards of ten to eleven hours a day trying to obtain wood and water.’ (Bigman, 1993: 107) In order to prepare a simple meal such as cachupa, a lot of energy would be used in the preparation tasks and in times of famine these tasks would have been extra difficult to achieve, yet it was a need for survival, since this was the basis for the everyday Cape

Verdean diet. This diet lacked iron, protein, calories, calcium, vitamins A and C and this had a devastating effect on the health and live of Cape Verdeans. Many people fell sick because of their weakened immune system and the rates of infant mortality increased. Cape Verdean women suffered under a triple form of oppression (colonialism, racism and sexism). Lobban suggests that,

Cape Verdean women suffer a notable degree of gender discrimination - in their relatively higher level of illiteracy, lower pay, and diminishing numbers in upper social, political, and educational

19 positions.’ (1995: 83) Even though, Care Verdean women are the backbone of the social life, because they are the caretakers of the children and elderly, they work at the markets trading goods, such as fish, clothes, fruits, rice, beans, and traditional snacks like pastries and pork scratching, they collect water and do the domestic work in their own homes and of others. They are treated as the inferior of the two sexes, as if only the male contributions to society are valuable.

Forced Emigration: New mode of African Enslavement

Those able to work became ‘contratados’ and embarked on a journey to the cocoa plantations on the islands of Sao Tome e Principe, because when slavery was abolished in the Portuguese colonies, the plantations were abandoned by the enslaved africans.4 Cape Verde was suffering from continuous periods of drought and famine and since Cape Verdean society was built on cheap labour, all they had to offer now was their labour power. As a means for survival forced labour became the new form of slavery in Cape Verde, people were contracted to work on the plantations.

According to Lobban, ‘the Badius were more likely to be recruited for contract labor, and they were the backbone of the system of forced emigration.’ (1995:74) The conditions in which the Badius found themselves were almost identical to that of slavery and ‘laborers worked exhausting hours and were routinely tortured, beaten, and put in chains.’ (Lobban, 1995: 63) Supposedly, Africans were free, but they were treated as less than human, after their humanity had been ‘officially’ recognised by the colonial powers. A Cape Verdean wrote home saying, ‘I have seen the workers from Cape Verde being treated like dogs, whether as regards food or comportment. Many of them die bereft of all comforts, starving and miserable. A few days ago, someone from Santo Antão was whipped to death. He died in the hospital with the skin flayed from his shoulders and his lungs exposed. The assassins (foremen) were let go.’ (Bigman, 1993: 86) This statement demonstrates the brutality experienced by those that were forced to migrate to other parts of the African continent.

4 Contratados (translates to Contracted) 20 Chapter One: What is Batuku?

History of Batuku

Batuku is a dance and music genre that comes from the Cape Verdean Archipelago, the origins of which are traced to the time of the Atlantic Slave Trade. In Popular Music of the Non-Western

World: an Introductory Survey (1998), Peter Manuel connotes that, ‘both of these genres [batuco

(batuque) and funana] are associated with the badius, a poor, relatively acculturated underclass living in the interior of the Island of Santiago.’ (96) The Badius are the descendants of enslaved

Africans that managed to escape and survive in the uninhabited interior regions of the island of São

Tiago. In the stories passes down from one generation to the next, the reason of its development has many variations. Batuku is a practice that was formed in the remote areas near the villages of

Assomada and Tarrafal. The practice could have originated, on the one hand, from the horrible violence imposed on enslaved African women by their Portuguese masters. On the other, a practice that helped them cope with grieving, the harsh realities of loosing a child, husband or other family members due to death or being sold during slavery. (Carter, 2009: 121) The history regarding the origin of Batuku varies only in its explanation yet its function remains the same in all the stories, it was developed as a tool to express, relieve pain, and facilitate healing. According to Jessica

Barros,‘[in] batukadera narratives, slave women often gathered at night and created their own rhythms and sang impromptu songs about their lives and danced provocatively as way of expressing their oppressions under bondage.’ (2012: 102) Through the practice of Batuku during the horrific conditions of the slave trade, Cape Verdean women were able to cultivate and develop a tradition that has the ability to initiate a process of healing from traumatic events. This is done through the narration of their own stories, while being supported by a group of women that may have had similar experiences. In its analysis of Performance genre Batuku, this first chapter examines the

21 cultural practice in numerous ways. Researching the practice of Batuku primarily as a holistic cultural practice, that enabled a process of healing to Cape Verdean women during the Maafa.5 The framework of Batuku allows its’ participants to express themselves in the fields of dance, music and poetry, it provides a space for contemplation of identity and cultural freedom. Exploring the complex historiography of Batuku and its relation to Portuguese colonialism, aiming to analyse

Batuku outside polarised binary extremes of civilisation and primitivism. Here I am presenting the cultural practice of Batuku in its entirety, examining and defining every aspect of this practice in order to get an understanding of its importance during the Famine of 1947.

The Interdependent Features of Batuku: Finason, Txabeta and Torno

This first section examines the internal relations in the cultural practice of Batuku.6 It explores the formation of Bauku as an artistic practice by analysing the three main components: a) finason b)da ku tornu (torno) and c)txabeta. The internal relations of Batuku consist of the beating of the txabeta

(a makeshift drum), the rotation of the hips in torno (the dancing aspect of practice) and the stories in the finason (the spoken word element). The practice of Batuku is a multifaceted tradition [that] involves singing, percussion, dancing and spoken word’ (Arenas, 2011: 81). The collaboration between spoken-word, song, music and dance invites both the batukaderas, the practitioners of

Batuku and the spectators to form a sense of community as the audience listens, claps and sometimes dances alongside the batukaderas. All of these elements have an interdependent relationship, if the txabeta (percussion) is not coherent, the torno loses its power and if the lyrics

5 The Maafa is a key Swahili term that means disaster, calamity, or catastrophe, it is used to reference the black holocaust which includes the Transatlantic Slave Trade, Colonialism and Neo-Colonialism in the continent of Africa. (DeGruy, 2005: 73) This term was coined by Anthropologist Marimba Ani in the USA and I am using it in order to speak about the experience of slavery and colonialism as one happening, rather than two separate events, because in many cases the Maafa is a continuous event.

6 Ngugi Wa Thiong’o suggests that, ‘there are many ways of looking at performance space. One is to see it as a self- contained field of internal relations: the internal play between the actors and props and light and shadows — the mise en scène — and between the mise en scène as a whole and the audience.’ (2009: 39) The relationship between all the components of Batuku are explored in order to understand how these different parts come together to form the practice. 22 don’t provoke an emotional response to the collective and the audience; the energy of the rest of the batukaderas is low.

1.1 What is Finason?

In “Batuku and Funana”: Musical Traditions of Santiago, Republic of Cape Verde (1997)

Ethnomusicologist Susan Hurley-Glowa states that, ‘finason is a genre based on “rhythmic spoken word,” much akin to other African and Afro-Diasporic expressions in the tradition of griots and rappers.’ (Arenas, 2011: 82) The lyrics are expressed and accompanied by a rhythmical beating, or strings of a guitar yet the text itself sets the tempo of the narrative being performed. The word

Finason means to ‘tune’ or to prepare (vocals) and it is used in Batuku as a ‘chain of proverbs or allegorical poetic images, sometimes improvised at the moment of a Batuku performance.’ (Gonçalves, 2015: 214) But finason is also an artistic practice that exist outside of

Batuku. It is a form of spoken poetry that is accompanied by a guitar or the txabeta and at times can consist of, two soloist competing against each other. The allegorical images presented in the finason mention themes of, marriage, motherhood, migration, nationhood, collective memory, and culture, just to name a few. Fernando Arenas notes that, ‘the poetic/performance tradition of finason is built into Batuku ritual to a point where both become almost indistinguishable from one another.’ (Arenas, 2011: 82) It is extremely difficult to distinguish between finason and batuku, since both are independent cultural practices yet have a very complex interdependent relationship.

Batuku and finason are distinguishable in one aspect, that is in the tempo and length of the verses performed by the soloist. A Batuku song is considered a finason when the soloist delivers a large section of text (somewhat like a monologue) which is accompanied by the continuous txabeta. The use of the call and response structure which is essential to the practice of Batuku is minimised during the performance of a finason. In this instance the focus remains on the content of the song and fine tuning of the soloist. The repertoire of finason performers is one of storytellers as they

23 represent in their performative spoken word a shared cultural memory. The language used in the finason is the Cape Verdean Kriolu which is a Portuguese and African derived language.7

1.2 What is Txabeta?

The txabeta has three different meanings in the practice of batuku, to begin with,‘txabeta means the clapping hands in rhythm during batuku singing.’ (Gonçalves, 2015: 626) The clapping of the hands is normally associated with audience members, as the spectator begins to clap along with the txabeta that is produced by the batukaderas. In this instance, ‘the Batukaderas use rolled-up cloth wrapped in plastic as a cloth drum, or txabeta, held between the knees and beat it in contrasting rhythmic patters of 2/4 or 6/8.’ (Arenas, 2011: 81) The performance of batuku is initiated by the percussive rhythm of palms striking the pano (cloth), the banban meaning ‘making noise,’ (Gonçalves, 2015: 93) is the beating of the cloth incessantly, it acts in binary balance with the rapika (or rapikadu) meaning ‘fast, alive n fast moving - di txabeta, the fast movement and clapping hands in a batuku dance.’ (Goncalves, 2015: 520) the combination of the two make up the txabeta.8 In Inquietação, memória e afirmação no batuque: música e dança cabo-verdiana em

Portugal (2012) Ethnomusicologist Jorge Ribeiro suggests,

‘The cloth, or cloth of the earth, is a symbolic and characteristic element of Cape Verde's

rural culture. It is a cotton cloth, spun on a manual loom, with a black base and geometric

patterns, complex, embroidered in white. The cloth is composed of several strips of about

twenty centimetres wide by two meters long, sewn in parallel. This cloth is used although at

7 There are different ways to spell Creole (English), Portuguese (Crioulo) and Kriolu (the Cape Verdean Language). For the purpose of this thesis I will be using the Cape Verdean spelling throughout.

24 present it is becoming less frequent simultaneously as clothing and as a functional prop.’9

(82)

Figure 3: Cape Verdean Traditional Cloth, Google Image

Here the cloth is not merely an object used in the everyday of the Cape Verdean woman, the cloth can be see as a cultural prop that symbolises the transition from girlhood into womanhood, ‘mothers also use panos [cloths] to carry their infants on their hips in a typically African manner.’ (Lobban,

1995: 82)

1.3 What is Torno?

The dancing element of Batuku is called Tornu (or Torno) meaning ‘hips; lathe (feramenta);turn

(kurva); hip movement performed in Batuku traditional dance’ (Gonçalves, 2015: 612) The focus here is on the rotation of the hips to generate the movements of the torno. In order to achieve the torno, the legs have to move in a particular manner, generating enough power from the hips. As a

9 According to Jorge Ribeiro, ‘A tchabeta é um idiofone constituído por um “pano” enrolado sobre si próprio formando um rolo que se coloca entre as coxas, posição sentada, e se percute com as palmas das mãos. O pano, ou pano di tera (“pano da terra”), é um elemento simbólico e característico da cultura rural de Cabo Verde. Trata-se de um tecido de algodão, fiado em tear manual, com uma base preta e padrões geométricos, complexos, bordados a branco. O pano é composto por várias tiras de cerca de vinte centímetros de largura por dois metros de comprimento, cosidas paralelamente. Este pano é utilizado - embora na atualidade seja cada vez menos frequente simultaneamente como vestuário e como adereço funcional.’ (Ribeiro, 2012: 83) Translated by Tania Camara 25 result, creating the traditional torno, which can then increase in tempo and change in the style of dancing. According to Jose Ribeiro,

‘The designation of the ‘ku torno’ refers to the central aspect of dance in which women

make extremely rapid movements with the pelvis and ventral areas as well as the hips, the

word “torno" referring to that area of the body. Usually the ‘torno’ dance takes place in the

second part of the batuque song, called the rabira. At the moment when the ‘torno’ dance

begins, the performers of the batuque shout out the word "rabira" or the expression "tá

rabira" and that means "to turn around”.'10 (Ribeiro, 2012: 80)

Figure 4: Women dancing the torno. Da Ku Torno (2003), Picture of Batukaderas di Rincon

10 A designação da ku torno refere-se ao aspeto central da dança em que as mulheres efetuam movimentos extremamente rápidos com as zonas pélvica e ventral bem como as nádegas, sendo a palavra “torno” referente a essa zona do corpo. Geralmente a dança do torno tem lugar na segunda parte da cantiga de batuque, designada por rabira. Na altura em que se dá início à dança do torno, as executantes do batuque gritam a palavra rabira ou a expressão “tá rabira" e que significa “dar a volta”. (Ribeiro, 2012: 80) Translated by Tania Camara 26 The development of the torno within a Batuku song relies on the skills of the dancer, since the dance in and of itself is mostly improvised. The hip movements are not uniform, because every dancer has a unique manner of moving, the uniformity resides with the synchronisation of the torno with the txabeta.

Kriolu in the composition of Batuku

Frantz Fanon suggests that, ‘to speak a language is to take on a world, a culture.’ (2017:

26) In using the Portuguese language as its’ only official language, Cape Verdeans’ are taking on the worldview and culture of the Portuguese people. While Kriolu (creole) exists outside the Portuguese language and culture, it becomes present in the gathering of those in the periphery of Portuguese society. According to Marcia Rego,

‘Kriolu can be said to have originated from the convergence (or clash) of two

opposing movements. The first toward collaboration — between coloniser and

colonised, between master and slave, between Portuguese, Cape Verdean and

African slaves, between slaves and the Catholic Church. The second movement,

in contrast, was geared toward differentiation, whether in the form of exclusion,

resistance or subversion.’ (2008: 147)

The relationship between colonised and coloniser is one of opposing binary extremes and the suggestion, that one collaborated with the other, seems to negate the power relations that were present and performed during the creation of Kriolu. The clash of the first movement is between a group of people that have institutionalised their so called superiority over another group of people, this division defines the spaces occupied by Kriolu and the Cape Verdean culture at large. The

27 phenomenon of the Cape Verdean language is immersed in contrasting binary oppositions, yet the language in itself is within Portuguese culture as well as existing simultaneously on the outskirts.

Kriolu exists in continuous duality to the Portuguese language, occupying an outsider’s place while being submerged in Portuguese culture. In the case of colonialism the Portuguese ‘language was the means of the spiritual subjugation,’ (Thiong’o, 2005: 9) of the colonised people. Katherine Carter and Judy Aulette suggest that, ‘Cape Verde represents a diglossic speech community, meaning

“society-wide” use of two linguistic varieties. In Cape Verde the two languages are Portuguese, which is a “high” language, and Creole, which is a “low” language.’11 (2009: 136) The place of a

“high” language that Portuguese occupies in Cape Verdean institutions shows the power of the colonial experience. While Portuguese is deemed sophisticated and used in an authoritative manner that delivers legal matters, ‘Kriolu has embodied the shameful, the vulgar and the primitive, as well as the impenetrably intimate, the communal, and the pleasurable. It is the language of jokes, satire, and irony of romantic relationships and strong emotions. (Rego, 2008: 152) The use of derogatory language to describe the place of Kriolu in the imagination of Cape Verdean people and colonial powers, reiterates the colonial stereotype that is fixated on negative differentiation. Kriolu is fundamental in the composition of Batuku because it is in this language that Batuku is sung and

Finason is written. Even though it is a Portuguese derived language, it combines different African tongues and in that reinforces the African connection. Kriolu is a language that combines elements

11 ‘Ferguson’s (1959) classical description of diglossia was divided into two categories: a “high” language H, used for education, literature and formal purposes, and a “low” language L, used for informal purposes (Mendoza- Denton, 1999). Speakers of “low” languages challenge the power of those speaking “high” languages.’ (Carter, Aulette, 2009: 136) 28 from Portuguese and various African languages which allows a navigation of the colonial structures, whilst simultaneously reinforcing the connection to linguistic imaginaries outside of the colonial.12

External relations of Batuku: Colonial Spectres

In this section I will explore the external relations of Batuku, in order to understand the relationship of the practice to institutions such as the catholic church and the state.13 Batuku was practiced in the periphery of Cape Verdean and Portuguese culture. The practice of Batuku became possible only in remote areas, places on the island of Santiago that escaped the control of colonial powers. The locality of Batuku was important in its continuous cultivation since the rural areas of São Tiago, had the advantage of minimal institutional development. Revolutionary leader Amilcar Cabral suggests that, ‘African culture, though repressed, persecuted and betrayed by some social categories who compromised with colonialism, survived all the storms, by taking refuge in the villages in the

12 It is extremely hard to pinpoint exactly what African languages were used in the creation of Kriolu. ‘According to the slave registers from 1526 to 1550, the majority of slaves were from the peoples of Senegambia (particularly the Wolof, then at war with the fula), and Guinea-Bissau (especially the Beafada), trapped between the coast and the Mande kingdom of Gabu. Even in the slave registers for 1856, most slaves still were being taken from the peoples on the Upper Guinea coast. These registers list such coastal Senegambians as the Bagas, Baiotes, Balantas, Banhuns, Beafadas, Bololas, Brames, Cassangas, Cobianas, Diolas, Felupes, Manjacos, Nalus, Paples, Qissis, Susus, and Tandas, as well as the offshore Bissagos and some inlands peoples, such as the Mandinkas and Bambaras.’ Lobban, 1995: 69) The diversity of ethnicities that were brought to the archipelago is quite huge and all of these ethnic groups also have their own language and cultural values. So, it becomes extremely difficult to deduce what languages were used exactly in the creation of Cape Verdean Kriolu.

13 What I mean by external relations is the locality of the practice of Batuku and its accessibility. According to Ngugi Wa Thiong’o, ‘the real politics of the performance space may well lie in the field of its external relations; in its actual or potential conflictual engagement with all the other shrines of power, and in particular, with the forces which hold the key to those shrines.’ (1998: 40) While examining the practice in its internal relations, questions about the external factors of the practice arose. In this case the ‘Shrine of power’ resides with the catholic church and the colonial sate. 29 forests and in the spirits of generations of victims of colonialism.’14 (1979: 148) Through the criminalisation and demonisation of cultural practices such as Batuku, colonial powers highlighted the power of the practice. Cape verdeans’ were also aware of the power that resided in Batuku because it created space for self representation, self defining and self expression. To practice and perform Batuku during the Atlantic slave trade and the colonial period became extremely difficult and later illegal. As decreed by King Manuel I of Portugal, on March 7th 1866 on the island of São

Tiago, according to journalist Elizangelo Ramos:

‘By order of the King, who God protects, let it be known to all that heretofore, the pagan rite

known as Batuku is here by outlawed. It is an offence to good morals, so to keep order,

something which was mostly practiced by freed slaves and a smattering of others, was

forbidden. Allegedly, so that honest, hardworking folk would not be corrupted by such

uncivilised and improper behaviour, which encourages debauchery.’ (Paes, 2004:

14Amilcar Lopes de Costa Cabral (12th September 1924 - 20th January 1973) was a revolutionary leader that originated from Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde. His Parents were Cape Verdeans that settled in Bafata, Guinea Bissau. He comes from an impoverished background, his ‘family did not starve like so many Cape Verdeans, they were very poor.’ (Rabaka, 2016: 6) However, Cabral was able to study abroad in Portugal and during this time there he became a ‘ politically conscious man who did not hesitate to speak his mind.’ (Rabaka, 2016: 5) In his awakening Cabral began to notice the complete lack of government assistance towards the catastrophic effects of drought in Cape Verde.Cabral believed that Cape Verdeans and Guineans were one people that were only separated by geographical location because the mass population suffered from colonial neglect, and famine among other things. In 1956, Comrade Amilcar Cabral and five other patriots from Guinea and Cape Verde set up in Bissau. The P.A.I.G.C., whose objective is the immediate achievement of independence and the construction of peace, well-being and progress for the people of Guine and Cape Verde. P.A.I.G.C. liberated 2/3 of the national territory and built a new life of progress in the liberated regions in the interests of the masses, once dominated by Portuguese colonialism. (P.A.I.G.C., 1974: 147)

Original quotation: ‘Em 1956, o Camarada Amílcar Cabral e cinco outros patriotas da Guiné e Cabo Verde se estabeleceram em Bissau, oP.A.I.G.C., cujo objetivo é a conquista imediata da independência e a construção da paz, bem-estar e progresso para os povos de Guine e Cabo Verde. O P.A.I.G.C. libertou 2/3 do território nacional e construiu uma nova vida de progresso nas regiões libertadas no interesse das massas, outrora dominadas pelo colonialismo português.’ (147)

Translated by Me

30 [19:35-20:45]) 15 Batuku was repressed and persecuted by colonial powers and the catholic

church for different reasons, one for its sexual and erotic aspect and the other for the space it

created; a space that enabled enslaved and freed Africans to cultivate their own ideas of

liberation through performance. This law was a performance of power by the state, which

served to impede the native people the right to celebrate their cultural heritage and form an

identity that reflected who they were as a nation. Cabral notes that, ‘the value of culture as

an element of resistance to foreign domination lies in the fact that culture is the vigorous

manifestation, on the ideological or idealist level, of the material and historical reality of the

society that is dominated or to be dominated.’(1979: 141) By cultivating the cultural practice

of Batuku among others, the Badius where able to resist the cultural assimilation imposed by

the Portuguese crown. Ngugi Wa Thiong’o states that, ‘the war between art and the state is

really a struggle between the power of performance in the arts and the performance of power

by the state — in short, enactments of power.’ (1998: 38) In the case of Batuku, the state

performs its power by producing laws that act to repress the power of the performance. The

power of Batuku is ultimately in the unification of the people, generating a collective feeling

of community and belonging, through the narratives and histories in the songs, the rhythm

of the music and the dancing bodies that are participating. Brian Sutton-Smith suggests that,

‘considerations of play and power come under various names, such as warfare, hegemony,

conflict, competition, glory, manliness, contest and resistance’ (Schecher, 2013: 94) The

notion of power and play that can be associated with Batuku is that of resistance, Batuku

15 The terms in inverted commas highlight the negative categorisation of Batuku as a cultural practice. Instead of deeming Batuku primitive and indecent (representing it in a derogative manner), that in turn, reiterates the colonial stereotype that according to Homi Bhabha, ‘ is a simplification because it is an arrested, fixated form of representation that, in denying the play of difference (which the negation of the Other permits), constitutes a problem for the representation of the subject in significations of psychic and social relations.’ (Bhabha, 2004: 107) There has to be an acknowledgement that Batuku has occupied this space in the imagination of colonisers for many centuries, it has been simplified as a vulgar and sexual dance. However, while analysing Batuku in all its aspects this thesis is aiming to showcase the complexity of Batuku and the knowledge that resides in the practice. Batuku should not be categorised as primitivistic due to its simplicity. ‘Difference does not prove superiority.’ (Schechner, 2013: 81) Being “primative” in this case highlights its adaptability, just because it is different from the practices of Europeans, specifically the customs of Portuguese, it does not mean that Portuguese cultural practices are superior. 31 resisted slavery and Portuguese colonialism; it became a practice that created space for

playfulness and authentic power for Cape Verdean women.

Always in a Circular Motion

Batuku is traditionally practiced and performed by women and it takes the form of a participatory performance which is presented in a ‘semi-circle (or circle), where at least a dozen women percussionists, singers and dancers surrounded by an audience who claps along, adding to the polyrhythmic percussion patterns, while contributing with excitation elements in form of hollering.16 (Arenas, 2011: 81) Here, I highlight the importance of the semi or full circular structure in which Batuku is performed and practiced. The notion of the circle is intrinsic to many African derived cultural and spiritual practices, according to Yvonne Daniel,‘two-dimensional concentric circles can indicate the interrelationship among three realms of existence.’ (2005: 81) The three realms being mentioned are constituted of people, the ancestral realm and finally the cosmological sphere; Batuku incorporates both the primary and secondary realms, that of the people and the ancestral dimension. This is done through the continuous embodiment of communal memories and narratives, which serves as a ritual that enable remembering and the cultivation of ancestral lived experiences. An example of this would be the Tabanka festival that takes place in June and it commemorates the freedom of the slaves. All the aspects of Batuku come together to form a practice that heals women from their everyday struggles, be that, a fight with their husbands, difficulties in trading their crops, deceptions in their relationships, and critiquing social events. This is achieved in a tight knit community of women that bond while telling and retelling their own stories as well as the stories of their ancestors.

16 Traditionally Batuku is practiced and performed by women but, in the contemporary practice of Batuku, there are men in some groups as singers, dancers and percussionists as well as male groups of Batuku. 32 Everyday Practices

The performance of Batuku can be interpreted as ‘ritualized behavior conditioned and/or permeated by play.’ (Schechner, 2013: 52) These ritualised behaviours such as the practice of the txabeta or the torno transmit collective memories which are ‘encrypted’ in the actions themselves. The ritualised aspect of Batuku lies in the everyday exercising of it. Batuku is an inseparable practice that surrounds the everyday lived/ing experiences, be that, in the past, present and future. It is a secular ritual that, ‘is danced at the same time that other activities are going on—the music playing and people eating, drinking, or going for a swim. It serves as a constant backdrop.’ (Carter, Aulette,

2009:124) The practice takes place in the streets, in market places, during baptisms and wedding, in private gardens, in national and international festivals, cultural events, in peoples homes and in the middle of the mountains. In practising and performing Batuku, batukaderas create a space where they feel themselves freed from the harsh realities of their everyday experiences.

Figure 5: Women working in the Market, The Colourful Market (2017), painting by Luis Levy Lima 33 Batukadera Nela says, ‘it's not that we are not happy, there are days that we don’t sell anything, for us not to be sat here miserable/annoyed, we have fun with each other, we entertain one another. We play our Batuku to entertain ourselves.’17 (Paes, 2004: [33:51-34:10]) Batuku is at times improvised, made up on the spot and this is consistent in all its aspects including the txabeta.

Improvisation is an intrinsic part of the practice, even though it is bound to everyday rituals, Batuku is also spontaneous in terms of performance and in the way a song is constructed, there is an element of play. Nacia Gomi’s approach to formulate a finason embodies the element of play, because she begins by sounding out the tune and then improvises her speech while the Batukaderas continue with the txabeta. Nacia Gomi was a woman of Batuku (real name Maria Inacia Gomes

Correia), from the island of São Tiago, Vila de Pedra Badejo in the municipality of Santa Cruz, was born on July 18, 1924. Nha Nacia Gomi, as she was best known, was one of the voices of Cape

Verdean cultural resistance. Considered the 'queen of the finaçon', also well known as a storyteller.

Much of her music was improvised at the time she sung them. She began singing at the age of twelve, entertaining weddings and baptisms throughout the island of São Tiago. She has participated in several projects that have resulted in studies, theses, reports and records that will eternalise the memories of this humble lady who never wrote. The singer recorded three albums and participated in many more as a guest. In 2005 she released two albums 'Finkadu na Raiz' with drummer Ntóni Dênti d’ Oro, and 'Ku ses Mocinhos’. She died on the night of 3rd February 2011.

The songs she devised were playful in the sense that, lyrically they are fragmented in content and delivery. Nacia Gomi’s finason texts/songs are very much improvised and tend to incorporate many different themes. For example, just to name a few, she spoke of religion, salvation, migration, travelling, old age, suffering and death. All of these themes can be included in one improvised set, her improvisations are unmediated and continuous. They feel at times to be like a continuous story

17 Translated by me, interview from Batuque: A Alma de Um Povo Documentary. In this extract of the interview the Batukaderas from the Group Raiz di Tambarina (1975) demonstrate the spontaneity of Batuku as they improvise the txabeta with plastic buckets, clapping hands. 34 that embodies every aspect of her life, from her catholic faith, to lived experiences of her younger self, to advising to the younger generation. As a spectator and listener, her voices feeling and sounds like a cry, that is an embodiment of her lived experience. As I watch her perform the song ‘Nacia

Gomi Rapariga’ (2000) looking at her bodily expressions, I realise that her livelihood is present in her delivery.18 It is evident by the lisp in her voice, the missing teeth, the words that flow out without minimal articulation, yet the power of these words still remain in the form of a cry; they are intense and well punctuated. Gomi embodies her lyrics here, we see a visual incorporation of the lyrics, as she tells a story about youthfulness, her experience in the olden days in comparison to the youth of now and how times have changed. According to Richard Schechner, ‘Play can take place anywhere at any time engaging any number of players who may abide by or unexpectedly change the rules.’ (Schechner, 2013: 92) This spontaneity is present in Batuku as it is a practice that is not restricted by its materiality but rather its rhythmical structure. The material aspect of Bauku is makeshift, since the taxbeta can be made from numerous different materials, anything that can amplify the pounding of the hands. The element of play that is present in the practice, is the kind of play that is unmediated by external factors, it is not a product of the state but rather of the people.

The playfulness allows for the embodiment of feeling, emotions, dreams, aspirations and utopias.

The practice is conceived as being ritualised behaviour because it is part of the everyday lives of

Cape Verdean women, the improvisational aspect of the practice permits for it to be performed in any kind of environment, since all of its aspects can be improvised. The torno can be danced with scarf around the waist, the txabeta may only consist of clapping hands and the finason can be reduced to a cry call that is then echoed. Play and improvisation are indeed intrinsic to the practice of Batuku.

18 This is not the date the song was released because that is unknown because Nacia Gomi had been singing for decades and most of her material is improvised, the date refers to the year the documentary Dez Grãozinhos de Terra (also known as Dix Petits Grains de Terre) was released. And the recording on Youtube is an extract from the docutemtary from which the song is taken. 35 Batuku as Embodied Memory and Knowledge

The field of performance enables the exploration of Batuku as an embodied practice and production of knowledge. According to Marié-Heleen Coetzee, ‘The domain of performance has been at the forefront of embracing and engaging with the concept of the bodily for knowledge creation and application. Whether through training or studying the body in performance, for performance or by positioning the body as performance, performance is ‘an art of body and an art grounded in body.’ (2018: 2) Batuku is an ephemeral performance, the liveliness of the performances remain in the moment they are experienced and delivered. Furthermore, Batuku embodies the notion of the repertoire, according to Diana Taylor, ‘the repertoire, on the other hand, enacts embodied memory: performances, gestures, orality, movement, dance, singing—in short, all those acts usually thought of as ephemeral, non-reproducible knowledge.’ (Taylor, 2003: 20) The concept of embodied memory is very important when discussing the practice of Batuku, because the repertoire consists of disciplines that depend on the physical body and its presence. Alongside the repertoire Batuku can be seen as the archival memory, for the Badius to begin with and later for the rest of the Cape

Verdean society. Taylor connotes, ‘ ‘‘Archival’’ memory exists as documents, maps, literary texts, letters, archaeological remains, bones, videos, films, CDs, all those items supposedly resistant to change.’(Taylor, 2003: 19) Initially, this archival memory existed only in the literary texts such as the finason in written form whereas, the rest of the archival memory is a recent addition and this is due to the progress of technological materials, such as, cameras and voice recorders. Batuku has been labeled the soul of the Cape Verdean people, it is a practice that comes from within them, in the Finason, through the txabeta or the torno. Batuku can be seen as an interdisciplinary practice, since it consists of many different disciplines, such as, dance, music, and performance. As well as incorporating others such as philosophy, mathematics, religion, history, and psychology. The question that rises here is one of knowledge production and dissemination, what knowledge is 36 transmitted through the practice and performance of Batuku. According to Yvonne Daniel,

‘Embodied knowledge — that is, knowledge found within the body, within the dancing body and drumming body — is rich and viable and should be referenced among other kinds of knowledge.’ (2005: 4) In the performance of Batuku, the body, the dancing body, and the drumming body are intrinsic for the cultivation of the practice. The physical presence of the body informs the practice, by ‘transmitting communal memories, histories, and values from one group/generation to the next. Embodied and performed acts generate, record, and transmit knowledge.’ (Taylor, 2003:

21) Presented in the communal memories is the lived experience of past generations and this lived experience becomes the wisdom of the elders, which in turn, is filtered into knowledge of self for the community. Through time and space the lived experience of the ancestors transmits knowledge about surviving harsh living conditions and acts as a guide for continuous progression. Batuku is the legacy left by the African ancestors that endured slavery and colonialism. While exploring the practice of Batuku internally, there was a realisation that as a culture and artistic practice Batuku generated space for collective healing as well as community building. This is done through the improvisation of the finason which generates a narrative that is collectively constructed, that is subsequently performed alongside percussion and dancing.

37 Chapter Two: Reaching Higher Consciousness through the Txabeta

The performance of Batuku is centralised in the presence of the physical body, in the movement of the pounding hands, the rotating hips and moving lips. The body of the performer is the place through which Batuku is experienced internally and externally. Being present in the finason, txabeta and torno can generate a space that enables individuals to experience a heightened state of awareness, an awakening into higher consciousness. This chapter focuses on the interconnectedness of the elements of Batuku, more specifically, further exploring the relationship between the txabeta and the torno. Exploring the presence of the body in the practice of Batuku, in order to understand what the body knows and what is discovered and rediscovered through the dancing body and the drumming body. The main aim of this chapter is to examine the body of the performers regarding notions of perception. This includes, the sensory perception of the performers themselves, how the body is perceived in relation to the gaze; the gaze of the black man, the white man and the black woman. The question that arises here is, how does one become a subject in the practice and performance of Batuku, but in order to become a subject there must be an understanding of how one became an object. Therefore, I will focus on the power of the gaze upon the black female body, the dancing body. In the previous chapter, there was a focus on the elements of Batuku that consisted of in detail definitions of the finason, txabeta and the torno. Here the focus lies in the doing, what the txabeta and the torno do in the performance and practice. I will analyse as a case study the music video Tempo Antigo (2011) by the Batuku group Tradison di Terra.19 The scenery is filmed in a private garden owned by the soloist Teresa Fernandes, where the group rehearse daily after the working day is over. The song is about a time that seems to be distant for the

19 19 Tempo Antigo (translates to Ancient times) 38 soloist, it speaks of her experience during her youthful days, it is a song about remembering, being unexperienced in the realities of live, poor living conditions, the domestic work, and working in the fields when it used to rain during times of great harvest. The analysis focuses on the interaction between the batukaderas, how their perceive each other while in a performative state. The primary theorists I will draw from in this chapter are, to begin with, post-colonial theorist Homi K. Bhabha specifically, The Location of Culture (2004), where the author explores the concept of fixity in terms of racial, cultural and historical difference, which reiterates this ideological construction of the colonial other. Secondly, author bell hook’s Black looks: race and representation (2015) where the author explores the importance of the gaze in relation to representation of the black body in the media.20 Through the notion of the oppositional gaze proposed by hooks I can begin to explore ways in which the practitioners of Batuku create agency for themselves through the practice and their own gaze.

Further exploring ‘Da Ku Torno’

This first section examines the interconnectedness of the elements of Batuku, but focuses primarily on the relationship of the torno and the txabeta. In the documentary Batuque: A Alma de

Um Povo (2006) finason practitioner Ntoni denti d’ oro states that, ‘the txabeta is linked to the hip action, it is according to how you txabeta. If the txabeta is off beat then the rhythm of the torno is out of sync. If you sing badly, there is no torno, because everything is connected. The song is connected to the hips. The txabeta is connected to the hips.’21(Paes, 2004: [28:02 - 28:41]) António

Vaz Cabral, best known as Ntoni Denti D´oro (his artistic name means Tony with the golden tooth), was born on the 15th of February 1926. He started practicing Batuku and Finason from the age of

20 bell hooks is a pseudonym for Gloria Jean Watkins

21 Statement given by Ntoni denti de Oro:’Txabeta é kompaso kadera kon formi bu txabeta. Si bu txabeta mal, kadera ka tem kompaso. Si bu kanta mal , torno ka tem pamodi oja é kompaso. Kantiga é kompaso ku kadera. Txabeta é kompaso ku kadera.’ (Paes, 2004: [28:02 - 28:41]) Translated by Me 39 10.22 He is known in Cape Verde as the King of Batuku, as he is the male exception that is still living and performing Batuku from the colonial period until the now. Here Ntoni Denti d’ Oro explains the interconnectedness of every aspect of Batuku , the relationship between the finason, the txabeta and the torno coming together to form a song, a dance, a sound. If one aspect of Batuku is weak all the others become powerless, because everything is connected and operates as one cultural practice.

Traditionally, ‘da ku torno’ consists of the isolation of the hips in continuous rotation, from one side to the other and this movement in turn, causes the movement of the legs. The emphasis remains on the power of the hips, that is why the ‘txabeta’ or ‘cloth of the land’ is placed on the hips, this strengths the movements of the hips; allowing the movements to become more precise in its execution. The torno dance can be seen as a choreographed improvisation, there are certain techniques in place that form the proper manner in which to dance the torno. However, within the structure there is room for ‘play’. The aspect of play is essential in the execution of the dance, because it enables individuals to express themselves through bodily sensations without having to be restricted by technique. This applies mostly to audience members and batukaderas that are unable to embody the traditional way of dancing. The dancers that practice the torno improvise in relation the tempo of the txabeta, this is known as the rapika. The variations in the dance are produced by those unable to move according to the tradition, since the experience of the torno is an individual one.

The frames that form the torno are not static but have a common origin, that is the conventional torno, which works with the isolation of the hips. Isolation plays a colossal role in the torno, because through the repetition of that isolation the dance is constructed with variations in tempo which correlates to the tempo of the txabeta. This also applies to other parts of the body that can be

22 The information about Ntoni Denti di O’ro comes from the website Cape Verde Info and it was translated into Portuguese by me. 40 isolated and danced through in the practice of Batuku. For example, in the video clip Tempo Antigo

(2011) the dancers begin by moving synchronically to the beat of the txabeta. As the soloist delivers her finason the tempo remains at the same speed. There is a shift in the delivery of the finason and this indicates a change in tempo for the batukaderas and dancers. In this instance, the dancers increase the strength applied to their torno. This is evident in the incorporation of their whole body since it takes the whole self to perform the torno, even if the focus of the dancers is primarily on the movement of the hips; the moving body becomes a sight of visible vibrations. The txabeta is being performed through the pounding of the hands and the rotating hips. Towards the end of the video as the song progresses and the txabeta becomes more rapikadu, the atmosphere is filled by an intense energy that demonstrates the synchronised force of the torno, txabeta and finason. In this moment, the soloist begins to dance with her stomach, she beings to feel the vibrations of the txabeta and her own voice move through her body. Everything is as one, the performers feed off each others energy.

In this case, the isolation of the abdominal area is performed as part of the Batuku and it is visibly improvised, as the soloist felt the need to move to the sound of the txabeta. The Batuku starts to enter her soul as she elevates her hands to her forehead, she is fully immerse in that moment. Here, I am not speaking of the element of trance but rather a feeling of contentment, a moment of happiness that is achieved through the development of the song.

41 Figure 6: Dancer Fully Present in the Torno, Rapika (2003), Picture of Batukaderas di Rincon

The Power of the Gaze: Different Ways of Seeing the Performance of Batuku

This second section explores the relationship between the performer and spectator, in order to understand how agency is produced by performing (dis)narratives and audience spectatorship.

There are many ways to perform a movement sequence in relation to audience spectatorship and reception, because this is dependent upon who is looking at the performing black body. In the case of Batuku, the dancers perform for themselves, for each other, for the larger Cape Verdean community, and tourists. Notions of race and gender are important when exploring the idea of gazing in relation to the spectator, because these ideas are embedded in presupposition that the audience member may already imposed on the performing body. In black looks: race and representation (2015) bell hooks suggests that, ‘[e]very narration places the spectator in a position of agency; and race, class, and sexual relations influence the way in which this subject hood is filled by the spectator.’ (2015: 117) If the stories being performed places the spectator in a position of agency, then the question that arises is, in what manner does the performer/s create agency for

42 themselves, while simultaneously creating agency for the spectating audience members. As a result of this question I will explore the idea that the batukaderas are their own audience and how the dancers perform the torno, for themselves as individuals and for the collective body in the daily practice and performance Batuku.

The Black Male Gaze

The dancers begin by facing the same direction listening to the call and response between the batukaderas and the soloist, both in the finason and txabeta, as they contribute with their bodily movements. The woman begins to move according to the speed of the txabeta and the two younger dancers, a girl and a body face each other and feed off each others’ energy. As the girl places more effort into her torno and begins to play with different levels; by lowering herself to the ground. The boy starts to emulate her actions, but as she begins to elevate herself off the ground and is now in an upright standing position. The boy continues to lower himself until he has reached a kneeling position facing her hips, watching as her hips rotate. In this moment, they are dancing for each other, an improvisation that reflects the male gaze on the female body, alongside an admiration for her skills as a dancer. In this instance, the dancing body ‘encompasses female body power, self- power, real person power, individual power, and authority over self.’(Daniel, 2005:260) The rest of the batukaderas seem to watch the dancers with a supporting gaze, looking at both dancers as they compete with each other in a playful manner, it is very common during a performance for children to be encouraged to dance. As the txabeta speeds up, the batukaderas demonstrate a sense of contentment that is also echoed by all the performers. In this interaction the spectator can see how the male and female energies feed off each other and engage with one another while in movement.

Here, the female becomes the focus of the male gaze, as he watches her torno and claps in encouragement. The female body becomes in this instance, the subject of male desire, specifically

43 the black male, and this encounter is sexual but also recognises the cultural value of the dance. This is so because, the black male dancer is part of the community and is involved in every aspect of the song, he understands the lyrics, he feels the txabeta as he responds to it with this torno. He gazes upon female dances sexually, but also is aware of the context in which this dance is being performed. One the other hand, a male that stands outside of the culture would have a completely different reading of the performing dancing body.

Figure 7: Two dancers engaging with each other in Batuku , Dancing for Each Other, image by Joli Moniz

The White Male Gaze

Throughout the practice of Batuku, the white male has gazed upon the black female body, the gaze of the priest of the catholic church and state officials, which in turn, led to the banning of the practice. Here, I explore the power of the white male gaze in relation to the dancing body. This encounter is not present in the video I am discussing above, but it is an encounter that occurs when

Batuku is performed in the streets and in cultural events. The gaze of the white man differs from the

44 gaze of the black man, in the encounter between the white male and the black female, the black body becomes the object of white desire, that exists in a state of ambivalence. This is because the dance has a sexual aspect to it, it is a way that Cape Verdean women explore their sexuality. The gaze of the white man, white woman and consequently the white spectator is tainted by the representational images of the colonial stereotype. In The Location of Culture (2004) Cultural

Studies scholar Homi Bhabha connotes that:

‘Likewise the stereotype, which is its major discursive strategy, is a form of

knowledge and identification that vacillates between what is always ‘in place’,

already known, and something that must be anxiously repeated … as if the essential

duplicity of the Asiatic or the bestial sexual licence of the African that need no proof,

can never really, in discourse, be proved. It is this process of ambivalence, central to

the stereotype.’ (2004: 95)

Here, Bhabha discusses that which is intrinsic to colonial discourse, the concept of ambivalence that operates within the notion of fixity and continuous repetition of a colonial fixation, that has become a component in the manner in which Portuguese colonisers experienced the torno. The over sexualization of the black/African female body is centralised in the white male experience of the torno, because this experience was looked upon with a pre-existent colonial representation of the black female body. A body that is labeled promiscuous in nature and exists within an alleged untamed animalistic sexual energy. To counter this white male gaze during the colonial era, batukaderas chose to desexualise their clothes and decided to use as traditional garments long skirts, loosely fitting shirts, and a cloth to wrap their hair. In an interview on Batuque: A Alma de Um Povo

(2005) journalist Elisângelo Ramos suggest that,

‘The older singers say that in Batuku, the women should wear long skirts and never show

their legs, the gyrating hips is part of the visual aspects of Batuku. […] For the Europeans in

45 the 19th century who saw the gyrating hips became scandalised, they categorised Batuku as

a pornographic, erotic and shocking dance. And we know that the slaves used to wear longer

clothes.’ (Paes, 2004: [46:00 - 46:40])

This was an attempt to repress the gaze that reduced the black/African female body to a simple object of colonial desire by displaying the least amount of skin.

Figure 8: Young Women Dancing the Torno in Shorter Skirts , Batuku - Brinka ku Tornu (2018), painting by Luis Levy Lima

The Oppositional Female Gaze

Lastly, the dancers perform their torno for the rest of batukaderas. In The Rainbow of Desire: the

Boal method of theatre and therapy (1995) Augusto Boal notes that, ‘actor and spectator can be two different people; they can also coincide in the same person.’ (19) In the everyday practice of

Batuku, batukaderas are the audience to their own performances, as each member performs their role in the delivery of a song. They watch each other and feed off each others’ energy to create the performance of Batuku. According to bell hooks, ‘the ability to manipulate one’s gaze in the face of

46 structures of domination that would contain it, opens up the possibility of agency.’ (2015: 116) The oppositional gaze that hooks speaks of, is the ability to look at representations of the black body and critically engage with the images presented, in order to identify its complicity with oppressive colonial structures. When a Batuku performance takes place, that space is full of potential, it can become a space where the black/African gaze is reproduced in the image of black/African people themselves. This is so, because through the performance the batukaderas are performing their disnarratives and by doing so, the performance becomes an act of self representation. In Each

Taking Risk, Performing Self: Theorizing (Dis) Narratives (2013) Cultural Studies scholar Myron

Beasley suggests that: ‘The disnarrative is about lived, everyday accounts of the multiple shades of identity. It is the embodied experiences as apposed to the monolithic set of reading. Race is significant in that the narrative of the marked body, is prescribed, already written, and told by the dominant culture.’ (30) By performing their lived experience practitioners of Batuku demonstrate their livelihood, the conditions of living that their bodies has experienced. These experiences are presented to the audience and with this new information the audience can change their preconceptions of the racialised black body. The performance produces the possibility of self agency against an oppressive system that removes that agency and dehumanises the black body.

The Presence of the Physical Body

In terms of gazing, the notion of representation is an essential part of the performance of self, but being fully present in the moment of the performance begins to challenge the dominant narratives.

Performance artist Guillermo Gomez-Peña suggests that:

‘Performance is about “ presence not representation; it is not … a mirror, but the

actual moment in which the mirror is shattered”. A disruptive moment, a seemingly

chaotic instant when, […] performance produces a “(dis)narrative … a complex 47 multi-hued tapestry” of identities, cultures, and ideologies that challenge the

dominant or master narrative about the performer and the audience.’ (Beasley, 2013:

29)

Being present in the moment with each other, sharing lived experiences, common occurrences allows the batukaderas to perform their (dis)narratives and by cultivating and performing Batuku, they shatter the mirror of colonial representation. The first moment I recognise the shattering of the colonial mirror is in the delivery of the finason, as the soloist begins to tell her own story in her own words. She illustrates her living conditions, she reflects on her lack of knowledge about life and in doing so, the audience is presented with a story that differs from that which is represented in media outlets. In this moment, the women are performing themselves in their own image. The second moment I saw the shattering of the mirror is when the dancers are in the height of their torno. In this moment, they embody concepts of beauty, grace, and femininity, while displaying their female body to the audience. Through this performance, the dancers declare in their bodily expressions that, ‘the female body is powerful, strong, and quite remarkable.’ (Daniel, 2005: 260) Lastly, during the performance of the male dancer, here, he breaks with preconceptions of what spaces the black male body can occupy. In this case, the performer breaks with the concept of binaries, the opposition between the male and female body being categories as extreme polar opposites. Present in the dancer’s body is elements of both masculinity and femininity, this is not to say that his execution of the torno is completely feminised, but rather that, just by being in a space surrounded by women and expressing himself through the practice, creates a disturbance in the fixated racialised representations that have been imposed upon the black male body. He performs his own story through his body, rather than being placed as a spectator and reiterating the misconception that

Batuku is just for women.

48 The Element of Trance in Batuku

This third section explores the element of trance that is present in the performance of Batuku, alongside the creation of aesthetic space, in order to further the understanding of Batuku and

African spirituality. The atmosphere created during a performance is of huge importance for the possibility of a trance experience. According to Richard Schechner, ‘trance is a widespread, complex phenomenon — including hypnotic, psychotic, epileptic, hallucinatory, possession, ecstatic, and shamanic trances.’ (2013:192) This phenomenon is so vast and has so many different identifiers which are dependent on specific cultural views and therefore, cannot be classified as one contained practice. Trance can be induced in many different ways, be that, by ingesting alcoholic beverages, being under hypnosis, by inhaling drugs, music, dance, etc… because this practice is so vast, here, the focus will remain on music and dance as stimuli that facilitate a trance experience.

This is so, because of the idea regarding ‘the African use of drums to induce trance and possession by ancestral spirits.’ (Johnson, 2006: 42) This is a practice that is present in many African derived spiritual belief systems and the drums are essential in the inducing of a trance performance in

Batuku. During the colonial period Portuguese rulers banned the use of drums in the Cape Verdean archipelago. According to Peter Fryer, ‘The Batuko and Finason were traditionally accompanied by

‘surrogate drums’ in form of rolled up length cloth covered with plastics bags and held in between the legs; this practice is said to have been a response to the banning of drums. (2000: 174) As a result, the txabeta was created, a makeshift drum that is sewed together with different everyday materials and objects that can be found in the domestic environment. In the making of the txabeta the batukaderas found a way to use percussion in the tradition. In African Divination Systems: Ways of Knowing (1991) anthropologist Philip Peek notes that, ‘[a]t divinations, the physiological stimuli provided by the drumming and the singing, the use of archaic formulae in questions and responses; together take him out of his everyday self and heighten his intuitive awareness.’ (199) Here, Peek

49 speaks of drumming and singing in relation to a diviners individual experience of extended awareness. As well as, how the two disciplines can be capable of removing a diviner from the realities of the everyday experiences and transport one into an elevated state of consciousness. By practicing and performing Batuku as part of their everyday lives, batukaderas are creating a space where the rhythmic beating of the txabeta, enables the element of trance in the performance of

Batuku when the appropriate atmosphere is created. The atmosphere is created through the interconnectedness of all the elements of Batuku, when all these aspects are delivered with matching energy and enthusiasm.

Generating Aesthetic Space

In the performance of Batuku aesthetic space is created. This occurs through the perceptibility of the senses, that includes all five but more specifically audition, touch, and vision. The incorporation of the senses allows for anything to be imagined in the created performance space. The space is divided up by bodies, the bodies of the batukaderas in a circular shape. The bodies act as the markers that designate the perimeters of the aesthetic space. The perimeters only exist because of the differentiation of time dimensions, for example, one body exists in two different places at the same time. Augusto Boal suggests that, ‘in aesthetic space one can be without being. Dead people are alive, the past becomes present, the future is today, duration is dissociated from time, everything is possible in the here-and-now, fiction is pure reality, and reality is fiction.’ (1995: 20) By performing in the aesthetic space one is able to recall memories and expand the imagination. A space where the mind of the subject can exist in two dimensions, one that is formed of recollections of lived experiences and another in the imagined future. This is evident in many Batuku songs in the lyrics, that speak of a longing for the distant past, while simultaneously projecting into an imagined reality. This is evident in the song Amilcar Cabral (2009) by the group Kultura Esperansa.

50 Dia 20 di janero é dia di lamenta morti di The day of the 20th of January, is the day to Cabral. É morri na Guinea di Konakri, na ano lament the death of Cabral. He died in Guinea- 1973. Conakry, in the year 1973. Cabral fought for the Cabral é luta pa povo , ele era amigo das people, he was friends with the children. Ai if kriansas. Ai si Cabral ka moreba Cabo Verde Cabral wasn’t dead, Cape Verde would be a era paraiso. Amilcar Lopes Cabral era paradise. Amilcar Lopes was an engineer, he was enginero anónimo, é fidjo di Juvenal Cabral, the son of Juvenal Cabral. he was the son of Iva é fidjo di Iva Pinhel. Amilcar Cabral e fazi Pinhel. Amilcar Cabral started the revolution, you revoluson, bu bai bu can bem pamodi vida ka left and you never returned because life cannot be bendedo. Chines bem Cabo Verde disfazi sold. The Chinese cam to Cape Verde and undone tudo kosa. E vida es ka trasi pamodi dues ka everything, they didn’t bring life because God did autorisa. Pa bu vense bu tem ki sofri, pa not authorise it. For you to succeed you need to liberdadi bu tem ki luta, pa intelijensia bu suffer, for freedom you have to fight, for tem ki studa. Fazi realidadi bu tem ki intelligence you have to study. For reality you komforta. have to conform.

The extract above demonstrates the idea of longing for a past, first through the act of remembering, here, the Batukaderas sing for their lost leader Amilar Cabral while simultaneously projecting into the future, this is evident when the soloist sings, ‘ai if Cabral wasn’t dead, Cape Verde would be a paradise.’ In this moment, the performer imagines what Cape Verde would be like if Cabral was still alive and running the country. A Batuku performance is a demonstration of a collective longing for the past and an imagined community projecting their desires into the future. But all of this is happening in the present moment, in the moment of the performance, a timed experience. The power of Batuku is in the presence of the body, in the moment of the performance where ritualised actions are repeated continuously. It is in the doing of all actions in synchrony that the authentic power is experienced by the audience and performers. The power of this ritual lies in the presence of the people and the embodiment of the codified and improvised actions. Batuku is an interdisciplinary cultural practice that cultivates self discovery, self representation as well as encouraging the power of the oppositional gaze, giving the Cape Verdean women the ability to speak their own narratives.

51 Batuku, Resistance against Colonial Rule

From the periphery to the centre: a Revolutionary Cultural Practice

‘Performance is representation of being, the coming to be, and the ceasing to be of processes

of nature, human society and thought.’

Ngũgĩ Wa Thiong’o

Through the act of performance the performer represents, becomes and is, depending on the form of performance. In the case of Batuku, where the space in which it resides is not theatrically created, the performer represents being by ‘being’ fully present in the moment. Batuku has occupied manny different spaces in the course of its history. In this chapter I will analyse Batuku as a cultural form of expression and the spaces it occupies, from illegality to legality, from an enslaved peoples’ cultural practice to a national cultural practice. Looking at Batuku as a constructed Cape Verdean national story from the perspective and self representation of the people that created it. The main aim of this chapter is to research the relationship between the practice of Batuku and resistance against colonial domination. Furthermore, exploring the connection between the practice of Batuku and Cape Verdean nationhood, therefore, focusing on the role Batuku played in the early construction of Cape Verdean culture. As well as, the space it occupied in the development of an independent nation state. The question I would like to pose here is, can the performance of Batuku be seen as a national rehearsal leading to Cape Verdean Revolution. And what spaces did Batuku occupy in the construction of the Cape Verdean National identity post independence. I will use the song Liberdadi Ki Nu Kre (2009) by Batuku group Kultura Speransa as a case study, analysing the content of the lyrics in relation to the questions stated above. I will analyse the constructed narratives within the music, as well as the aesthetics presented in order to formulate a sense of self representation by Cape Verdean women and men who use Batuku and Finason. The reason I chose

52 to examine the practice of Batuku alongside the formation of the Cape Verdean identity, is because this information will further the understanding of the cultural practice during the famine of 1947. I will use Amilcar Cabral’s Unity and Struggle: Speeches and Writings of Amilcar Cabral (1979) where Cabral defines the importance of culture as an ‘essential element of a people’s history.’ (142)

Focusing specifically on the chapter regarding National Culture where the importance of culture as a mechanism that resists colonial/imperialistic domination is discussed philosophically. Secondly, I will use Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o’s chapter Enactments of Power: The Politics of Performance Space

(1998) where the author discusses the enactments of power between the state and the artist. Both of these writers express the importance of the cultivation of the culture of the oppressed people, especially within the African context.

Batuku, a rehearsal for rebellious acts

This first section examines the musical and lyrical aspect of Batuku, in order to understand the context of the lyrics and what spaces Batuku occupied during the period of Portuguese colonialism.

As previously discussed in the first chapter, Batuku was deemed illegal by the colonial regime and was only legalised after independence. But here I want to focus on the potential Batuku had for rebellion. According to Carter and Aulette, ‘Colonial powers argued that Batuku had to be condemned and restrained because it was “rehearsal for rebellion”. Offenders could be fined or even sent to prison. Batuku continued, however, underground in people’s homes.’ (2009: 121) In what manner can practising Batuku be considered an act of rebellion, by exploring the history of the time, the catholic church banned the practice because of its supposed suggestive dancing and the state deemed it illegal because of the messages being transmitted through the lyrics. The lyrics reflect an awakening to the oppression, the words demonstrated to its audience the current reality of the colony. It is important to understand the history that led to this idea of rebellion and resistance

53 against colonial rule regarding Batuku. Throughout the colonial era the Portuguese implemented multiple strategies to kept enslaved Africans under control and prevent rebellion,‘to strengthen the system of divide-and-rule, the Portuguese introduced the cultural and political concept of the assimilado. The status of assimilado was then to be granted residents in African colonies who wanted recognition, empowerment, and social mobility.’23 (Lobban. 1995: 60) In a way this act was an attempt to provide the Cape Verdean male with the ability to be recognised as a man, who was equal to the Portuguese/white man, having the same rights as the white man, all the privileges. But there was an illusion to this idea, in order to obtain the same basic human rights that the Portuguese citizen acquired at birth, the African had to obtain specific requirements that served to alienate him from the rest of his community. Thus strengthening the divide between Cape Verdean subgroups, on one end the assimilados and on the other the indigena, this subgroup applied to the majority of

Africans on the archipelago.24 The status of indigena made ‘them wards of the state who were denied basic civil rights (including the right to vote), relegated to the lowest paying jobs and inferior schools, and subject to a head tax, restricted movement, and more severe and arbitrary punishment within the criminal justice system.’ (Lobban, 1988: 60) To experience the inhumane treatment endowed by the indigena was to be treated as inferior and it became a symbol of a diminishing life and so many Cape Verdeans seized the opportunity of becoming an assimilado as a survival tactic. This early division in terms of class and citizenship existed hand in hand with racial hierarchy. The early construction of the colony was divisive in its essence, the division between assimilado and indigena facilitated the formation of the subgroups known as ‘Sampajudus’ and

‘Badius’. According to Elizabeth Challinor, the term, ‘Sampajudu’ is used to designate the Cape

Verdeans who originated from the windward islands and ‘Badiu’ to refer to the Cape Verdeans from

23 Assimilado (translates to assimilated) its was a category that was applied to those ‘Africans deemed to have absorbed a sufficient amount of Portuguese culture and satisfied the conditions required for equal treatment with Portuguese citizens.’ (Foy, 1988: xvii)

24 Indigena (translates to native) 54 the leeward islands which have a stronger African influence. (2011: 1566) These labels are rooted in the hierarchical social structure produced by colonial concepts, the difference in ancestries between the Sotavento Islands and the Barlavento Islands generated a split between Cape Verdeans’ themselves. And held in place a social structure that divided people in terms of cultural heritage and skin colour. The understanding of the two subgroups is importance because Batuku is a practice that originated in the remote mountains of Santiago, where most runaway slaves lived. Here, the Badius were able to cultivate any cultural practice and construct their own identity.

The song ‘Liberdadi ki nu Kre’ by Kultura Speransa (2009) speaks of the lived experience of

African people during slavery, that took place mostly in Cidade Velha, where slave auctions were held and the biggest port situated on the island of Santiago.25 The story that is being narrated here is one of enslavement, exportation, and oppression, but it is also a story of resistance, a narrative that presents itself in the image of broken shackles for all of those that fought against Portuguese colonialism.

With this particular song I analyse in this chapter, there is no video footage available and in order to discuss the interaction between the Batukaderas I will compile the information from other songs that have been filmed and are a part of the CD Rialidadi. 55 Sing in the Name of Freedom

(Soloist - Finason) Soloist:

Kada bez ki mi lembra ta maguan nha coracon x4 Every time I remember it breaks my heart (Batukaderas - Respond) Batukaderas: ta maguan nha coracon x4 It breaks my heart x4

(Soloist - Finason) Soloist: Hoje dja txiga kel dia, dja txiga kel momentu That day has arrived, that moment has come, that Fazem lembra sofrimentu makes me remember the suffering Kada bez ki mi lembra ta maguan nha coracon Every time i remember it breaks my heart (Batukaderas - Respond) x2 Batukaderas:

(Soloist - Finason) Every time i remember it breaks my heart Dja lembra sofrimentu di Africa, kel storia ki tem passado na campo ku I remember the suffering of Africa, that story that na cidadi velha, happened in the past in the camp and the old city. Kada bez ki mi lembra ta maguan nha coracon Every time I remember it breaks my heart (Batukaderas - Respond) [Batukaderas Respond Full Verse x2] Kada bez ki mi lembra ta maguan nha coracon Soloist:

(Soloist - Finason) The coloniser took Africa and governed it, they Colono toma Africa e es manda, es maltrata tudo povo, e ku fomi e ku mistreated all the native people with hunger and thirst. sedi Every time I remember it breaks my heart Kada bez ki mi lembra ta maguan nha coracon Batukaderas:

(Batukaderas - Respond) Every time i remember it breaks my heart Kada bez ki mi lembra ta maguan nha coracon Soloist:

(Soloist - Finason) With the whip on their backs, their hands tied backwards, tied with chains, Ku txicoti na costa, mon maradu pa traz, maradu na korrenti, Ku tudo sofri ke es sofri ainda es grita pora With all the pain they suffered they still shouted ‘fuck’.

(Batukaderas - Respond) Every time I remember it breaks my heart Kada bez ki mi lembra ta maguan nha coracon Batukaderas:

Every time i remember it breaks my heart (Soloist - Finason) Keli ta bai pa tudo povo ki foi torturado na cidadi velha Ki viaja na porron di branco tudo injuriado ku fomi e ku sedi Kada bez ki mi lembra ta maguan nha coracon

(Batukaderas - Respond) Kada bez ki mi lembra ta maguan nha coracon x2

56 EXTRACT 1: “KULTURA E SPERANCA” (2009), LIBERDADI KI NU KRE; [00:00 - 02:05 MINUTES]. 26‑

In the following extract, the soloist begins her finason by remembering and speaking of a collective and ancestral memory; a special moment that reminds her of the suffering of her ancestors. She sings about the emotional impact this memory has in her body (every time I remember it hurts my heart) the batukaderas respond by repeating the same phrase.27 A sense of solidarity and compassion fills the space and these emotions are accompanied by feelings of sadness and anger.

These are embodied emotions that are revealed in the presence of the voice of both the soloist and the batukaderas. As an audience member that is part of the Cape Verdean diasporic community, listening to the recording and the story being told in it, my imagination begins to visualise the brutalities that African people suffered during slavery in Cape Verdean as well as throughout the continent. My body is overtaken by feeling of sadness and anger, these feelings do not exist every time I listen to the song but rather in different moment. The performance produces an atmosphere filled with cultural unity and a sense of belonging, that is formed through the use of the call and response structure. The call and response structure acts as an echo of solidarity with the story being told. Therefore, the physical space as well as the aesthetic space that the performance inhabits is not empty. According to Ngũgĩ Wa Thiong’o, ‘the performance space is never empty. Bare, yes; open, yes; but never empty,’ (1998: 41) as it is a self contained field of internal relations as well as external relations. Meaning that the space is overflowing with information, be that, with what is happening in the performance itself, such as the internal relationship between the batukaderas, finason, txabeta, torno, and audience members. Or in the external relations, in terms of what events

26 Translated to English by Tania Camara 2018

27 The group is set up differently to the other two groups I have discussed in previous chapters. In this instance the role of the lead singer is split between two vocalists, two sisters. The vocalist that beings the finason is the then echoed by the second vocalist and this iteration goes on for the first section of the song. The rest of the batukaderas accompany the vocalists with the response of the txabeta and clapping hands. Just before the chorus the second vocalist takes the lead and the rest of the batukaderas (including the first vocalist) respond by echoing the vocalist. This is not the case for this song, in the recording there is only one soloist. Most of their videos are shot during the day in places like the beach or in forest. It is only filmed in the city environment when the song references a particular event in history or an event that is yet to take place. An example would be the song ‘Terra Linda’ that speaks of the history of Cape Verde in relation to the early Portuguese settlement/discovery, the role of Amilcar Cabral in the liberation movement and the economic situation of the nation (referencing poverty and hard work). The song is filmed on the ruins of Cidade Velha. 57 have taken place in the physical space as well as the exterior history of Batuku. The collaboration between spoken-word, song, music and dance invites the spectator to join the community, that is formed by the performance in the space, as the audience listens, claps and sometimes dances alongside the batukaderas, they become part of the group that is performing. The space that the cultural practice of Batuku occupies becomes, according to Arenas, “A kind of homeland”, where an identity is “performed” in a common language and where a sense of belonging to a dispersed

“nation-family” is evoked.’28 (2011: 46) The idea of a performed homeland can be interpreted in two different ways, first looking at Batuku as a practice that connects Cape verdeans to the rest of the African Continent, because it is a practice that embodies many African cultural traditions. On the other hand, it can be seen as another type of imagined homeland that connects Cape Verdean culture and tradition to the Cape Verdean diaspora, because most of the Cape Verdean population is dispersed through the world due to migration. The Cape Verdean identity is performed through the practice of Batuku and other cultural forms and the performance uses individual bodies and stories.

The stories are so relatable that they can transcend the individual and become part of the national identity, as well as the national story that is present within the imagination of the nation. The imagining is not happening in the head, but in song and dance and in the bodies and in the way certain spaces are taken over by the dance.

Batuku, becoming a National Symbol

This second section explores the construction of the Cape Verdean national identity, in order to understand, in what ways the practice of Batuku informed the formation of the national identity. As well as the function of the call and response structure in Batuku as a means to build the Cape

Verdean national narrative. The formation of the Cape Verdean national identity is one of hybridised

28Though Batuku does occupied a physical space which in most cases is in the rural areas of Santiago, or in national platforms such as festivals and finally throughout the communities o the Cape Verdean diaspora. Here I am using the term space metaphorically, speaking of a space that is imagined and there for transgress physical borders. 58 histories, cultures and peoples. The history of the archipelago presents a cultural narrative that is hybridised, because it had many different influences due to the constant flow of people on the islands during the settlement era. In order for Batuku to become a national Cape Verdean symbol, first the cultural practice would have to acquire collective social and cultural meaning. Therefore, what is/are the symbol/s of the cultural practice of Batuku which allowed for shared meaning to be established between Cape Verdean women from the Sotavento Islands and how did this meaning transgress and occupy space in other islands (Barlavento). The collectivity of cultural values and traditions was very important in the early development of the PAIGC liberation movement, because in many ways the succession of the movement was seen to be connected to the cultural cohesion.

According to Amilcar Cabral,

‘The cultural challenge to colonial domination — the primary phase of the liberation

movement — can be effectively envisaged only on the basis of the culture of the

mass workers in the countryside and the towns, including the (revolutionary)

nationalist ‘petty bourgeoisie’, which has been re-Africanized or is discussed

towards a cultural conversion.’ (1979: 146)

The collective performance of Batuku in the context of a national platform allowed the community to re-Africanise itself. The national platform came after independence in the format of festivals and other cultural events that was organised throughout the islands, and these events called for established groups of Batuku and other traditional forms to performed. Through this performance

Cape Verdeans began a cultural celebration that presented the Cape Verdean identity which included the most marginalised people in the community. The performance of the collective ‘self’ identity became essential during the struggle for freedom and continued after official independence in 1975, as Cape Verde claimed itself to be an independent nation, the people began to revitalise and

59 disseminated in musical and oral traditions the sense of Cape Verdeanness. Carter and Aulette

suggests,

‘In the spirit of “re-Africanizing” Cape Verdeans, the new government encouraged

both the study of batuku through research on oral traditions and the recording by

musical groups. OMCV, the national women’s organization, promoted batuku

festivals and politicians often hired batuku groups to perform at their conventions.

Today, it is broadly accepted as an authentic Cape Verdean tradition.’ (2009: 122)

The need to form an identity that reflected and represented the community in itself is a form of

cultural resistance to colonial domination because by asserting their Cape Verdeaness with all its

hybridisation, a sense of unity and belonging came into being. However, this sense of internal social

and cultural alienation was overcome during the struggle for independence from Portuguese

colonisation and cemented in the development of a national identity in the current post

independence phase.

Soloist: Soloist: Dja txiga dia di independensia, tudo skravu rabenta The day of independence has come, korenti. Now every enslaved African has broken the chains. Nhos salta tudo ku fartura, es grita liberdadi. They rejoiced with all the abundance, they shouted Cabo Verde, Guine e Angola; e si ke sabi e asi ki nu freedom, we want our freedom. kre nos tudo reunido, nu grita liberdadi. Cape Verde, Guinea (Bissau) and Angola. That is how it is nice, that is how we want it. Everybody united shouting freedom.

EXTRACT 2: “KULTURA E SPERANCA” (2009) , LIBERDADI KI NU KRE; [02:06 - 02:25 MINUTES].

In this extract of the song, the soloist refers to the euphoria that came from achieving a sense of

freedom from official independence of Portuguese colonialism. The feeling being described is one

60 of unity and empowerment for most of Portuguese speaking Africa, the lyrics demonstrate a sense

of unity during the struggle for independence, that transcended borders and reconnected Cape Verde

to the rest of the African continent. The lyrics examine the historical happening of slavery in a non-

lineal manner since the soloist performs in the present tense. The soloist puts forward a

romanticised idea of what slavery was, in terms of its effect one the colonised body, her focus

remains on the physical aspects of slavery, the bondage. All the other forms of oppression that was

exercised through the dissemination of the Portuguese language, the christianisation of the enslaved

population, the stripping of African names, and the breaking of fundamental relationships is not

acknowledged here, in this act of remembering.

Soloist: Soloist: Dja txiga momentu di aligria, The moment of happiness has come, E liberdadi ki nu kria. E pa tudo PALOP, It is freedom that we want, for Every PALOP. E si ke sabi e asi ki nu kre nos tudo reunido, nu That is how it is nice, that is how we want it. Everybody grita liberdadi. united shouting freedom.

Batukadeiras: Batukadeiras: E si ke sabi e asi ki nu kre nos tudo reunido, nu That is how it is nice, that is how we want it. Everybody grita liberdadi. x2 united shouting freedom.

EXTRACT 3: “KULTURA E SPERANCA” (2009) , LIBERDADI KI NU KRE; [02:57 - 03:36 MINUTES].

Social Call and Cultural response

Geneva Smitherman defines call and response as “spontaneous verbal and non-verbal interaction

between speaker and listener in which all of the speaker’s statements (‘calls’) are punctuated by

expressions (‘responses’) from the listener”.29 (Cohen-Cruz, 2010: 1) Call and response plays a

colossal role in the practice of Batuku. While the soloist delivers her/his finason the rest of the

batukaderas continue to generate the accompanying beat (the mood and speed of the songs is

29 Secondary referencing: Jan Cohen-Cruz in Engaging Performance Theatre as Call and Response 61 determined by the soloist), once the soloist has finished a verse, the batukaderas respond with the

full verse or the last phrase that was sung by the soloist; this small alteration in the response of the

batukaderas depend on the song itself. In the example above, there is a combination of both uses of

the call and response, there are sections where the soloist calls out with a statement and the

batukaderas respond with the full statement but in other instances the group responds with a small

phrase.

Soloist: Soloist: E si ke sabi e asi ki nu kre nos tudo reunido, nu grita That is how it is nice, that is how we want it. liberdadi. x4 Everybody united shouting freedom. Batukaderas: Batukaderas: E si ke sabi e asi ki nu kre nos tudo reunido, nu grita That is how it is nice, that is how we want it. liberdadi. x4 Everybody united shouting freedom. Soloists [Calls] - Batukaderas [Respond]: Soloists [Calls] - Batukaderas [Respond]: Nos tudo reunido, nu grita liberdadi. x2 Everybody united shouting freedom. x2

EXTRACT 4: “KULTURA E SPERANCA” (2009) , LIBERDADI KI NU KRE [03:37 - 04:06 MINUTES].

The opening of the song starts with the collective voices of the group infused into one and these

voices fill the space. This is then followed by the soloist’s finason, the tone of the finason seems to

imply a feeling of suffering, a crying sensation. And voice cracking is present as she sings as soon

as she declares the song to be an act of remembrance for those that suffered under slavery. There is

a shift in her voice, the feeling of sorrow and sadness are present throughout the song, but the act of

remembering her ancestors provides a moment of happiness because after all the suffering and pain,

Independence Day arrived, freedom for African people finally became a physical reality. The

audience/listeners are taken on an emotional rollercoaster throughout the progression of the song. At

first as you hear the cry of the soloist, you begin to picture all of the images that she describes in the

finason, the images that are associated with brutality, dehumanising situations such as being place

62 under a ship deck, in a 28-30 metre wooden plank, tied down by chains, hungry, dehydrated, smelling decomposing bodies, defecating on each other. Listening to the response it seems to cause a collective feeling of hurt to the batukaderas and the audience, because the lyrics are invoking a painful ancestral memory. According to Jorge Ribeiro,

‘In the case of Cape Verdeans - both for those who perform it and those who only watch the

performance — it refers to the space of origin, its geographic and emotional reference, and

contributes to the reinforcement of identity by sharing a memory and the feeling of

belonging. In addition, the batuque incorporates narratives that make sense only for those

who perform or who understand the performance from the gestures and corporality, the

sound and the meaning of their lyrics sung in Creole.30 (Ribeiro, 2012: 21)

To those that experience the performance of Batuku while themselves being outsiders to the Cape

Verdean culture and language, Batuku has a different meaning. The performance can be received in two different ways depending on the audience, to those that understand the content of the lyrics the song refers to a collective trauma and generates a familiarity, a sense of belonging. To outsiders of the Cape Verdean history and culture the torno may come across as a sexual dance because of the explicit movement of the hips, however, to the performers of Batuku, it is a dance that expresses more than sexuality. Batuku expresses a struggle for freedom (physical bondage and freedom of expression), a connection to ancestral memories, a form of education, a preserver of Cape Verdean history and identity.

30 ‘No caso dos cabo-verdianos – tanto para os que o performam, como para aqueles que apenas assistem à performance - ele remete para o espaço de origem, a sua referência geográfica e emocional, e contribui para o reforço identitário através da partilha da memória e do sentimento de pertença. Além disso, o batuque incorpora narrativas que fazem sentido apenas para os que performam ou que entendem a performance a partir da gestualidade e corporalidade, do som e do sentido das suas letras cantadas em crioulo.’ (Ribeiro, 2012: 21)

Translated by Tania Camara 63 According to Jessica Barros, ‘Call and Response caused too much excitement among the people.

Those with Eurocentric views of language feared that the dialogue engendered by call and response

could strengthen the mass’s resolve for liberation from all aspects of colonial domination in their

lives.’ (2012: 103) The call and response structure became a strong vehicle in the survival and

development of the Cape Verdean identity and community, because it was through the use of call

and response that oral history survived since most of enslaved Africans and their descendants where

illiterate (in Portuguese) and Creole did not operate within the same institutional capacity as

Portuguese.

[Soloist]: Nu Grita [Soloist]: Let’s Shout [Batukaderas]: E liberdadi x 4 [Batukaderas]: Freedom x 4 [Soloist]: Nu kre [Soloist]: We want [Batukaderas]: E Amizadi x4 [Batukaderas]: Friendship x4 [Soloist]: E Liberdadi [Soloist]: It is Freedom [Batukaderas]: Ki nu kre x4 [Batukaderas]: That we want x4

[Soloist]: [Soloist]: E si ke sabi e asi ki nu kre nos tudo reunido, nu grita That is how it is nice, that is how we want it. Everybody liberdadi. united shouting freedom. [Batukaderas]: E si ke sabi e asi ki nu kre nos tudo reunido, nu grita [Batukaderas]: liberdadi. x2 That is how it is nice, that is how we want it. Everybody united shouting freedom. x2

EXTRACT 5: “KULTURA E SPERANCA” (2009) , LIBERDADI KI NU KRE [04:07 - 05:32 MINUTES].

The final extract of the Batuku song highlights the idea that Batuku had tendencies for rebellious

acts. The call and response begins as an echo, the soloist delivers a small section of the finason and

it is repeated in the response of the batukaderas. At first the response seems to be delivered in a

monotonous tone, working like an amplifier for the soloist’s voice. In the second half of the call and

64 response there is a shift in the delivery. The batukaderas begin to complete the sentences sung by the soloist and in this moment, the batukaderas are no longer just a continuous chorus, an amplifier, but become one with the soloist. One voice made of many tongues tells the story of independence.

Throughout the song a sense of collectivity and unity was performed externally and internally, this unity was present in the story that was being narrated, unity across boarders and the unity intertwined in the structure of the song itself, with the soloist calling (with the beginning of a sentence) and the Batukaderas responding (with the rest of the phrase).

Batuku has been analysed in relation to the development of the national Cape Verdean identity during the struggle for independence. In order to identify the spaces Batuku occupied in the early construction of a collective identity, as well as the place of the practice in the PAIGC liberation movement. Batuku was examined in its lyrical structure, focusing specifically on the content of the lyrics, on the narrative that was being performed by the Batukaderas. Batuku occupied an important space for the liberation movement because it is a tradition that originated from the mass population and this tradition, among others shaped the cultural representation of the movement. The practice of

Batuku throughout the ‘Maafa’ enabled Cape Verdean women to self care, perform their identities and narrate the harsh realities as they experienced it in the everyday.

65 Conclusion

Throughout this dissertation, Batuku has been explored as a cultural practice and a collective performance, alongside the presence of the body and the power of the gaze and finally, its relationship to the development of the Cape Verdean national identity. In order to understand in what ways the practice could be read as an act of self-claiming, self-defining and resistance for

Cape Verdean women during the periods of 1947 to 1975. The practice is accompanied by the complex history of the transatlantic slave trade and colonialism. At times this influenced the way in which the performance was interacted with, from both the practitioners perspective and a spectators’s standpoint. There are many different narratives about the development of Batuku, but the story that is clear is that, the practice is the legacy of the enslaved African that were forced to settle on the island of Santiago during slavery. This is also true for Kriolu the language of intimate relationships, solidarity and pleasurable experiences, Batuku connects Cape Verdeans to the mainland. It is also a cultural practice that can be used as a filter through which Cape Verdean history, memories, and identity is experienced. Documented in the practice is the history of the

Maafa, through a Batuku performance one remembers the past experiences of the ancestors, be that, slavery, famine, poverty, violence, and forced labour. The continuous cultivation of Batuku in harsh conditions shows the value and resilience of African culture and African people, it demonstrates that

African people have and continue to produce their cultural values through artistic practices.

According to Cabral, ‘it should not, however, be forgotten that [the] African man, whose hands, […] have laid the foundation stones of the world, has developed his culture in often, if not always, hostile conditions: from the deserts to equational forests, from coastal marshes to banks of great rivers subject to frequent flooding, through and against all the difficulties.’ (1979: 149) The famine of 1947, among all the others, is a great example of what Cabral highlights as a hostile conditions, because of the effects of famine on the body; many people suffered from chronic malnutrition, due

66 to the lack of nutrients in the diet. The extreme physical hardships of hunger made the practice of

Batuku exceedingly difficult, because it is an embodied practice that is centralised around the physical body and its presence. It is also a practice that demands energy from each performer, in the delivery of every element. But in order for Batuku to be a practice that is still cultivated throughout

Cape Verde and the diaspora, it had to survive the extreme conditions, that at times exterminated half of the population. In the same way that the women that developed the practice during slavery were resilient as well as the women that continued to cultivate it in remote areas of Santiago,

Batuku is resilient; its improvisational aspect is what allows for it to be so versatile. The fact that it can be improvised anywhere and does not require the official drum, because the txabeta itself is a makeshift drum. The fact that the finason is in many occasions made up on the spot and that the torno is almost like a choreographed improvisation, because the dancers ‘utilize movement sequences, much of which are improvised artistic materials, but in a conscious organisation,’ (Daniel, 2005: 52) in this case the hip isolation, gives the practice its adaptability. The aspects of improvisation and play in Batuku, demonstrates that the practice continues in development, because it is loosely structured, as the society becomes modernised, the practice accompanies it, because it has coexisted with every generation. The practice has been completely embedded into the everyday lives of Cape Verdean people, it takes place in peoples homes, in the games played by young children, on street corners, in the markets, during wedding and baptisms, during national and international festivals. It is present in every aspect of Cape Verdean social life, it had become ritualised behaviour not just in the way it is set up, but also in the way it is daily exercised. A ritual that generates space in which the Batukuaderas have the ability to release daily tensions and the harsh realities of their daily lives.

67 The narrative being performed during the finason demonstrates a sequence of words that resonates with the audience, the meaning being produced is shared between performers and spectators, they begin to identify with each other. According to Grada Kilomba , ‘in this state the Black subject starts a series of consecutive identifications with other Black people: their history, their biographies, their experiences, their knowledges, etc.’ (2013: 154) Through the idea of identification one begins to move away from the alienation, that comes from being placed in the position of the colonial other, which exists only in binary opposition to whiteness. Instead, ‘one develops a positive identification with one’s own Blackness, leading to a sense of inner security and self recognition.’ (Kilomba, 2013: 154) In this instance, the object of colonial desire becomes the self, because the image of the colonial other is shattered. The oppositional gaze allows the practitioners of Batuku to have a moment of self recognition and identification with each other, when they share histories, biographies, knowledges, and experiences and witness each other doing so. The performers become the self, they become the subject of their own narratives.

There are many components that are in the practice of Batuku which are also present in African spiritual belief systems, from the use of the circle, the percussion, the call and response singing, and the repetitive use of hip isolation. Even though, the practice has many aspects in common with

African spiritual belief systems, including the element of trance. Being in trance is not an aim of the batukaderas as they perform Batuku, rather what is intrinsic to Batuku and the practitioners is, it's healing quality. Batuku is an interdisciplinary cultural practice that cultivates self healing, self discovery, and self representation. It is a self healing practice because during the most difficult times of Cape Verdean history, all the hardships of slavery, famine, death, abandonment, and poverty. Cape Verdean women have continued to practice and perform it and through its cultivation in the body, mind, and soul, the performer is fulfilled. The goal is spiritual well being, by

68 performing it, practitioners are filled with a sensation of contentment and happiness. It is a process that allows spiritual care through the bodily practices, and spiritual well being is acquired during the practice and performance of Batuku, which then leads to healing. It is a practice that encourages self discovery, because present in the practice is an educational body that manifests itself in the finason which speaks of lived experiences, the txabeta and torno, a dance that expresses the sexual aspect of the body. The body is the educational tool, the dancing body, the drumming body, and the vocal body, all consists of information regarding notions of philosophy, religion, history, mathematics, and psychology. These sort of knowledges are embedded in the performative behaviour, and practitioners and spectators learn from witnessing, observing and participating in the repetitive ritualised behaviour; sensing and learning through the process of making music and pushing the boundaries of the torno. It is a form of self representation, because in its performance and in the everyday practice, Batuku demonstrates the essence of the Cape Verdean woman, her power, her strength, her sorrow, her pain, her happiness, her resistance and the community she is a part off.

Here, Cape Verdean women represent themselves by performing their lived experiences in the finason, in the txabeta, in the torno and the call and response. It is imperative that all the aspects of

Batuku are synchronised, in order for the song to be successful in its cultivation of the spectating audience. The power of Batuku lies in its collective performance and shared meaning. The lyrics demonstrate a sense of community and belonging that is obtained, through the recollection of a common ancestral memory. Batuku as an artistic practice facilitates an imagined community that performs its power against the ‘colonial’ state, by narrating personal and collective histories from the perspective of the people. It becomes a revolutionary act through its enactment and cultivation of a cultural identity. It is empowering for Cape Verdean women because it enables the collective to form a bond based on notions of sisterhood and womanist principles. In my exploration of the call and response I found that the composition of calling and responding facilitates an intergenerational educational system, because it allows the preceding generation of Batukaderas to share and teach 69 their lived experience to the younger generation. The practice of Batuku becomes a culturally formed communicative tool that furthers the embodied knowledge of Cape Verdean woman and society.

Further research This thesis has had many shortcoming, primarily the lack of field work, especially reordered testimonies of practitioners of Batuku, access to theoretical writing about Batuku, and archived documents from the colonial periods that document the place of Batuku in early Cape Verdean society. I would like to continue researching Batuku as an artistic practice, because it is the framework that I incorporate in my own artistic practice. Above all, because after the completion of this research I realised that, in certain aspects the research was superficial due to lack of resources. I want to develop this research in Cape Verde where the practice originated, because here I introduced Batuku as a practice, I highlighted what the practice is, how it works and its relation with the liberation movement. But I did not consider why Batuku is performed the way it is, why the torno is only danced through hip isolation, why the txabeta is beat in a particular rhythm and why the finason feels and sounds like a cry. Furthermore, I would like to research how Batuku is performed and practice outside of Cape Verde. How other cultures, places and peoples influence the finason, what is the experience being preserved in the practice when different generations are performing Batuku. I would also like to investigate the practice in terms its cultural progression, how has it progresses alongside Cape Verdean society, what is the difference between traditional

Batuku and Contemporary Batuku.

70 Illustrations

Batukaderas di Rincon (2003) Da Ku Torno: http://www.maisondesculturesdumonde.org/node/488

Batukaderas di Rincon (2003) Rapika: http://www.maisondesculturesdumonde.org/node/488

Cape Verdean Traditional Cloth, Google Image: http://kapverdischeinseln.ch/c-a4/en7.html

Lima, L. (2016) Batukadera Azul: Duas Gerações, Quatro Artistas Exhibition: https://www.facebook.com/luislevylima.art/photos/a. 655196284690274.1073741856.136200953256479/658527607690475/?type=3&theater

Lima, L. (2017) Midju Pilon Pilon, Pinturas Album: https://www.facebook.com/luislevylima.art/photos/a. 145539822322592.1073741830.136200953256479/748792635330638/?type=3&theater

Lima, L. (2017) The Colourful Marke, Pinturas Album: https://www.facebook.com/luislevylima.art/photos/a. 145539822322592.1073741830.136200953256479/765754146967820/?type=3&theater

Luis, L. (2018) Batuku - Brinka ku Tornu "O Futuro é das Crianças” Exhibition: https://www.facebook.com/luislevylima.art/photos/a. 148135245396383.1073741836.136200953256479/848238018719432/?type=3&theater

Moniz, J. (2018) Dancing for Each Other, Google Image: https://madamenoire.com/840328/travel-to-africa/

Artworks

Kultura Speranca (2009) Amilcar Cabral: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJcQhpgcrHA

Kultura Speranca (2009) Liberdadi Ki Nu Kre: (No video Available)

Tradison Di Terra (2011) Tempo Antigo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBtJnlDJefU

71 Bibliography

Ani, M. (2014) YURUGU: An Afrikan-Centered critique of European Cultural Thought and Behavior. Afrikan World Books World Press; Maryland.

Arenas, F. (2011) Lusophone Africa: Beyond independence. University of Minnesota Press; Minnesota.

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York; London.

Bhabha, H. (2004) The Location of Culture. Routledge. New York; London.

Cabral, A. (1979) Unity and Struggle: Speeches and Writings. Monthly Review Press. New York; London.

Cabral, A. (2016) Resistance and Decolonization. Rowman & Littlefield International London; Nw York.

Carter, K. Aulette, J. (2009) Cape Verde Women: Building Bridges to Political Change in unexpected Places. Palgrave Macmillan; Basingstoke.

Crémieux, A. Lemoine, X. Rocchi, J. (2013) Understanding Blackness Through Performance: Contemporary Arts and the Representation of Identity. Palgrave Macmillan; USA

Cruz, J. (2010) Engaging Performance theatre as Call and Response. Routledge. New York; London.

Daniel, Y. (2005) Dancing Wisdom: Embodied Knowledge in Haitian Vodou, Cuban Yoruba, and Bahian Candomble. University of Illinois Press; USA.

DeGruy, J. (2005) Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome: America’s Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healing. Uptone Press; USA.

Frantz, F. (2017) Black Skin, White Masks. (Translated by Charles Lam Markmann) Pluto Press; UK.

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Videography

Adofo, D. (2015) Ancestral Voices: Esoteric African Knowledge (73min) Longbelly TV 73 Adofo, D. (2017) Ancestral Voices: Spirit is Eternal (105min) Longbelly TV

Frosch, J . Kovgan, A. (2007) Movement (R)evolution Africa: A story of an art in four acts (65min)

Manso, F. (2000) Dez Grãozinhos de Terra (52mins) Lieurac Productions

Paes, C. (2004) Batuque: A Alma de Um Povo (51mins) Africa em Docs

Shahadah, O (2005) 500 years later (105min). Halaqah

Shahadah, O (2010) Motherland (124min). Halaqah

Youtube Videos Used Documentário Tradison di Terra - Parte 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlqIsnNhOp8

Documentário Tradison di Terra - Parte 2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJC5bpTY8A0

From Dez Grãozinhos de Terra, Nacia Gomi Rapariga video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNWB-THKzZk&t=9s

Websites https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batuque,_the_Soul_of_a_People http://www.caboverde-info.com/Identidade/Personalidades/Antonio-Vaz-Cabral-Ntoni-Denti-d-Oro http://tvbrasil.ebc.com.br/nossalingua/episodio/batuque-a-alma-de-um-povo https://caboverdevida.blogspot.com/2012/05/grupo-de-batuku-tradison-di-terra.html http://www.antilles-mizik.com/tradison-di-terra-nos-bandera-cddvd-p-12540.html https://madamenoire.com/840328/travel-to-africa/

All Web links last visited on 26/07/2018

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