An Introduction to Cabo Verdean Musical Styles

This website will be gradually translated into English.

Until this task is completed, we present this introduction to Caboverdean musical practices.

Gláucia Nogueira and Graham Douglas

The landscape of Caboverdean music is diverse. Musical genres, like the society from which they emanate, are notably Creole. They stem from the interactions of the local population with other peoples through the process of colonization, but also from the emigration of Caboverdeans to other countries. In addition, maritime traffic in the Atlantic, which has always traversed the archipelago, was a fruitful channel of contact with other cultures. These factors meant that Cabo Verde remained attuned to cultural trends and lifestyles circulating around the world.

Since the 1970s, Caboverdean youth have enthusiastically embraced rap, reggae, zouk from the Antilles and, to a lesser extent, rock, producing Caboverdean versions of these genres. But in the past similar re-creations happened and were important for the development of a distinctive Caboverdean tradition. Nineteenth-century European musical styles (polka, mazurka, waltz, etc) which had arrived with maritime trade and colonial residents were soon adapted and re-created by local musicians.

Morna, koladera, batuku, funaná and talaia baxu are the most prominent styles considered “genuinely” Caboverdean, to the extent that such an adjective can be used in a society marked so heavily by ethnic admixture.

And the eclectic origins of these musical styles are essential to their nature and did not stop the Morna from being recognized as a Caboverdean intangible heritage of humanity by the UN in 2019.

Caboverdean musical practices are also related to the feasts of the Catholic calendar. This includes the activities of tabankas (mutual-aid associations that, among other activities, celebrate the dates of Catholic saints), in Santiago and Maio; Festa de Bandeira on the Island of Fogo; and Kola Sanjon (commemorating St. John the Baptist’s Day) is celebrated on several islands. Other religious traditions include the litanies inherited from the Portuguese tradition, sung in Creole.

There are also popular songs related to weddings (b´ta saúde) and to traditional work such as sowing, fishing, and labour with oxen in the artisanal production of rum (grogo, grogue, grogu).

Bibliography

Barbosa, Kaká. “Son di terra, a voz ou o som da identidade”, Horizonte, 291, February 20, 2004.

Cidra, Rui. Música, poder e diáspora. Uma Etnografia e História entre Santiago, Cabo Verde, e Portugal. PhD thesis, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, 2011.

Cruz, Francisco Xavier da. Uma Partícula da Lira Caboverdeana. Praia, Tipografia Minerva de Cabo Verde, 1933.

Darwin, Charles. The Voyage of the Beagle. Vercelli, White Star S.p.a, 2006 (1839).

Lima, António Germano . “O lundu: do Brasil à ilha da Boavista, ou símbolo de um diálogo de culturas”. José Machado Pais et al. (eds.), Sonoridades luso-afro-brasileiras. Lisbon: Imprensa de Ciências Sociais, 2004.

Martins, Vasco. A Música Tradicional Cabo-Verdiana – 1 (A Morna). Praia: Instituto Cabo-Verdiano do Livro e do Disco, 1989.

Nogueira, Gláucia (2020). Músicas e danças europeias do Século XIX em Cabo Verde: Percurso de uma Apropriação. Doctoral dissertation. University of Coimbra, Coimbra.

Nogueira, Gláucia. “Music in Cabo Verde.” In The Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.013.ORE_AFH-01027.R1

Tavares, Eugénio. Mornas, Cantigas Crioulas. Lisbon: J. Rodrigues e Cia. Editores, 1932.Veiga, Emanuel Antero Garcia da. «Badjo di gaita» na ilha de Santiago (I) – Seu historial: origem e desenvolvimento. Voz di Povo, August 14, 1982.

Some works in English on Cabo Verdean music

Barboza, Ronald. A salute to the Cape Verdean musicians and their music. New Bedford: Documentation and Computerization of the Cape Verdeans, 1989.
Hoffman, JoAnne, “Diasporic Networks, Political Change, and the Growth of Cabo-Zouk Music”. In Jørgen Carling & Luís Batalha (eds.), Transnational Archipelago. Perspectives on Cape Verdean Migration and Diaspora. Amsterdam University Press, 2008. http://www.oapen.org/search?identifier=340060
Hubbard, Edward Akintola. Creolization and Contemporary Pop Iconicity in Cape Verde. Doctoral dissertation, Harvard University, Cambridge, 2011.
Hurley-Glowa, Susan, “Cape Verdean-American Communities in Southern New England”. In American Musical Traditions. Jeff Titon, Editor. New York: Schirmer/Macmillan Reference. 2001.
Hurley-Glowa, Susan, “Cape Verdeans in the Atlantic: the formation of kriolu music and dance styles on ship and in port.” Journal of International Library of African Music, Vol. 10, no. 1 (November 2015). https://doi.org/10.21504/amj.v10i1.1224
Hurley-Glowa, Susan, “Walking Between the Lines: Cape Verdean Musical Communities in North America”. In The world of music: Journal 2 of the Department of Musicology Georg August University Göttingen, Germany. Special Edition: “Performing the New Diasporas: Contemporary African Ritual Music in North America” focusing on African immigrant communities in US cities. Dr. Austin Okigbo, Special Edition Editor. Vol. 4 (2015) 2.
Hurley-Glowa, Susan. Batuko and Funana: Musical Traditions of Santiago, Republic of Cape Verde. Doctoral dissertation, Brown University, 1997.
Hurley-Glowa, Susan. Cape Verde. Oxford Music Online/Grove Music Online. Oxford University Press. 31 January 2014. Updated and revised, 31 January 2014, https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.47202.
Rehm, Barbara Ann Masters. A Study of the Cape Verdean Morna in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Doctoral dissertation, Brown University, Providence, 1975.
Richard K. Spottswood, Ethnic music on records: A discography of ethnic recordings produced in the United States, 1893 to 1942 (Vol. 4). Urbana, Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1990.
Sieber, Thimothy, “Popular music and cultural identity in the cape Verdean post-colonial diaspora”, Etnográfica, IX(I). https://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=372339145006%253E,%25E2%2580%259D

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Documentary produced by the Institute for Cape Verdean Studies/Bridgewater State University