Gláucia Nogueira (A Semana) talked to an anthropologist, Dr. Brito-Semedo, about the issue.

Praia, Cape Verde 01/24/07 - The doctoral thesis defended by Manuel Brito-Semedo in 2003 at the Universidade Nova de Lisboa has just been released in book form. The title, The Construction of National Identity - Analysis of the Press between 1877 and 1975, is somewhat self-explanatory. In this interview, the anthropologist speaks to A Semana Online about the work.


Was the press a factor in the formation of Cape Verdean identity, or did it simply register moments and events that helped forge this identity?

I realized, through the press, that there are important moments as far as ideology is concerned. The press served simultaneously as a vehicle for the diffusion of ideas and as an expression of these ideas about identity. It ends up being the very image reflected in the mirror. The entire identity discourse I discovered is passed on through the press, which for its part served to help in its construction, transmitting the message. I work with the written press and the schooled elite. I don’t discuss spontaneous oral manifestations. As much as is possible, I try to analyze the discourse of the Cape Verdean community at various different stages.

You speak of the written press, but you also studied the books that certain authors published over the course of time...

There isn’t a separation between what was written in the printed press and, at times, in books. It’s the ideas that interest me. Our writers weren’t journalists in terms of education, they were people who in their free time exercised civic intervention through the press and published their literary texts. I work, above all, with the non-official press, because what I deal with is intervention journalism, but also with the Official Bulletin. Not just with legislation - so we can understand how public instruction and administrative organization were structured - but also with the Official Bulletins of the early years, from 1842 until 1877, when there were no private newspapers and the Official Bulletin had a non-official section in which works of fiction, essays, poems, etc. were published. All of this interests me, and I try to follow this line of intervention journalism, of civic activism.

What role did the elites play in the process of the formation of Cape Verdean identity?

We must understand that an elite is a reduced number of people that functions as a sort of motor for society, for, as it is its grey matter, it pulls the larger community, which is more amorphous, along with it. I came to the conclusion that there are stages, and in each one of them, as a function of the historical, social and political context, there is a type of demand. In an initial phase - which corresponds to the generation of Eugénio Tavares, although I do go back a little farther than this period, but it’s the same way of thinking - there is a demand, which is not yet very conscious, for native-born Cape Verdeans to be considered equal to those born in the metropolis in the view of the law. They were Cape Verdeans, to be sure, but they were Portuguese! Except that they weren’t treated with all of the rights of those born in the metropolis. And they made a clear difference, which was already at the time a form of identity among us, the Portuguese from here, and them, the people from there, the metropolitans. And this practice existed in terms of legislation. In Cape Verde it wasn’t so firm, while in the other provinces the statutes said that the natives weren’t civilized... But what was important for Cape Verdeans was to be Portuguese by law, which didn’t take place in practice. This was the nativism phase of demands.

And after that?

The phase that comes next - but I should call attention to the fact that this transition is not very conscious, and that the phases follow one another, but not in an abrupt way - is that of regionalism. I highlight a text by Baltasar Lopes that shows that this story of an indivisible Portugal that stretches from the Minho to Timor wasn’t quite the way it was said to be, as there were regional differences. So there begins to be a struggle for Cape Verde to be the focus of greater attention in order to resolve its social problems. If the others experienced the end of the constitutional monarchy and thought that the republic was going to solve all their problems, later they saw that this wasn’t so. So they began to make demands to the New State, with all of the limitations that existed, with censorship, etc., for Cape Verde to enjoy differentiated treatment within this united Portugal. Beginning in 1958, with the Cape Verdeans frequenting the House of Students from the Empire in Portugal and in contact with other students from other colonies, there is a greater awareness about Africa, there’s an entire ideological jump, the influence of Marxism, of neo-realism in literature and in cinema, and there are the French and English colonies achieving independence, all of this ends up making this generation demand not just differentiated treatment within Portugal, but for Cape Verde to be a case of African regionalism, contrary to what Baltasar’s generation denfended.

So we’re in a third phase.

Yes, and no longer within a European perspective. The ideas of Pedro Cardoso and Eugénio Tavares are revisited, and the Cape Verdean man is given value within an African perspective. I usually present this as one of the sides of a triangle: the first phase has an essentially European perspective, the second follows the model of the “older brother,” Brazil, because of the affinities in geographic and social aspects, with the Brazilian northeast in particular, and then comes the generation that corresponds to the African side. Identity is something that is constructed, which is built phase by phase up until the time of independence, with specific characteristics. It is a process that remains open.

Why does your investigation go until 1975?

I established a temporal limit for this analysis. But I have a project to continue it, discussing the post-independence period. I established the beginning in 1877, as it was the year of the publication of the first non-official newspaper in Praia, and I wanted to take in all of the colonial period, closing with independence, in order to say: this is the path that we took up to independence, and, as such, at the time these were the characteristics we displayed.

Although you do dedicate some attention to literature, this thesis deals mainly with politics...

It’s a work that could be considered Political Anthropology, but I was also interested in showing the cultural question, for each one of these phases has a cultural aspect, revealing that Cape Verde has its own literature, be it that of nativism, regionalism or re-Africanization. These are the three components of the culture and identity of the Cape Verdean individual.

Do you believe that, thirty years after independence, Cape Verdeans have reached a conclusion regarding their identity?

It continues to be a process. Immediately after independence came the phase of the re-Africanization of spirits, with the PAIGC/PAICV, although this was never something pacific, for the oldest areas of settlement, beginning in 1462, are more closely linked to Africa, while beginning in 1991 we saw an erasure of the symbols and signs representing this. All you have to do is take a look at the Constitution or the national symbols: we no longer have the colors of Africa or the black star on our flag, which is now blue and white with stars, something closer to Europe. These are two different visions, two different perspectives. From time to time, when there are problems and regionalist issues arise, this comes to the surface. I think it’s a process that continues and should be discussed. It’s still somewhat taboo, but it has to be discussed on scientific foundations and without complexes and not in political terms, with positions being defended depending on whether one is a supporter of the MpD or the PAICV.

So are Cape Verdeans more African or European?

We are what we are because we have both components, without denying the African component or overvaluing the European component.

In addition to the book you’ve just released, you have two other projects ready to go. Tell us about them.

During my research in the periodicals, in the newspaper A Voz de Cabo Verde, which existed between 1911 and 1919 and in which the most important men of culture of the period published their works, I found many things that were sitting there gathering dust. I shook off this dust to uncover them. I gathered all of the episodes of the novel Memórias de um Pobre Rapaz (Memoirs of a Poor Boy), by Guilherme Dantas, who, alongside José Evaristo de Almeida (the author of O Escravo, or The Slave), is the co-founder of Cape Verdean fiction. But he’s known as a poet and not as a novelist. This is ready, and it looks like it’s going to be released from the printer within a few days. In addition to this, I collected all of his short stories and a major report Dantas made during a visit to the interior of the island of Santiago. This material should also be published this year, but we’re giving priority to the novel, which is something important for students. Another collection involves the 33 essays Pedro Cardoso also published in A Voz de Cabo Verde, signing his texts as Afro, in the section O Manduco. This section would later be expanded and give rise to the newspaper of the same name, which he published on Fogo. Both these essays and the texts of Guilherme Dantas are very indicative of these men’s mentality, partitioned between two fatherlands, Portugal and Cape Verde.

After having concluded your term at the head of the International Portuguese Language Institute, the reason for your return to Cape Verde, you are now teaching Cape Verdean literature at the Institute of Higher Education. Even so, you interrupted an investigative project for your post-doctorate thesis. What do you plan to do in the near future?

I had interrupted my scholarship, and I decided to try staying in order to teach, but this experience has not turned out very satisfying professionally. I think that in addition to the program I proposed - a more anthropological and historical vision of Cape Verdean literature - I can be more useful to Cape Verde working abroad, so I intend to apply for a new scholarship with a project whose theme will deal with the elites in the construction of democracy in Cape Verde - along the same lines as what I’ve been doing, but encompassing the last 30 years: the first years of the PAICV; the change, with the construction of parliamentary democracy; the return of the PAICV, in 2001. I think that there is a cycle that was closed and I want to carry out this research. So I’m waiting for a scholarship from the Science and Technology Foundation at the Ministry of Education and Higher Learning of Portugal, where I expect to return. Especially because that’s where my family is.

Source: asemana.cv



Related Topics:

- Should Cape Verdeans be portrayed as Portuguese black islanders?
Link:http://forcv.forumup.org/about534-.html&highlight=

[b]- An analysis of the racial look of Cape Verdeans
Link:http://forcv.forumup.org/viewtopic.php?t=253&mforum=forcv

[b]- Should Cape Verdeans Be Considered or Called Blacks?
Link:http://forcv.forumup.org/about8-forcv.html

- Cape Verdeans and Colonialization: the Root of our Issues
Link:http://forcv.forumup.org/about55-forcv.html

- Race and Society: "I Know Who I Am"
Link:http://forcv.forumup.org/about510-forcv.html

- Impacto do racismo sobre a identidade Caboverdiana nos Estados Unidos
Link:http://forcv.forumup.org/about537-forcv.html



Link:http://bpe.org/btr/index.html

The issue of Cape Verdean identity is still a taboo because it implies to recognise that the cv have an overwhelming european culture which is much more important than the african side. This fact makes it taboo, because a mixed-race community which identifies with europeans are seen as people who are trying to "show off". There is also somekind of dictatorship of the cabral's point of views, which are wrong, they don't describe capeverdean culture, which is mainly european.

Cabral tells that the cape-verdean culture is overwelmingly european, and that the cv has to change his culture, to make it more african. He proposes the suicide of the "little-bourgeoisie" which according to him is almost 100% european in their culture. Cabral wanted the capeverdeans to change their european culture in order for them to become africans.

So, even cabral thought that capeverdeans were very close to europeans and wanted them to change.

but,

cabral asks for the suicide of the petite-bourgeoisie, he asks them to forget their portuguese culture and to go back to their origins african culture. Cabral tells in his book that the portuguese culture is stronger than the portuguese culture in the petite-bourgeoisie. He asks them to suicide as a social class.

salah, you can't stop a discussion just because someone doesn't share the same ideas than you. (but that's your right)

Concerning, the number of african people in capeverde outnumbering the european one, it has been proved by some article that I put in this site(but that you didn't read), that amazingly, the genetical background of capeverdeans is almost 75% european in the patrilineal lineage, which contradicts the fact that african outnumbered the europeans.
The africans outnumbered the europeans because the africans were slaves who were temporary emprisoned in capeverde before going to the americas. These large number of slaves were not capeverdeans but were emprisoned there for a short time before being sent to the americas. This makes that the resident africans in capeverde outnumbered the resident europeans but not as much as the numbers (out of context) suggests.

st_antao, has anybody ever told you how annoyingly stupid you sound?

salah,

me and maica we are old opponents. He gave up trying to impose his points of view to me.
I allways tell that what doesn't have a solid basis allways finishes to colapse like a castle made of cards. This is what happens with my opponents who live based on propaganda ideas, their ideas allways collapse and they end up refusing to talk with me.
Cabral is not god, salah is not god, their ideas and concepts are not perfect.

Cabral made a lot of mistakes particularly when he tried to destroy the real capeverdean identity and replace it by the guinean identity. This failed because our culture is our unbreakable heritage.

salah, what is your point? Do you meant that I shouldn't be contesting cabral's ideas. I will call this the "dictatorship of cabrals ideas", I respect cabral, but I don't share his ideas. The guinea-bissau coup showed that is ideas were wrong (I am just an observer).

But the point here is the capeverdean identity, and on this point, the idea of cabral to destroy the capeverdean identity to replace it with the guinean identity ended with the guinean coup.

you see salah, you are doing exactly what I expect from you. You are telling..."cabral didn't want to replace capeverdean identity with the guinean identity" but then I am expecting you to tell what does he mean when he asks capeverdeans to forget their culture to embrace the african culture by wanting the "petite-bourgeoisie-suicide".

Why does cabral want the capeverdean to replace their original culture for the guinean one? If it is not his point, so explain us (according to you)what he mean by that "cultural suicide"?

There you go again Santo Antao, so mixed up!

Let me ask you few questions and hope you give me your honest answer.

Can you make any clarification between Marxixsm, identity, nationality at all?

What is your opinion about the capeverdean concept of Badiu & Sampadjudo?

Thank you.

Cabrala

cabrala, I am not mixed up, there is a lot of coherence in my messages.

You want to know the difference between marxism, identity and nationality. Your question sounds strange, as marxisme has no link with identity or nationality.

Marxisme is a theory devlopped by "K. grucho Marx" who imagines the post-capitalist world when the "working class" will take the power and organise a social-welfare state. Marx devlopped its theory after spending some 20 years working in england along the "english-working class", his theory really emerged after the french riot of 1871 called the "commune", led by the "communards" and Marx decided to inspire his theory from those "communards" and called his theory "communism"(very short summary)

Identity and nationality are also two different concepts. Identity is linked to the heritage that your parents give to you, while nationality is linked to the place where you are born or the place where you reside...

Personnaly, I don't care of the classification of badiu and sampadjuda as it is a cv-resident problem.

Cabrala, what is your interpretation of cabral's concept of suicide of "the petite-bourgeoisie", do you think that cabral is asking the capeverdeans to destroy their capeverdean culture to replace it with the guinean culture? If not, what (according to you), what does he mean by this suicide of the capeverdean culture?

I asked these questions because it sounded to me that when you ask people to respond as to why Cabral wanted Capeverdeans to forget their identity, that you were confused about identity and the strugle for Independence.

First of all I don't think Cabral wanted the suicide of the culture and/or CV identity, as you say, it is majority European. It is possible that you don't have a complete grasp of much about CV culture and your perspective on it lead you to think this way, but that is unreasonable for a scholar to base his arguments on such limited source of information (your personal experience). Second, the proletariat struggle which according to me is something else, is more of a philosophical or ideological premises of seing human lives in different perspectives other than the capitalism and oragnizing the society around its base - the people. It was not an imposition of Cabral towards his people. You can argue that Cabral should have taken a different approach, but capitalist countries did not want to help CV towards Independence: maybe because Portuguese people lied about the CV Islands - saying it is part of Portugal but it was not; maybe Portuguese really never wanted to get rid of the colonies - the last colonial power in Africa; or maybe because we are mixed and closer to Portugal than other colonies and Portugal wanted us to see ourselves different than those colonies - segundos Europeus (Second class European citizens).

Insted of believing that Cabral wanted CV to be like Guinee Bissau as you said, which to me you seem racist because the basis of your argument would be CV are whites and Guinean are Blacks, you should see it as a strategy to overthrow Portugal from its colonies and neutralize the argument that CV is Portugal. We know we were not. Are you?

That wil bring us to the second part of the debate on Badiu & Sampadjudu. That is a taboo!!!

No one dared yet to talk about it, and I see you chicken out just like I was expecting - saying I don't care it is their problems. See, that is what I see as not being honest and doing propaganda!!

Which one of the CV issues is your problem then because you seem to be so interested in the CV social issues? Don't you want to start the fire? What scares you the most in this issue?

See, one cannot have a honest debate leaving out issues that bother some people. Sao Vicente once asked Independece from Badius. Is that something that concerns you? Maybe I am scared just like you, but I at least accept that this is an issue that needs consideration.

Isn't it all about the history of the CV? When one day somebody depitches this part of CV history I will be happier.

cabrala

cabrala, the question of badius and sampadjudas doesn't interest me because although I have capeverdean origins, capeverde is not my country and the internal politics of cv is not the most interesting for me. I add talks with people who have badiu origins and they convinced me that the differences between didn't really exist.

For example in terms of language, the criolo. A lot of people lied about criolo calling it a mix of portuguese and african, while 90% if not 99% of the criolo words are portuguese. The african influence on the criolo is very small. My badiu friends proved to me that unlike what I first expected, the criolo-badiu is not more african than the criolo-sampadjuda. The criolo from praia sounds more like "italian".

I am really convinced that there is a dichotomy between culture and race. Culturally cv is a mix of portuguese and african with portuguese being the cultural basis, and on that matter of culture there is not real difference between badius and sampadjudus. The difference comes from the racial mix. There is much more people who don't have Portuguese origins in the sotavento, and in barlavento there is a triple mix European-Jewish-African.

The difference between sampas and badius is not based on the culture, which is based on the portuguese, the difference comes from the racial mix.

I am convinced that Cabral asked the capeverdeans to erase their capeverdean culture to replace it with the guinean culture because the capeverdean culture was to portuguese.

the criolo vocabulary is almost 100% portuguese, I don't know about african grammar, so I can't argue on that point.

It is wrong to present criolo as a mix of portuguese and african languages, the african words in criolo are in a very small number.

The correct sentence could be "criolo is a mix of portuguese vocabulary and african grammar"

As the african influence in criolo comes from the grammar, then no one can argue that badiu-criolo is more african than sampadjuda-criolo. Badiu-criolo is as portuguese as the sampadjda-criolo and even has an "italian" sonority.

Creolo language is like funana: We borrowed Portuguese accordion to make African melodies and rythm = cv melodies. Just like you, Santo Antao, Portuguese didn't like it too.

But, Santo Antao is funny! He doesn't know something, but still have a strong opinion about it, while he should have been asking. He is not interested in CV politics because CV is not his country, but urges us to follow his thoughts because we are confused for so many lies they told us, especilly by A. Cabral, and he knows the truth about us because he has few cv friends who told him all the stories.

C'mon man!

Thanks to Amilcar Cabral, now we can show Portuguese how to use the accordion in their stages and have them pay for the tickets to watch. Cool ahh !

Cabrala

cabrala,

you wrote 10 lines of nonsenses. I am not politician, I am not interestin in capeverdean politics because capeverde is not my country. My ideas are not for politics but to point out what I see as incoherencies.

examples of incoherences:
1. criolo is a mix of portuguese and african languages. wrong...criolo is almost 100% based on portuguese vocabulary.
2. The criolo from santiago is more african than sampadjuda. wrong...there is almost no africans words in criolo, so badiu-criolo is as much portuguese based as the sampadjuda-criolo.
3. At the origin in the 16th century, the number of portuguese in capeverde was very small compared to the african slaves. wrong...the portuguese in cape verde were almost in the same proportion. Because 90% of the africans who were in capeverde where there for a short term, just waiting to go to the america. That's why capeverde is a mixed country, because the resident portuguese and the resident africans were almost in the same number.
4. Capeverdean and guineans are the same people, (according to cabral). wrong...if cv and guinea were the same people, why would amilcar cabral have asked the capeverdeans to suicide their identity, which was too portuguese. Cabral asks the capeverdean to erase their portuguese heritage and asks capeverdean to become guineans...this means that for cabral, the portuguese culture is too strong in the capeverdean identity (just as I keep telling in this site...) and cabral ask capeverdeans to suicide as a culture to become part of africa. Then came the guinean coup in 1981...which showed the validity and solidity of is theories....

Let's go to the language factor: The incoherences on your list of incoherences.

You say capeverdean language is 100% portuguese:
Why is that Portuguese do not understand cv creole? Tha alone make it less than 100% = check your statistics.

Who told you that Katchupa(cv creolo) is cachupa (portuguese), if that is what you mean by same?
what is a language to you? Grammar or vocabulary, or both. What percentage of grammar and vocabulary makes a language a different language? Do you consider Spanish and Portuguese the same language?

All this are questions you should ask yourself before you make such a huge, falaciuos statement. If there is 0% African Language in CV creole, why is that cverdeans do not speak Portuguese if not through the schools, like for English or French? Hatian creole has alot of FRENCH words but are a different language. These similarities, as with hundreds of other languages often occur because no language is completely isolated from the others: They are all branches of other languages with more or less influence on each other. Read the article: "Why should creole become the official language" on forum forcv by Adriano Cabral.

Cabrala

cabrala,

the people from the north of france talk a language called "patois", it is based on french, nevertheless I can't understand anything of what they tell.

I don't want to riduculise you but if you had read "forcv" message, you have had know that

"Even though over 90% of their words are derived from Portuguese, the Crioulos are not mutually intelligible with Portuguese. The pervasive shortening of words and, especially, the very different grammar (strongly influenced by West African languages) make it extremely difficult for a untrained Portuguese speaker even to understand a basic conversation.
"

Genética "separa" Barlavento e Sotavento

11-01-07

A população das ilhas do Barlavento é mais semelhante aos Europeus do que os habitantes do Sotavento, confirmou uma investigação do Laboratório de Genética Populacional da Universidade da Madeira, Portugal.




O estudo, coordenado por Hélder Spínola, analisa desde 1999 o padrão genético dos países de língua oficial portuguesa. Em Cabo Verde, a investigação envolveu 120 pessoas.

Os habitantes do Barlavento têm um maior número de haplotipos (a constituição genética de um cromossoma) comuns a Portugal, o que é justificado pelas diferenças de povoamento entre os dois grupos de ilhas.

A investigação afirma ainda que a base genética da população de Cabo Verde, com um número elevado de alelos (formas iguais do mesmo gene), resulta de uma mistura entre vários povos africanos e caucasianos, vindos da Europa.

Os cabo-verdianos, comparados com os outros povos da África Subsaariana, estão muito mais próximos dos norte-africanos, partilhando alelos encontrados frequentemente na população portuguesa, mas também marcadores de ADN característicos dos povos que nasceram à volta do Mar Mediterrâneo.

O estudo defende também que existe alguma semelhança entre a população da Guiné-Bissau e de Cabo Verde, mas os crioulos têm mais haplotipos comuns a Portugal do que os guineenses.

Esta investigação representa também um contributo para o estudo das doenças dos povos de expressão portuguesa. Os dados permitem ter uma ideia da maior ou menor relação entre a genética da população e doenças como alergias, a artrite reumatóide e a diabetes de tipo 1. Desta forma é possível desenvolver medidas preventivas, como a redução dos factores de risco.

Que palhcada e este amigo Santo Antao? Diga me, por favor algo que ainda nao sei e diga me a verdade.
Santo Antao, parece que voce leu ultimamente alguns dados publicados recentemente e isto esta lhe confundindo a cabeca. Estes dados nao significam absolutamente nada. Oque que tudo que voce descreveu aqui tem a ver com a LINGUA CABOVERDIANA, O POVO CABOVEDRDIANO SER AFRICANO OU NAO, A IDENTIDADE CABOVERDIANA SER TABOO OU NAO, OU IDENTIDADE CULTURAL CABOVERDIANA, porque penso que isto que esta em discussao.

Muitos Afro-Americanos descobriram que tem uma linha genetica em varios paises de Africa e o mais escandaloso e que alguns Afro-Americanos descobriram que a maior parte do seu laco genetico vem da Europa, mas isto nao explica que ele e branco. Este mesmo tipo de explicacao serviu para influenciar a teoria de que o Povo Europeu veio da Africa do leste e nao de outras regioesda Africa. Isto e assunto para os biologos e antroplogos brincarem, nao para determinar a identidade de um povo.
Eu nao preciso ler os teus post para saber que Portugues e o creolo nao sao mutuamente inteligiveis. Eu mesmo sei o Portugues, o Creolo CV e me sinto a vontade com o Ingles asim como faco traducao entre estas linguas.

Mas obrigado pela tua participacao neste forum e continua dando sua colaboracao.

Cabrala

cabrala, I know all these facts for a long time know, I actually read the aforementioned study two years before asemana wrote this article. the asemana article is a very small and concise summary, if you want I can send you the full detailed study as a pdf.

What really got me confused, was when I read that the main input in the capeverdean mix was from the jews. The jews settled in cv during the inquisition, there was also several jewish-kids who were exiled in cv by the portuguese. I finnaly manage to cope with it, as in fact, jewish is just a religion, and the jewish who settled in capeverde were portuguese. A lot of the jews were converted to catholicism, and were called the new-christians.

I also got cofused when I read that there was 10% of african slaves in portugal in the 16th century. The slaves that were caught in the guinea area were sent to portugal and spain. The slaves settled there and married with portuguese. There is several historical proofs of this fact, such as archives concerning the birth details of individuals with informations about their parents (described as being slaves). there is also the church archives as there was in the churches frat? groups of blacks, mullatos and whites.

So you see that the difference between a cv and a portuguese is small we are both a mix of whites, jews, blacks and arabs. The difference resides in the amount of black-africans in the capeverdean familly tree which is around 50%. Portuguese and capeverdean are the same people, more exactly, capeverde is part of the portuguese people.

the portuguese are a mix of iberia europeans, north africans, jews and africans.

the capeverdeans are a mix of iberia europeans, north africans, jews and africans.

the capeverdeans are a portuguese people.