Guarda Cabesa...and DANCING!!

Gurada Cabesa!

So I was invited to a Guarda Cabesa festival last week. I brought caiperinhas. Hilarity, hijinx, dancing and grilled meats ensued.

Cultural Background: Guarda Cabesa doesn’t translate literally into English very well (it means “Save the Head”), but it’s a process and festa (party) celebrating the birth (and survival) of a baby. In the years preceding Cape Verdian independence (in 1975 if you can believe that), health care in general, and infant mortality rates in particular, were terrible. Awful. Somewhere near 40% according to some statistics. If you ask anyone over the age of 40 here, they will all tell you that they had a brother or sister that died. As such, a cultural norm known as the guarda cabesa, and culminating festa, developed. Basically, for the first 7 days after the birth of a baby, nobody goes to visit the mom and baby, they don’t come out of the house, and they don’t poi nom (give a name). If the baby survives until the 7th day, the family starts breathing a little easier, and announces the festa, where everyone comes to see the baby and brings special gifts of food and drink that will help the mom and baby get big and strong (high fat cow milk, goat butter, cheese, etc.) and the mom ta poi nom (names the baby). Although it’s not adhered to as strictly these days (I think Cape Verde now has the best infant mortality rates in West Africa), the festa part of the guarda cabesa still happens.

Anyway, my friend Gisella finally had her little girl, and a few nights ago we had the guarda cabesa festival. It was held at Gisella’s house, which is a spotless, quaint, 2 room cinderblock structure about 10 meters by 10 meters, with concrete floors. One room is for the baby and mom, and the other room doubles as a salon (living room) and bedroom for her sister. (The father of the baby lives on another island.) They have a wood-fired “kitchen” out back. So anyway, they tava’t ranja (procured) some chicken and fish and some wood and fired up the grill at about 12:30am last Saturday (everything starts late here), and in addition to the special stuff for the baby and mom, people brought a few bottles of wine, some grog and paunche, some popcorn for snacks, and most importantly, a stereo and extension cord. Everyone went in to see the baby (who was dressed in a little white and pink christening-type gown) and congratulate the mom, then immediately hit the dancefloor (the salon room) where they stayed until well into the next day. People in Cape Verde, definitely love their festas.

Dancing here is REAL fun. For dancing to zook music, it’s essentially the Texas Two-Step, except instead of moving your feet 1-2, 1-2, you move your hips 1-2, 1-2 (that is to say, you roll/grind your hips into the other person) except your shoulders stay perfectly still. It takes some practice (yay!) but my extensive dance training in the States has given me a good head start. ;-) And from a cultural anthropology standpoint, dancing here is very different. In America, you can always get away with being a wallflower, or say no when someone asks you, or just admit that you have no rhythm and would be a fool to dance in front of others. Over here, that dog just won’t hunt. They could care less what you look like when you’re dancing, and honestly, everyone is so busy grinding around on each other that nobody is paying much attention. But if you aren’t dancing, EVERYONE will notice and everyone will think you are being rude. (Its just like when you don’t greet someone on the street.) If someone asks you to dance, and you say no?...well you just might as well go on and spit on them. I don’t know if that’s true all over Cape Verde, but I assure you, it’s true in the is village.

Anyway, I had my camera with me, and here are some pics.