Diáspora e os 30 anos de independência de Cabo Verde

Abstract:

It would surprise most Cape Verdeans to know that what we live and designate as diaspora does not correspond to the most classical definitions about diaspora, which refer to secular migratory experiences that mobilise numerically significant populations and with a solid experience of exchange and mobility of long standing. But there are authors who argue that, for the term to be fruitful, it should be used in a neutral way and not be reserved only for certain populations whose social quality is ennobled: the exchange, in the case of traders, the intellectuals; the antiquity of the civilisation (in the case of the Greeks, Chinese or Indians) or the extent of the original catastrophe (in the case of the Jews, Armenians or Palestinians). These authors say that, in order to have value, it must be applied to all dispersed populations that maintain links, whatever their prestige. On the contrary, Cape Verdeans in general seem to have no doubt that we are a diaspora and it was during the last few years that the term has been consolidated among us and has come to define an important aspect of Cape Verdean society and sociability. Diaspora came to designate us as a historical collectivity which, with its dispersion in different political organisations (or because of this dispersion, in my opinion), maintains a reference to a collective identity and forms of solidarity among itself. Diáspora e os 30 anos de independência de Cabo Verde is a communication presented in Lisbon, 4th June 2008 Book Fair. Cape Verde was an invited country.

Quotation:

Évora, Iolanda. 2011. “Diáspora e os 30 anos de independência de Cabo Verde”. Comunicação apresentada na Feira do livro, Lisboa.