Identity ambivalences in Cape Verde: from history to ethnography

Abstract

Starting with a brief historical and theoretical review about the different discursive formulations on the Cape Verdean identity, I intend to contextualize the issue of identity ambivalences in a more general way in the context of Cape Verde. This article proceeds with a report of some ethnographic experiences and elucidates on the biographical attachment to the field, ambivalent as well, seeking in one hand, to point the historical continuities concerning identity construction (national and personal) and on the other, to insist on a reflexivity about the fieldwork which seeks to highlight the processual and intersubjective dimension of ethnographic knowledge.