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Militant Nostalgia in Cape Verdean Literature

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Militant Nostalgia in Cape Verdean Literature Global Journal of HUMAN SOCIAL SCIENCE Arts, Humanities & Psychology Volume 13 Issue 7 Version 1.0 Year 2013 Type: Double Blind Peer Reviewed International Research Journal Publisher: Global Journals Inc. (USA) Online ISSN: 2249-460x & Print ISSN: 0975-587X Militant Nostalgia in Cape Verdean Literature By Matthew Teorey Peninsula College, United States Abstract- During the twentieth century, Cape Verdean diaspora authors challenged the longstanding Cape Verdean tradition of passively mourning what was lost. Previous poets and storytellers used saudade, or a sense of sentimental homesickness, to provide readers with an escape from daily life, particularly the physical and political hardships of living on the Cape Verde islands and the cultural dislocation of living elsewhere. A new group of authors, however, took a more militant approach in order to inspire ethnic pride, cultural and racial self-awareness, and political action. The results were activist literary movements, Claridade in the 1930s and Certeza in the 1940s, which led to the nation’s civil rights and independence movements of the 1960s and 1970s. This essay analyzes Cape Verdean and Cape Verdean-American authors who transformed saudade to be a rallying cry for the celebration of their heritage and the assertion of self-confidence, unity, and action among their readers. Keywords: cape verde, saudade, nostalgia, activism, claridade, immigration. GJHSS-A Classification: FOR Code: 419999, 200524 Militant Nostalgia in Cape Verdean Literature Strictly as per the compliance and regulations of: © 2013. Matthew Teorey. This is a research/review paper, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution- Noncommercial 3.0 Unported License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/), permitting all non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Militant Nostalgia in Cape Verdean Literature Matthew Teorey Abstract - During the twentieth century, Cape Verdean green fields, continuous singing and dancing, and diaspora authors challenged the longstanding Cape Verdean happy children. This joyful, comfortable “memory” tradition of passively mourning what was lost. Previous poets caused some to become disconnected from the islands’ and storytellers used saudade, or a sense of sentimental actual customs and socio-political issues. homesickness, to provide readers with an escape from daily 3 The purpose of saudade underwent a life, particularly the physical and political hardships of living on 201 the Cape Verde islands and the cultural dislocation of living transformation when, in the middle of the twentieth elsewhere. A new group of authors, however, took a more century, members of the Cape Verdean diaspora ear militant approach in order to inspire ethnic pride, cultural and became more culturally self-aware and politically active. Y racial self-awareness, and political action. The results were Authors decided that a deeper, more honest activist literary movements, Claridade in the 1930s and engagement with their cultural roots could help them 15202 Certeza in the 1940s, which led to the nation’s civil rights and challenge the racial prejudice and cultural erasure that independence movements of the 1960s and 1970s. This essay had made escape into nostalgic fantasy desirable in the analyzes Cape Verdean and Cape Verdean-American authors first place. Simultaneously using and rejecting the power who transformed saudade to be a rallying cry for the of saudade,5 these authors gave Cape Verdeans and celebration of their heritage and the assertion of self- confidence, unity, and action among their readers. Cape Verdean-American readers an “inner freedom” to Keywords: cape verde, saudade, nostalgia, activism, learn more about their heritage and become social claridade, immigration. activists. A mixture of nostalgia, realism, and activism, this new form of saudade united members of the I. Introduction diaspora, empowering them to fight for independence on the islands6 and civil rights in the United States. n important theme in diasporic literature is a sense of nostalgia for the homeland left behind, II. “This Despair of Wanting to Leave but “a mythic place of desire in the diasporic A Having to Remain!” Volume XIII Issue VII Version I imagination” (Brah 1996, p. 192). Authors1 within the Cape Verdean diaspora call their mournful, sentimental At the beginning of the twentieth century, A () homesickness saudade.2 This bitter-sweet sentiment classically educated Cape Verdean authors wrote on has appeared in poetry, songs, and folktales to provide abstract, “universal” topics, which ignored the daily an escape from daily life, including the physical suffering, discrimination, and cultural traditions of actual hardships of living on the arid Cape Verde Islands and Cape Verdeans. They only mentioned the islands to wax the cultural dislocation of living somewhere else. nostalgic about a non-existent “Atlantis”7 of joy, However, during the twentieth century saudade became brotherhood, and prosperity. This willful blindness more than a wistful, romantic longing for what was lost. began to change in the 1930s when the Claridade8 It acquired a militant edge, meant to inspire ethnic pride, poets declared their cultural independence from cultural and racial self-awareness, and political activism. European conventions, portrayed their homeland as it Cape Verde, ten small islands located a few hundred actually was, and encouraged readers to use native miles off the coast of West Africa,3 has developed a wisdom to improve their daily lives. multiracial, multicultural society after centuries of Manuel Lopes, one of Cape Verde’s most miscegenation between Portuguese colonists and famous Claridade authors, used saudade to inspire African slaves.4 In the nineteenth and twentieth interest in cultural truths and to take a stand on the issue al Journal ofSocial al Journal Science Human centuries many left the islands to escape drought, of emigration from the islands. His poem “Crioulo” b famine, poverty, and socio-political repression. (1964) honors the island culture that teaches boldness Glo Emigrants to Europe and the Americas usually improved and resignation because Cape Verdeans gain “the their socio-economic position, but they also faced humility born of disillusionment” (Ferreira 1975, p. 105) aggressive racism and discrimination, particularly in the as well as hope and joy for an unlikely future. His “Nem United States where many emigrants formed insulated, Navio” (Neither Ship, 1964) honors saudade as a warm supportive Cape Verdean-American communities. For voice inside all Cape Verdeans but warns against many, departure did not diminish their devotion to a complete devotion to sentimental nostalgia because it is homeland they thought they remembered, a utopia of “an illusion that disguises itself” (Ferreira 1975, p. 107), seemingly soothing but ultimately limiting and Author: Peninsula College, United States. destructive. In Lopes’s novel Chuva Braba (Wild Rain, e-mail: [email protected] 1956) protagonist Mane Quim recognizes the difficult © 2013 Global Journals Inc. (US) Militant Nostalgia in Cape Verdean Literature truths about his homeland without rejecting the romantic This new, militant saudade reconnected Cape vision inherent in its folklore. Mane confronts hardship Verdeans to their African heritage. For example, Manuel pragmatically, which includes using traditional stories Lopes privileged African folklore and native medicines and customs to guide where and when to plant his over Western traditions, as in the short story “No terreiro crops and what types of people to love and respect. In do bruxo Baxense” (Under the Spell of Baxenxe, the the Faustian struggle at the end of the novel, Mane wins Sorcerer, 1959). In addition, Aguinaldo Fonseca linked his soul by choosing not to emigrate across the Atlantic the Cape Verdean landscape with its African cultural with his godfather. He remains not because the islands roots in “Mae-negra” (Black Mother, 1951): are ideal but because he is willing to work hard to build The black mother cradles her son. a future for himself and his community. She sings a remote song 3 1 This theme became very popular with “anti- her grandparents used to sing 20 evasionist,” anti-emigration poets. These poets wanted on nights without a dawn. (Ellen 1988, p. 13) to teach the diaspora, as well as those on the islands, to ear Fonseca took this connection a step further in Y respect their heritage and work together to survive in a “Magia negra” (Black Magic, 1951), in which the “distant hostile world. Poet Jorge Barbosa challenged the murmur” (Hamilton 1975, p. 297) of the Cape Verdean’s 16202 emigrants’ sentimentalism, characterizing it as a sign of African ancestors inspires the wounded and beaten their abandonment. In “Casebre” (Little Shack, 1956), poetic persona to take a decidedly militant stance. The Barbosa portrayed the “bitter memory” (Ellen 1988, p. poem suggests that the black man adopt the “fiery 24) of drought and starvation on the islands with specific voice” of a traditional song and stand up to the whip. and grisly details. The poem suggests that although Poets Ovidio Martins and Antonio Nunes many want to ignore this suffering and death by reproduce Creole rhythms to express the African escaping into nostalgia, made possible by leaving the element of their Cape Verdean-ness and make political islands, their “silence” only further separates and statements. Nunes’s “Ritmo
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