Cesária Évora

Over the past week or so, I have been pleased to participate in various aspects of our region's celebration of the 50th anniversary of Cape Verde's independence from Portugal. Amidst these varied festivities, I decided to reshare this photograph I took during our 2024 travel course on the islands of Fogo and Santiago. 

Public art in São Felipe celebrating Fogo and its music
as well as Cesária and morna

I was enchanted by this mural because it celebrates the island on which it is found, the music that is an essential part of that island's identity as well as Cape Verdean music much more broadly -- in the person of Cesária and morna -- one of several major genres of music in Cape Verde. (Note: these links are to English and Portuguese portions of the virtual museum of Cape Verde and its music, which my colleagues are curating in three languages. Please spend some time exploring, whether you speak English, Portuguese, or Kriolu.)

A few days ago, I posted another image of Cesária, this one taken during a recent tour of the new headquarters cultural center of the Cape Verdean Association in New Bedford. We were there when the group was showing progress at this facility to Prime Minister Correia, who was in the region to celebrate the anniversary with the South Coast diaspora community. 

A friend asked who this woman was, as she had just seen her image on somebody's shirt in Market Basket. I answered:

"That's Cesaria Évora. Best known for her rendition of the morna song Sodade. I had only been at Bridgewater a few years when a student brought me a CD of her music. I had been playing a lot of music in my Latin America class. 'I think you'll like this,' he said. That was my introduction."

I realized that I had left the phrase "my introduction" ambiguous, but I did not know exactly how tobe more specific. I wish I had kept up with that student so that I can tell him how much his gift of the Voz D'Amor  (Voice of Love) CD has been.

As a geographer who was new to the region, I had already been curious about this country with at least two names (Cape Verde and Cabo Verde) and a half-dozen common pronunciations. Standard maps and atlases had been of little help, because its identity as a country was still relatively recent. Also, it is not a cape, but rather an archipelago. Some sources include a cape in Senegal as part of the country, which it clearly is not. This CD helped push me to learn more, to pay more attention to the community around me, and to start making connections. Eventually this led to a travel course in 2006, many efforst to organize another, and ultimately a return in 2024. 

The CD was also my introduction to the language of Kriolu or Cape Verdean Creole. As of this writing, I cannot speak it, but I did study it for a semester and I know all the words to Cesária's signature song Sodade -- and to understand the deep meaning of that song. I am starting to understand the language when I hear it spoken. 

Lagniappe

To those reading this in 2025: please take the time to visit one or both of the temporary exhibits at the New Bedford Whaling Museum that were installed as part of the celebration.