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StillnessIsland music heritage fact

Morna is the slow, melancholy song of Cabo Verde, sung in the islands' Creole to guitar, violin and cavaquinho, a small four-string guitar. Its lyrics keep returning to departure, distance and longing, shaped by island life and generations of emigration.

Morna

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The story behind the card

Cabo Verde is a group of Atlantic islands off West Africa, settled by the Portuguese and by enslaved Africans. Poverty and drought have long driven its people to emigrate, and by many estimates more Cabo Verdeans now live abroad than on the islands. Morna's central feeling is sodade, a Creole word related to the Portuguese saudade: the ache for people and places far away. The poet Eugénio Tavares (1867–1930) and the composer B. Leza shaped its classic form. From the late 1980s the singer Cesária Évora, known as the 'Barefoot Diva', made morna known around the world. UNESCO added morna to its list of intangible cultural heritage in 2019.

Türkçe oku
Morna, Cabo Verde'nin ağır tempolu, hüzünlü şarkısıdır; adaların Kreol dilinde, gitar, keman ve küçük, dört telli bir gitar olan cavaquinho eşliğinde söylenir. Sözleri ada yaşamının ve kuşaklar boyu süren göçün izini taşır; hep ayrılığa, uzaklığa ve özleme döner.

Cabo Verde, Batı Afrika açıklarında, Portekizlilerin ve köleleştirilmiş Afrikalıların yerleştiği bir Atlas Okyanusu takımadasıdır. Yoksulluk ve kuraklık halkını uzun zamandır göçe zorluyor; birçok tahmine göre bugün yurt dışında yaşayan Cabo Verdeliler adalarda yaşayanlardan fazla. Mornanın temel duygusu sodade'dir: Portekizce saudade ile akraba olan bu Kreolce sözcük, uzaktaki insanlara ve yerlere duyulan özlemin sızısını anlatır. Türün klasik biçimini şair Eugénio Tavares (1867–1930) ile besteci B. Leza oluşturdu. 1980'lerin sonundan itibaren “Yalınayak Diva” lakaplı Cesária Évora mornayı bütün dünyaya tanıttı. UNESCO, mornayı 2019'da Somut Olmayan Kültürel Miras listesine aldı.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Morna (music)
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