The second hand clothes some of my colleagues collected and which were sent to Sibylle by ship at the end of last year were given to some of the peasants from a community which is located near Calheta.
The women and one man proudly wearing some of the second hand clothes which were handed out.
According to some historians, the Cape Verdean music and dance underpins the Cape Verdean life by drawing meaning from collective and often brutal past colonial experiences and although some evolving musical forms may now sound fairly European others are essentially African, with "Batuco" (singing and dancing) being considered the most reminiscent of Africa, though its origin is still fairly obscure.
This community has a "batuco" group with singers and dancers of different ages ... but this ancient rhythm which is often provided by surrogate drums (rolled cloth held between the legs and pounded with the hands) is being passed onto the younger generation within this community, and so is the dance that goes with it - a slow rythm at first, which soon reaches a climax moment when the pounding of the "panos" is faster and the gyrating of the hips of the dancers accompany the ever growing rythm of the song and "drumming"...
The images which follow speak louder than any possible description ...
May we learn with this small community how to preserve our cultural inheritage ... and may solidarity never die ...
Note: All photos were taken by Sibylle
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