Luso Afro BrazilianStudies

This article focuses on the Brazilian sociologist Gilberto Freyre (1900-1987). It is my goal to demonstrate how Freyre applied Nietzschean ideas to his interpretation of Brazilian society in an attempt to concretize the prophecy of the “new man” in the shape of the multiracial “mestiço.” By Nietzschean ideas I mean ideas indebted to Nietzsche directly or indirectly and reflected in the rhetorical, stylistic and argumentative strategies used by Freyre. It is not my intention to discuss whether Freyre interpreted Nietzsche’s ideas correctly; rather, I wish to highlight parallels to Nietzschean concepts and to indicate how the eclectic, even opportunistic, use of Nietzsche’s work allowed Freyre to move the discussion on Brazilian identity in a new direction.

Casa-grande & Senzala (1933), a obra secular de Gilberto Freyre, foi traditionalmente interpretado de um ponto de vista sociólogo e histórico. Esta interpretação deixou duas questões essenciais em aberto: 1) Como se pode explicar que Freyre interpretou a noção de miscegenação de uma forma (muito) mais positiva do que sociólogos anteriores e 2) Como se pode explicar as tendências elitistas e aristocráticas na sua obra? Este artigo explore estas duas perguntas analisando a influência em Freyre da filosofia de Friedrich Nietzsche através da interpretação de Henry L. Mencken. Argumenta que a influência de Mencken foi maior do que tradicionalmente tem sido admitido e que na obra de Mencken sobre Nietzsche se pode encontrar a mesma interpretação de miscigenação que Freyre mais tarde explorou em Casa-grande & Senzala. Argumenta também que Mencken profundamente influenciou Freyre com as suas ideias aristocráticas e elitistas."

In the context of today's symbolic economy, where cities and states compete in order to gain visibility in the market of global culture, the city of Lisbon has asserted itself as a centre and space for a unique musical fusion among Portuguese-speaking countries. This article discusses the emergence of a “musical lusofonia” that can be observed in various music and culture manifestations such as the festivals Lisboa Que Amanhece, Conexão Lusófona, Musidanças, Lisboa Mistura, and Festival Todos. For most of the organizers of these events, the 2006 documentary "Lusofonia: a (R)Evolução" produced by the multinational Red Bull Music Academy was paramount in the (re-)definition of Lisbon as a center for a unique musical fusion in the Lusophone world and remains influential in their respective attempts to promote this idea. Transversal to the various narratives collected herein are three interrelated arguments: 1. the fusion of various Lusophone musical styles has long been a feature in Lisbon; 2. this fact has never been fully acknowledged and remains greatly invisible to most people including locals and tourists; and 3. official support is required in order for this musical fusion to gain the visibility it warrants. As it seems, the emergence of the idea of a “musical lusofonia” serves to fill the gap in representation and promote Lisbon on the stage of global culture. This paper addresses some of the questions about “musical lusofonia” with respect to the variety of culture and style represented in Lisbon’s music scenes – through fado, African, Brazilian, and world musics essentially – as they also produce competing images of the city, within or without the lusophone narrative lines. Finally, the paper discusses the ambiguities of the idea of “musical lusofonia” and its potentially dubious connotations in the post-colonial context, as Lisbon was also the capital of the Portuguese colonial empire.

Capeverdean (CV) is the mother tongue of more than a million people living in, or
originating from, the archipelago of Cape Verde, situated about 500 km west of Dakar
(Senegal). As a Portuguese-based Creole, this language obviously has many Portuguesederived
items in its vocabulary, although there are often significant phonetic changes (see Quint 2000a: 53-139) such as:
CV obi  ‘to hear’ < Port. ouvir
CV nabidja ‘heifer’ < Port. novilha.
Nevertheless, not all CV words derive from Portuguese; indeed, some quite common CV
words can be traced back to diverse African languages, e.g.
CV djobi ‘to look at’ < Mandinka juubee.
CV djáki ‘bull calf’ < Wolof yëkk.
In this article, I examine the importance of this African stratum and explore what African
words and expressions in CV can tell us about the origins of this language and, more
generally, about the formation of Afro-European creoles.

"Today, in the Republic of Cape Verde, two languages are in daily use:
• Capeverdean, a Portuguese-based Creole language, is the mother tongue, spoken by nearly all of the 500,000 inhabitants of the country. Capeverdean Creole is also in current use among the Capeverdean diaspora, particularly in the U.S. (more than 200,000 speakers). In Portugal, Capeverdean is the second language in use after Portuguese, with over 100,000 speakers (Quint 2005: 26-27).
• Portuguese is the official language of Cape Verde, and the only one used in written communication, government services and schools.
The coexistence of two languages (Capeverdean and Portuguese) in Cape Verde and in Capeverdean communities can be seen as a cultural treasure.
However, the present-day situation of diglossia (Duarte Almada 1998; Quint 2000b: 243) in particular in Cape Verde and Portugal, where Capeverdeans speak Creole and have to learn Portuguese at school, can sometimes lead to linguistic confusion. In 1998, the Capeverdean Parliament officially recognized the role of the
Capeverdean language (Conselho de Ministros 1998: 18-23). This could, in time, lead to the introduction of Creole in Capeverdean schools and favor the appearance of a bilingual society. However, in order to teach Capeverdean, it is necessary to standardize the language and to provide adequate didactic material, especially grammars and reference dictionaries.
Some Capeverdean dictionaries are already available and provide translations for several thousands of Capeverdean items into Portuguese (Fernandes 1991; Quint 1998; Lang 2002), English (Pires & Hutchison 1983), and French (Quint 1999).
However, except for the Portuguese-Creole lexicon of Lopes da Silva (1957) and a rather short French-Capeverdean dictionary written by Quint (1997), there is still no sizeable reference lexicographic work offering translation from a foreign language into Capeverdean. Between 2000 and 2002, our Capeverdean, Portuguese and French team built the first standard Portuguese-
Capeverdean dictionary. This task was quite a challenge from at least two points of view:
- (1) technically, because of the scarcity of economic and human
resources and the lack of previous work in this specific field, and - (2), linguistically, particularly because of numerous problems arising from the non-standardized status of the Capeverdean language.
In this article, we will begin by describing the characteristics of the dictionary we have produced. Then we will explain in detail the difficulties we encountered, and the solutions and methodology we developed in order to solvethem. We will illustrate each point with examples taken from our dictionary,
which was finally completed and published during the second half of 2002."

Capeverdean (or Capeverdean Creole) is the mother tongue of the famous singer Cesária Évora and of more than a million people worldwide.
This book, one of the first of its kind in English, provides you with a rare and comprehensive insight into the language and culture of Cape Verde.
By following a series of lessons, which gradually increase in difficulty, you will be able to learn the basics of the Capeverdean as spoken on the island of Santiago (which is the most widely used), and also gain some useful knowledge about the varieties spoken on the other islands. Furthermore, this
book comprises exercises with model answers, cultural information, grammar notes, vocabulary lists (Capeverdean-English and English-Capeverdean), 45 photographs, and four indexes. Collectively these will give you a thorough understanding of the language and culture of Cape Verde.
Let’s Speak Capeverdean is aimed primarily at English speakers who want to learn this language, but it may also be useful to people from Cape Verde who already speak it but now live in an English-speaking country and who would like to be able to read and write it. The vocabulary lists and cultural information provide a good starting point for tourists visiting Cape Verde, as
well as those who are simply curious about the language and culture but are not able to commit much time to studying them.