Bringing culture back to my village has been my dream since I started to understand how important it is for a nation to know its identity and roots. I am from Cabo Verde, a country that was colonized back in the days by the Portuguese empire. It significantly influenced our culture, making it confusing and hard to understand.
Since primary school, the teachers would ask us if we were European or African. Surprisingly, the answer was neither. This was always tricky as we denied being called European or African. We are Cape Verdeans, even though we are located off the west coast of the African continent and belong to the African Union.
My drive to know and understand our culture increased as I couldn’t find any reasonable answers to the questions “Who are we?” and “Where do we come from?” All we knew was that our nation emerged due to colonization and is a mixture of Portuguese and African cultures and races, giving life to a new race known as Creole.
Moved by these uncertainties, I enrolled in the translation and intercultural studies program at my university. In 2017, I was able to go to the Czech Republic to attend the ERASMUS*10 program. Being surrounded by students from all over the world allowed me to get further knowledge about their backgrounds. I tried their food, learned a little bit of their languages, went to parties together, and traveled to the neighboring countries. That was when I started to understand that culture has no borders. We have become confused by adopting Western culture into our lifestyles and denying our roots on the African continent.
I decided to continue my investigation in the field of cultural heritage, so I went to Canary, Spain in 2019 to study for my master’s degree in the use and management of cultural heritage. That’s where I finally understood the answer to my questions is within each individual, and we must not impose culture on any individual.
I am writing my first book, together with other coauthors, titled Rediscovering the Cultural Heritage of João Afonso. The book is a collection of resources related to the cultural heritage of my village, João Afonso, and our goal is to make it available in the local library and schools around the village. I believe that education is the bridge to connect our children and youth to our culture.
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