Eugénio Tavares

Eugénio Tavares

Eugénio Tavares , actually Eugénio de Paula Tavares (born October 18, 1867 on the island of Brava , Cape Verde , † June 1, 1930 in Vila Nova Sintra , island of Brava, Cape Verde) was a white Cape Verdean poet of Portuguese descent. He is commonly considered to be the national poet of Cape Verde and is also often called " Camões of Cape Verde". He was a poet , prose writer, playwright , composer, songwriter , translator and journalist. He is one of the most important journalists in the history of Cape Verde, he was also one of the most important poets and writers with an influence up to the present day. He was also important as a human rights activist . As a composer and songwriter of various Mornas, he has also left significant traces in the music history of the archipelago.

Life

Eugénio Tavares was born as the second child of Francisco de Paula Tavares and Eugenia Roiz Nozzolini Tavares. The family had immigrated to the colony from Portugal, more precisely from Santarem . He had a brother named Henrique. On November 5, 1867, he was baptized in the Evangelical Church of São João Baptista on the island of Brava. His mother died giving birth. A few years later, the father also died, so that Eugénio and his brother were orphans. Both were adopted by Jose and Eugenia Martins de Vera Cruz. Jose Martins de Vera Cruz was a doctor and surgeon on the island and mayor of the island of Sal . Later he was also the mayor of Brava. A distant relative of the two boys was João Jose de Sena, who was the governor of the island.

In 1876 he became a student of the Escola Primaria in Vila Nova Sintra. After his school days, he worked as an employee in a trading office on the island of São Vicente (he had never attended high school, let alone studied) and through the relationships of his stepfather, at the end of his teenage years, he already became honorary consul of the USA for Cape Verde . He spent part of his professional life as a commercial clerk on the island of Santiago and the local Fazenda Taffarel .

He began his literary career at the age of twelve when he wrote poems that circulated in almost every household across the island of Brava and were even set to music by amateur singers on the island. At the age of 15 his first publication took place in the anthology " Almanaque de lembraço Luso-Brasileiro ". For this almanac he wrote poems regularly until his death, so that in the editions up to 1932 almost all of his poems appeared in it, as well as many Morna texts. His role models were other Cape Verdean poets, such as Guilherme Dias or Augusto Barreto and the philosopher Jose Rodrigues Alexo. He had taught himself his literary skills self-taught and he had an exceptionally great poetic-literary talent. Many of the poems were written in Creole , the language of the locals on Cape Verde. He expressed his connection to the population and his demarcation from Portugal . Nevertheless, poems also appeared in Portuguese. Camões and João de Deus were translated into Creole by him. His work is evaluated and summarized to this day. There are hardly any books by him, as most of the poems were processed into mornas and were therefore not considered classical poems. Many are also scattered in newspapers and anthologies. A first edition of his poetic work did not appear in Cape Verde until 1996. He will also not be forgotten because he wrote the official hymn of the island of Brava: " Hino de Brava ".

Due to his public criticism of the conditions on Cape Verde, such as the latent hunger of the indigenous population, the governor-general of the island forced him to flee. From 1900 to 1910 he lived in New Bedford , Massachusetts , USA, in the Portuguese and Cape Verdean colony. Occasional writing assignments and his journalistic activities made it difficult for him to stay afloat. He wrote articles for “ A Alvorada ”, the exile newspaper for the Portuguese abroad in the USA. In 1910 he was allowed to return to the USA. The king was overthrown and the new, democratic government also allowed criticism in the colonies. From 1911 he worked for one of the most important newspapers in Cape Verde, " A Voz de Cabo Verde " (The Voice of Cape Verde, until 1916) and campaigned in countless articles for human rights and for the oppressed and poor. In 1922 he finally returned to his home island of Brava. In the same year he and others founded the first grammar school on the island of Brava. He spent the last years of his life in Vila Nova Sintra, tending the flowers in the local public garden that bore his name (Jardim Eugénio Tavares) and wrote two of his most important mornas : " Bidjica " and " Nha Santana ". A few years before his death, he also lost his beloved stepfather, a loss he never relied on. The last years of his life are also characterized by the fact that the colonial government finally honors and appreciates him. So he receives an official audience with Governor General Guedes Vaz , along with other poets and a band plays in the capital to honor them. The population cheers him.

On June 1, 1930, he died lonely in his house in Vila Nova Sintra on the island of Brava. He got one of the largest funerals that Cape Verde had ever seen.

Significance and aftermath

Tavares' Mornas are played to this day and keep his name in mind. Even Cesária Évora , the Grande Dame des Morna, sang many of his songs as compositions or text. As a philologist , he was heavily involved in the Creole language, which he promoted and also researched, albeit amateurishly. In his capacity as a journalist for various newspapers on Cape Verde, he fought vehemently for human rights, especially the black population, and called for the archipelago to be independent from Portugal. His work has contributed a lot to the understanding of Cape Verdean way of life and culture. Most of the Cape Verdean authors who followed him are more or less influenced by him and his work.

The high school he co-founded on the island of Brava is named after him. There is also a memorial to the poet and the public park " Jardim de Eugénio Tavares ", which also bears his name.

plant

• Most poems and Morna texts were published in the " Almanaque de lembraço Luso-Brasileira " between 1882 and 1932. (Some posthumously).
• First comprehensive independent publication of the poetic texts in 1996 in a publishing house in Cape Verde.
• Scattered prosaic and poetic texts in newspapers in Cape Verde and the USA (during his exile).
• Some of the titles of his most important mornas:

• Çancao ao Mar
• Morna aquarda
• Morna de desperdida
• Bidjica
• Nha Santana
• Hino de Brava

source

• eugeniotavares.org