Accepted and forthcoming in African Studies
Portuguese explorers first reached the Cape Verde islands in the Atlantic Ocean off West Africa in the 15th century. The expedition officially marked the beginning of the archipelago’s history. Cape Verde nurtured one of the modern world’s first creole communities and an early African diaspora. As a nation, Cape Verde has grown from within, shaping a political and cultural identity distinctly its own. Inspired by the Global Environmental Politics (GEP) literature on indigenous knowledge, this research brings creole perspectives into the dialogue. Closely engaging GEP, the article draws on the work of the late African scholar Isidore Okpewho, who espoused the creative potential and active agency of oral aesthetics, i.e., the aesthetic expansion of the oral. The novelty of the present study is not the analysis of Cape Verdean oral tradition or literature per se, but the way it internationalizes kriolu kabuverdianu and bridges a discussion with GEP by proposing a generative experiment in oral aesthetics. The lens of Cape Verdean oral aesthetics provides us with opportunities to understand, analyse and problematize global environmental processes. The adopted oral aesthetics approach realigns the community-focused environmental debate, making it all the clearer the contemporary political relevance of oral traditions.
Keywords: Atlantic Ocean; oral aesthetics; Portuguese empire; rural; West Africa
Kaian Lam 林嘉欣 