On October 23rd at 6PM takes place the launch of the book Funaná, Race and Masculinity: a Colonial and Post-Colonial Trajectory in the presence of the author Rui Cidra, Dju di Mana (button diatonic accordion), Florzinho (Adriano Correia Furtado, iron player) and Nuno Domingos (anthropologist and editor of Outro Modo, ICS). This launch will be followed by the concert Funaná Kotchi Po by Dju Di Mana and guests Vani Di Xilo, Íman Africa, Jovino, Janu and Otávio.
Funaná is a music and dance practice that was created by the peasant population of the Cape Verdean island of Santiago in the post-slavery period of the late 19th century. Originating in the performances of button diatonic accordion and iron bar players in family and community sociabilities, it was outlawed by administrators and clerics during the final period of Portuguese colonialism. After Cape Verde’s independence, the interest of young musicians in this marginal history motivated the creation of new popular music aesthetics. Although gradually accepted within the framework of an official Creole culture promoted by the state, funaná remained an iconic practice of a masculinity understood as “African”. This book situates funaná in colonial and postcolonial social and political history. In particular it questions how this genre of music and dance was historically racialized and what legacies of this process persist in the present.
⟡ Book launch – 18:00
⟡ Concert* – 19:00
* Ticket purchase is required to attend the concert.
