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What is tabanka?
Tabanka means village in Guinea-Bissau. In Cape Verde, or more specifically Santiago island, it is a half religious, half social organisation, with participants basically among the poorest part of the population, a reminiscence of its origin among the slaves that were imported from the coast of West Africa.
A tabanka is like a theatre, with the acts being played out over a period of more or less a month, starting in June. The tabanka includes the stealing of a saint, from the heavily guarded (with wooden guns!) "capela do santo", or the saint´s chapel, on a night with batuku dancing, and ends with recapturing it and catching the thieves. This is of course celebrated, with processions, dance, music and lots of good grogue - the local sugar cane based booze.
The conch provides a tremendous sound to the tabanka, spanning ca 12 different notes. The band Ferro Gaita has taken up the use of it. Listen/watch Rei di tabanka
The festival of Tabanka is a significant cultural event that colours the city in white, with processions of kings, queens, burglers, drummers, pipers and courtiers. Today, the major tabankas are from the suburbs Varzea and the Achada Grande in Praia. The Tabanka museum, however, is located in the town Assomada.
This is a glimpse from the Tabanka of Achada Grande, July 2007.
Watch a short video clip we made from the tabanka of 2007
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Read this interesting article (pdf): Reclaiming "Roots" for Cape Verde: Representations of Tabanka Festivals as Sites of Cultural Contestation, by Christina McMahon (Northwestern University)
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