Militant Nostalgia in Cape Verdean Literature

Abstract

During the twentieth century, Cape Verdean diaspora authors challenged the longstanding Cape Verdean tradition of passively mourning what was lost. Previous poets and storytellers used saudade, or a sense of sentimental homesickness, to provide readers with an escape from daily life, particularly the physical and political hardships of living on the Cape Verde islands and the cultural dislocation of living elsewhere. A new group of authors, however, took a more militant approach in order to inspire ethnic pride, cultural and racial self-awareness, and political action. The results were activist literary movements, Claridade in the 1930s and Certeza in the 1940s, which led to the nation's civil rights and independence movements of the 1960s and 1970s. This essay analyzes Cape Verdean and Cape Verdean-American authors who transformed saudade to be a rallying cry for the celebration of their heritage and the assertion of self-confidence, unity, and action among their readers.