Paper short abstract:

To live in a country surrounded by sea, in a country where nothing happens, restricts its inhabitants to a monotonous, tedious everyday life, impelling them to leave in search of new experiences and of reducing their economic shortcomings.

Paper long abstract:

The Cape Verde archipelago, a small island state located on the coast of West Africa, at approximately 500 km from the promontory that gave it its name, is characterised by a geographical, historical, cultural and economic insularity, which influences the local artistic, literary and musical production.

The sea that isolates the archipelago and walls it in is reflected in the behaviour of its inhabitants in two ways: on the one hand, it encloses life and the local interaction between people; on the other hand, it frames the constant desire to travel. In view of those two behaviours, this paper highlights the theme of the sea in Cape Verdean authors as an element of the Cape Verdean collective consciousness, which is manifested in two types. The first is hostile and encloses the island, as if the sea were a huge wall. It represents anguish and regulates the local psyche. The second, considered healthy, frees the people, allowing them to derive their sustenance from it.

This paper aims to approach the theme of the sea as an element of the Cape Verdean collective consciousness.