Abstract
Batuko, a musical-choreographic genre from Cape Verde, a country located on the west coast of Africa, created by enslaved black Africans after the country's independence in 1975, underwent a process of revaluation and has been seen by batukadeiras as a possibility for professionalization. In this article, I aim to reconstruct the multiple sociopolitical dynamics of batuko intertwined with two socio-historical and political moments in the official historiography of Cape Verde, having as material narratives and reported experiences of batukadeiras of the collective of São Martinho Grande, which stem from an ethnographic research carried out in 2008. The first moment focuses on the post-colonial period, after independence of Cape Verde in 1975. The second one, on the period following political opening, with democratization of the political party system as of 1991, which set the bases for revaluation and circulation of traditional musical arts. The narratives of my interlocutors reveal not only the effect of hegemonic narratives that conform the national identity in their experiences of batuko, but also the effects on the ways they see themselves as batukadeiras women and aspire to become professional artists.
Keywords
batuko
; Cape Verde; batukadeiras de São Martinho Grande; of batuko