Santiago, the archipelago’s main island, where the Portuguese landed around 1460, still maintains nowadays an African dominance and preserves music styles close to what was performed in the slaves’ country of origin. The tabanka refers to the music as much as the adepts of these ritual processions following the rhythms of the drums, the chants and the playing of conch shells which lead you into a trance. Performed in May and June and associated with the Catholic saints, the tabanka has a theatrical aspect and a popular appeal.
Batuque (from beating) is a term used for very different styles of music in several Portuguese-speaking countries. In Cape Verde, it refers to a tradition linked to weddings, births and baptisms. A group of women encirlce a female singer. While the soloist improvises a sung social commentary, the others mark the beat with drums or with their hands. The pace increases and the chant reaches its climax when the soloist goes into the finacon, the poetic improvisation part. The batuque was forbidden and performed in secret until the independence of the country in 1975. Nacia Gomi is one of the most renowned representatives of this musical practice.
The funana also finds its roots in the ritual music preserved and developed on Santiago Island. This genre, whose allegro rhythm is marked by the ferrinho (a serrated iron bar, scraped by a knife) is accompanied by string instruments and above all by a diatonic accordion called the gaita. Forbidden by the Portuguese settlers because of its often subversive lyrics, the funana has since come back in force. The modern and electric version offered by the band Ferro Gaita is very popular.
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