Paper short abstract:

This paper aims to explore heritage policies related to handicraft in the Cape-Verdean colonial and post-colonial context. In particular it will focus on how these policies have been producing visible effects in a contemporary and future heritage regime for the craft development.

Paper long abstract:

This communication aims to share the partial results of an ongoing investigation about the heritage processes in the colonial and post-colonial contexts in Cape Verde. Proposes to examine how heritage and identity policies were and have been driven through the uses and appropriations of the local culture, specifically in the handicraft. Will examine, in particular, two important moments in the production and development of handicrafts in Cape Verde. At first, highlights the creation of the National Centre for Crafts in 1977, which was an important period of local handicraft revitalization. Secondly, the present time, considering a set of public policies that have been created in order to assign a better visibility to the Cape Verdean handicraft, in a gradual process of facing towards the tourist market. This paper seeks to explore the dynamics of power and knowledge embedded in heritage processes in its appropriations and uses of popular culture in order thus to identify the different political uses, as well as the identity dynamics of the agents involved in these processes.