Changing Africa: the First Literary Generation of Independent Cape Verde

Scholars have been curious about the development of arts & letters in Africa since the last European colonies on that continent attained independence in 1975. On Cape Verde, the Portuguese entered into close relations with Black Africa, represented by enslaved men, women & children it carried there from the nearest mainland. From the mid-19th century on, works of fiction & poetry were written in Cape Verde, but this lit. remained a regional or colonial variant of the lit. of Portugal. The foundations of a national lit. were laid between 1935 & 1960, with a group of intellectuals gathered around the poet Jorge Barbosa. In Nov. 1986 an internat. congress of writers & scholars was held to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their journal ¿Claridade.¿ Map.