“Our Ancestors came from many Bloods”. Gendered Narrations of a Hybrid NationPosted in Africa, Anthropology, Articles, Literary/Artistic Criticism, Media Archive on 2012-04-14 01:16Z by Steven |
“Our Ancestors came from many Bloods”. Gendered Narrations of a Hybrid Nation
Lusotopie
Volume 12, Issue 1 (2005)
pages 217-232
DOI: 10.1163/176830805774719728
Isabel P.B. Fêo Rodrigues, Professor of Anthropology
University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth
Narratives of mixed ancestry in Cape Verde use gender as common denominator in the weaving of a Creole nation. These narratives may hide tensions, conflicts, and adversities, but they also contain elements of fusion and national cohesion. They are and have been gendered narratives, partial and selective of the elements of fusion substantiating and sustaining a Cape Verdean identity vis-à-vis the multiple symbolic and material challenges faced by this young post-colonial nation-state. In them, Cape Verde is portrayed as an exceptional African case with boundaries carved by the ocean, free from ethnic conflict, and without a pre-colonial past through which to filter present realities.