Eugénio Tavares

Who is Eugénio Tavares?

Eugénio de Paula Tavares was born on the island of Brava in 1867 and, after a difficult childhood following his father's early death, was raised by an adoptive family on the same small island. He grew into one of Cape Verde's most important poets and journalists and is widely credited as the first great composer of morna, the wistful, sea-longing musical genre that later became the country's signature art form and international calling card, carried worldwide decades later by singers such as Cesária Évora. Tavares wrote morna lyrics and poetry in Cape Verdean Creole at a time when the language had little literary status, helping establish it as a vehicle for serious artistic expression. His outspoken newspaper writing criticizing colonial-era injustices brought him into conflict with those in power, and he spent roughly a decade in exile in the United States, where in 1900 he founded Alvorada, believed to be the first Portuguese-language newspaper published in America. He returned to Brava, where he continued writing until his death in Vila Nova Sintra in 1930; the town square there and a museum in his former home now honor his memory.

Sources: Britannica, "Eugénio Tavares" · Wikipedia, "Eugénio Tavares" · caboverde-info.com, "The Morna of Eugénio Tavares"