Cape Verdean literature, the result of the liberalization of education in the mid-nineteenth century, came from a generation of intellectuals, especially writers, who began to feel their presence in Cape Verde in the nineteenth century, with the poetic production of Eugènio Tavares (1867) -1930). This poet was born and raised in Brava, immersed in a little unusual intellectual environment, and had as its teacher the popular philosopher Josè Rodrigues Aleixo, who lived alone on the Aguada beach (haunted by Eugenio for reasons of love), besides also excellent pedagogues, first in private school and later in several private courses.
The Claridade movement (1936-1937 and 1947-1960) has so far marked a vigorous vigour of the Cape Verdean intelligentsia, thanks to nine issues of an irregular magazine, but deeply capable of defining a new personality assumed by the Cape Verdeans. Manuel Lopes, of S. Vicente (1907-2005), Baltazar Lopes da Silva, of S. Nicolau (1907-1989) and Jorge Barbosa, of Santiago (1902-1971), the mentors of this true autonomous flag, stated without hesitation the importance of the Creole in the Cape Verdean peculiarity, reinforcing this initiative with works aimed at provoking generations of students, the consciousness of Creole specificity, with deep roots already in the sixteenth century, impressed a decisive point in the cultural history of Cape Verde.
The magazine was called Clarity – Magazine of Art and Literature (magazine of art and literature), a legend amply justified by the range of topics covered: poetry, novel, storytelling, novel, literary criticism, music and dance, painting and drawing, history and geography, and even sociological analysis.
The generation of Clarity was followed by another lever of writers and thinkers who tried to break with the conciliatory style of the movement, among them Amilcar Cabral, the great leader of the independence movement (PAIGC) and Corsino Fortes.
More recently, a new range of writers, narrators and poets, such as Germano Almeida, Germano Lima, Daniel Pereira, Vera Duarte, Mario Lúcio Sousa, Ludgero Correia and many others, have flourished, forming part of a vast group of compatriots who confirm Cape Verde as a nation of numerous heirs of those who launched the adventure of writing just over a century ago. Armènio Vieira recently awarded the Camões Prize, is a poet who drinks from European literature and follows an autonomous direction of the generally nationalist chain of Cape Verdean literature in affirmation of a growing pluralism.
