Tabanca
- Dance
- Music
This is also a musical genre that uses parade music, with the sound of drums, batuque and shells, although the tabancas (a term used in Guinea for the organisation into villages) are much more that that. Initially it was a type of holiday conceded by the masters to the slaves, and then over time they became self-help associations in Santiago and Maio. They were a sort of spontaneous social organisation for group resistance to the natural disasters that caused a cycle of famine and devastation in Cape Verde, and often led to social disorder, which meant there was no institutional assistance for those in need.
The folkloric element of the tabancas’ activities took place on the occasion of feast days of popular catholic saints, the “festas de romaria” mentioned above, and particularly in the month of June for Saint Anthony (13th), St. John (24 th) and St. Peter (29 th), as well as the feast of Santa Cruz in Maio (3 rd). The processions are extremely animated and colourful. They go along the roads attracting groups of people with eye-catching costumes, reminiscent of the carnival.
In the third quarter of the 18 th Century, as they had become a form of scathing attack on the important people of the time, the tabancas started to be repressed, and at the end of the 19 th Century they were even forbidden by the governor at the time, Serpa Pinto, as he considered them subversive, although this did not prevent them from coming down to us today.
This is also a musical genre that uses parade music, with the sound of drums, batuque and shells, although the tabancas (a term used in Guinea for the organisation into villages) are much more that that. Initially it was a type of holiday conceded by the masters to the slaves, and then over time they became self-help associations in Santiago and Maio. They were a sort of spontaneous social organisation for group resistance to the natural disasters that caused a cycle of famine and devastation in Cape Verde, and often led to social disorder, which meant there was no institutional assistance for those in need.
The folkloric element of the tabancas’ activities took place on the occasion of feast days of popular catholic saints, the “festas de romaria” mentioned above, and particularly in the month of June for Saint Anthony (13th), St. John (24 th) and St. Peter (29 th), as well as the feast of Santa Cruz in Maio (3 rd). The processions are extremely animated and colourful. They go along the roads attracting groups of people with eye-catching costumes, reminiscent of the carnival.
In the third quarter of the 18 th Century, as they had become a form of scathing attack on the important people of the time, the tabancas started to be repressed, and at the end of the 19 th Century they were even forbidden by the governor at the time, Serpa Pinto, as he considered them subversive, although this did not prevent them from coming down to us today.
