Bridge of love: knowledge and sound ecologies in the Atlantic ocean

• Author(s): Miguel, Ana Flávia
• Date: 2011
• Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10198/6151
• Origin: Biblioteca Digital do IPB
• Subject(s): Cape Verdian music; Kola San Jon; Sound ecologie; Identity; Love; Immigration; Dialogical ethnomusicology
• Document Type: Conference object
• Language: English
• Contributor(s): Biblioteca Digital do IPB

Description

The Lisbon neighborhood of Alto da Cova da Moura is an immigrant community consisting mainly of Africans from former Portuguese colonies. Referred to by residents as, “Kova M”, it is home to the performative practices of the Kola San Jon. This performative practice from Cape Verde assembles music, dance, voice and artifacts with a distinctly religious flavor. The religious devotion to St. John Baptist is illustrated by the prevalence of religious iconography and attendance at masses and pilgrimages. For centuries, the Atlantic Ocean represented an interstitial space that linked Africa to Europe. The Kola San Jon is an expressive practice which, in contrast to the Morna, helps to build and strengthen this link. The sea as both a living entity and a metaphorical concept that challenges traditional concepts of boundaries contributes to an inclusive sound ecology that predominates the performative practices and cultural traditions of the Kola San Jon and are suggestive of a “space” where identities are constructed and dialogue takes place through emotions such as love. Drawing on extensive ethnography both in Cape Verde and among the communities in “Kova M”, I discuss the applicability of new epistemological concepts that have grown out of my dialogical encounter in the “field”.