CAPE VERDEAN CONNECTID Learning from Cape Verdean Experience JOHN W. FRANKLIN AND PETER SEITEL he Cape Verdean Connection program provides an opportunity to experience a culture that blends West African and Portuguese elements in unique and moving ways. It also provides a clear perspective on two important aspects of how culture is under­ stood and made part of public discourse at the end of the 20th century. One is the idea of transnationalism - in a sense1 the way that culture and community can be seen to be independent of territorial boundaries. The other is the opening of national institutions like the Smithsonian to new cultural needs. Cape Verdean culture is produced on both sides of the Atlantic1 in communities in the These Cape Verdean Cape Verde Islands and in New England1 children play using California1 the Netherlands/ France1 Senegal1 traditional cultural Argentina1 and elsewhere. Transnationalism objects, the mortar and in Cape Verdean society is determined/ to be pestle and the basket sure1 in part by historical and environmental for winnowing corn. imperatives of dramatic proportions. But this Photo by Ray Almeida condition is not completely unique. There are many other culture-bearing groups whose be understood more concretely as having an members find it necessary for survival to institutional basis. Cape Verdeans maintain export their labor and themselves to another ties through Cape Verdean-owned ships and country/ building new lives there but also shipping companies; family remittances and sending support and maintaining ties to their other economic exchange1 such as banking old country through a variety of social and cul­ and investments in the home country; print tural organizations. This transnational aspect and electronic media that disseminate news of of cultural production is quite evident among the communities; political parties1which were Caribbean peoples residing in the United active in the anticolonial struggle and contin­ States1 among Indians and Pakistanis world­ ue in postindependence politics; and interna­ wide1 among Chinese groups1 and among tional musical touring circuits and Cape Eastern European nationalities. Verdean-owned recording companies that are Related cultures are often understood firmly grounded in Cape Verdean traditional with a genetic model1 in which related groups musical genres. These are among this com­ are compared as offspring of an ancestral cul­ munity1s tools for cultural survival in a ture1 their separate development explaining transcontinental context. cultural differences. But cultural relationships It is also significant that Cape Verdean­ between such communities may sometimes American committees raised a substantial por- VERDEAN CONNECTION tion of the funds necessary for The Cape Study in African Transformation. Trenton: Verdean Connection program. In sponsoring Africa World Press. the program, the Cape Verde an Americans are Duncan, T. Bentley. 1971. The Atlantic Islands: not only "discovering" the Smithsonian -that Madeira, the Azores and the Cape Verdes in is, planting a Cape Verdean cultural flag and Seventeenth-Century Commerce and Navigation. Chicago: University of Chicago. gaining international attention for their mag­ nificent cultural achievements. They are also Ellen, MariaM., ed. 1988. Across the Atlantic: An Anthology of Cape Verdean Literature. North following Cape Verdean independence leader Dartmouth, Mass.: Center for the Portuguese Amilcar Cabral, known as the "Founder of Speaking World, University of Massachusetts. Cape Verdean Nationality," by using institu­ Fay, Calm. 1988. Cape Verde: Politics, Economics tional means to establish a unified yet richly and Society. London: Pinter Publishers. diverse culture as the bedrock upon which to Halter, Marilyn. 1993. Between Race and build a Cape Verdean identity - one that can Ethnicity: Cape Verdean American Immigrants, help its bearers work together to meet the 1860-1965. Urbana and Chicago: University of challenges presented by Cape Verdean history Illinois. and its environment. The Festival, and the Hamilton, Russell G. 1975. Voices from an Smithsonian of which it is part, have become Empire: A History of Afro-Portuguese Literature. an open forum for this kind of cultural explo­ Minneapolis: University of Minnesota. ration and discussion. Hayden, Robert C. 1993. African-Americans & Cape Verdean-Americans in New Bedford: A History of Community and Achievement. References and Suggested Readings Boston: Select Publications. Abshire, David, and Michael Samuels, eds. 1969. Hohman, Elmo P. 1928. The American Portuguese Africa: A Handbook. New York: Whalemen. New York: Longmans, Green & Praeger. Co. Almeida, Raymond A. 1978. Cape Verdeans in Lobban, Richard. 1995. Cape Verde: Crioulo America: Our Story. Boston: TCHUBA­ Colony to Independent Nation. Boulder: American Committee for Cape Verde. Westview. Araujo, Norman. 1966. A Study of Cape Verdean Lobban, Richard, and Trudi Coli. 1990. Cape Literature. Chestnut Hill, Mass.: Boston Verdeans in Rhode Island. Providence: Rhode College. Island Historical Preservation and Heritage Bailyn, Bernard. 1955. The New England Commission. Merchants in the 17th Century. Cambridge: Lobban, Richard, and Marilyn Halter. 1988. Harvard University. Historical Dictionary of the Republic of Cape Brooks, George. 1993. Landlords and Strangers. Verde. Metuchen, N.J.: Scarecrow. Boulder: Westview. Lomba, Arthur. 1980. The Role of Cape Verdean Cabral, Amilcar. 1973. Return to the Source. New Culture in Education. In Issues in Portuguese York: Africa Information Service. Bilingual Education, ed. Donalda P. Macedo. ___. 1979. Unity and Struggle. New York: Cambridge: National Assessment and Monthly Review. Dissemination Center for Bilingual/ Bicultural Education. Carreira, Antonio. 1982. The People of the Cape Verde Islands: Exploitation and Emigration, Lopes, Baltasar. 1947. Chiquinho. Sao Vicente, trans. and ed. Christopher Fyfe. Hamden, Cape Verde: Claridade. Conn.: Archon Books. Macedo, Donalda. 1980. A Lingua Caboverdiana ___. 1983. Forma9ao e Extin9ao de uma na Educa<;:ao Bilingue. In Issues in Portuguese Sociedade Escravotata, 1460-1878. Praia, Cape Bilingual Education, ed. Donalda P. Macedo. Verde: Instituto Caboverdeano de Livro. Cambridge: National Assessment and Dissemination Center for Bilingual/Bicultural DaCruz, Eutropoio Lima. 1981. Cape Verde and Education. Its Music. The Courier 68:77-80. Meintel, Deidre. 1984. Race, Culture and Davidson, Basil. 1989. The Fortunate Isles: A Portuguese Colonialism in Cabo Verde. CAPE VERDE AN C 0 NNE CT I Syracuse: Syracuse University. Other Information Sources Moser, Gerald. 1969. Essays in Portuguese­ African Studies Collection, Mugar Library, African Literature. University Park, Penn.: Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts. The Pennsylvania State University. Cape Verdean Immigration Collection, Nunes, Maria Luisa. 1976. A Different Vision of Genealogy Room, New Bedford Free Public a New England Childhood: The Cape Verdean Library, New Bedford, Massachusetts. Experience on Cape Cod. In Women in Special Collections, Adams Library, Rhode Portuguese Society: Proceedings of the Second Island College, Providence, Rhode Island. Annual Symposium on the Portuguese Experience in the United States. Fall River, World Wide Web, Cape Verdean Horne Page Mass.: National Assessment and address: JOHN W. FRANKLIN Dissemination Center. http:! /www.urnassd.edu/SpecialPrograrns/ and PETER SEITEL are ___. 1982. A Portuguese Colonial in America: caboverde/ capeverdean.htrnl co-curators of The (in development by Richard Leary et al., Belmira Nunes Lopes, the Autobiography of a Cape Verdean University of Massachusetts, North Cape Verdean-American. Pittsburgh: Latin Connection. American Literary Review. Dartmouth, Massachusetts). Parsons, Elsie Clews. 1923. Folk-Lore from the Suggested Listening Cape Verde Islands. 2 vols. Cambridge: The Cape Verde: Anthology 1959-1992. Buda, France. American Folk-Lore Society. Cape Verde Islands: The Roots. Playa Sound, Pereira, Daniel A. 1986. Estudoes da Hist6ria de France. Cabo Verde. Praia, Cape Verde: Instituto Caboverdiano do Livro. Evora, Cesaria. Cesaria. Lusafrica/Melodie, France. Pires, Joao, and John Hutchinson. 1983. Disionariu Preliminariu Kriolu (Preliminary ___.Mar Azul. Lusafrica/Melodie, France. 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Le Violon de Cap Vert. Buda, Ultrarnar. France. ___. 1960. Antologia da Fic9iio Cabo-Verdiana Contemporanea. Praia, Cape Verde: Irnprensa Nacional. .