The Atlantic breeze cools the heat of the summer sun in the Portuguese Alentejo. The streets breathe a vibrant calm, the music is taking a short break. In the Sines World Music Festival (in July) there are those who dance until dawn, or those who get up early with their little ones to participate in workshops with the artists who will later take to the main stage.
Today we want to save our strength for “tira pé di txon”, which in Cape Verdean Creole would be something like lifting your feet off the ground or moving your skeleton. Loose or holding on, we want to dance funana.
In the hotel cafeteria are the legendary Estevão Tavares, with the stage name Iduino, and Carlos Lopes, nicknamed Bino Branco, members of the band Ferro Gaita, accompanied by their manager, Augusto Veiga, who days later would be named Minister of Culture of Cape Verde. This is just a hint of the greats of Cape Verdean culture that we have before us and the value that their legacy has beyond entertainment. They are the kings of funana.
The Devil’s Music
What was once the music banned by the Portuguese colonists in Cape Verde, called “the devil’s music”, jumped from the rural world to the city after independence in the late seventies – when the country’s political and intellectual class began to rescue its African roots and identity – and from there to stages around the world. Ferro Gaita was largely responsible for this last part. Recently classified as National Intangible Heritagehe funana It is a symbol of resistance and reaffirmation of Cape Verdean culture.
Its peculiar sound is marked by the prominence of the diatonic accordion – called gaita in the Macaronesian islands – and the frenetic Ferrinho —an iron piece struck with a knife—, which can be accompanied by other instruments such as the bass, timpani, guitar, and, in more recent versions, electronic sounds. This was not the use that the colonial regime expected to be given to the accordion when it was introduced at the beginning of the 20th century as a substitute for the more expensive and difficult to transport organs in churches.
Diving in the funana It is an exciting journey full of curiosities and paradoxes of our contemporary colonial history, whose injustices and inequalities are still very present today.
“Funana is the new funk” (”The funana It’s the new one “funk”), that is how he defines it Dino d’Santiagoone of the greatest exponents of the current Afro-Portuguese scene, who confirms to us that the funana It remains a vehicle for vindication through music and dance of emotions. funana It is done in Cape Verde, but also in Lisbon, with the emergence of the Portuguese band Fogo Fogo, or in France, with Zoufris Maracas, who have even shared the stage with Ferro Gaita.
Cape Verde in the world through the funana
About to celebrate 30 years since its foundation in 1996, Ferro Gaita is still in top form, spreading vitality and inspiration to everyone who approaches it. They speak after playing at the Capverdien Weekend Luxembourg, a cultural festival organized by the Cape Verdean diaspora, who are usually their most loyal audience and who most request them internationally. Cape Verde has traditionally been a country of emigrants. According to the International Organization for Migrationthe emigrated population doubles the number of residents on the islands. This trend has been reversing in recent years following the improvement of the economic and social situation in the country, even attracting immigration from the west coast of Africa.
“We play with the same strength and enthusiasm wherever we go, whether they are Cape Verdean or not,” Bino Branco says seriously. “I don’t know of any place in the world where we have played and the audience hasn’t danced. With funana “That’s impossible,” he continues. “Macau was perhaps our most extravagant concert. They clearly didn’t understand the lyrics, but they totally got into the rhythm and, in my eyes, the audience’s movements were martial arts. We loved it, it was so much fun,” he laughs.
From being considered a marginal culture to national heritage, the path of funana It has not been exactly linear. The boom that the genre had in the eighties and the revolution that Bulimundo represented by introducing the drums, the keyboard and the guitar, was slowing down and becoming blurred as other genres such as zouk and electronic sounds took center stage.
At that time, Iduino, who had already excelled as a trumpet player in the Praia municipal band, felt called to learn the accordion with the great maestro Bitori Nha Bibina, and in just one year he was already playing it with skill.
The appearance of Ferro Gaita in 1996 and the recovery of the original instruments of the funana —the accordion and the Ferrinho— was embraced by the public, as well as by traditional musicians who returned to the musical circuit from which they had been relegated. “In Cape Verde, funana traditional regained strength, but we also began to tour around the world: United States, Cuba, Senegal… we began to represent the country through funanaas had already been done before with the morna wave strainer”, adds Iduino. In a country where music is one of the main economic drivers along with remittances and tourism, it is no coincidence that Ferro Gaita was awarded the national medal for merit in culture in 2007. For his 30th anniversary he is preparing a project that, in collaboration with other younger national artists, includes genres such as rap, tabankahe batuko or the financing.
The generational change in the funanIt remains a controversial topic, especially among the older ones (veterans). The cotxi po, a variant of the funana Even more rapidly, it is making its way among young people. Gone are the days of video clips in the countryside and barefoot dances shaking the earth, giving way to urban landscapes, high-end cars and hookahs in nightclubs. “It’s fine, it’s fine,” Iduino says firmly.
“I believe that the cotxi po is funana. It is nothing more than the expression of the youth of our time. Each one has his own way of being in music and relating to it. Everything has a value for me. The basis is the funana: an art recognized as a national heritage. Whatever comes to add is welcome. It is necessary to renew the style while at the same time keeping the youth connected to their identity,” Iduino assumes with the calm of a Rastafarian. “Let them do what they want. There should be no fights about what is more genuine. Everything that is done with soul and work is fine,” Iduino says. “It is another son of Satan!” adds Bino Branco, energetic and smiling. We laugh.
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