Global Journal of Human Social Science, C: Sociology and Culture, Volume 21 Issue 5

In the same year, the Crown was alerted of the Cape Verdean traders’ presence on the African coast, it granted the trade with the Guinea Coast’s monopoly to Fernão Gomes, a prominent Lisbon trader. The legislation that resulted from this agreement restricted the Cape Verdeans participation in legal trade in Guinea. The establishment of a list of goods and products to be exploited exclusively by the Crown or its tenants was one of the ways that the kings of Portugal used to stifle their participation in African trade: As a rule, these goods comprised the items most demanded by the Africans: iron bars and tolls, tin bracelets, beads, cotton, and other types of cloth. Therefore, Cape Verdean traders were allowed to carry to the Guinea coast only goods produced in the islands – horses, cotton thread and cloth, and amber – and in vessels equipped and commanded by the islanders (TRAJANO FILHO, 1998, p. 102). Subsequently, a 1517 decree still prohibits Cape Verdean commercialization in the ports of Sierra Leone. A little later, Cape Verdean presence in trade relations between Portuguese and traders in the Coast was totally illegal. The accusers complained about the “evils that Cape Verdean residents inflicted upon business at the Guinea Coast” ( ibid ., p.75). As of 1550, while trade between Cape Verde-Guinea was leased a Royal Feitor was residing permanently in Santiago. In religious matters, the Guinea Coast also belonged to the jurisdiction of Santiago, since its creation in 1533, the Diocese of Cape Verde-Guinea stretched between Gambia and Cabo das Palmas in present-day Liberia (Rodney, 1970, p. 78). d) What do collective memory tell us (walking archives) Currently, the dry bed of a limestone stream, where rests the small chapel, considered the Mother Church of the City of Porto Novo, is believed to be a holy place. There, on the 23 rd and 24 th of June, various religious events related to the saint’s celebrations are held. Because, according to “the ancients”, that is the place where the saint was initially sheltered by the legendary Mé Maia (Mother Maia ). According to the late tamboreiro and storyteller known as Jon de Nhonhô, here is his statement: “We listen to the stories about Son Jon and Mé Maia because they have their history. There are still descendants of Mé Maia alive. She ended up in Porto Novo, through fishermen, but she was originally from Ribeira Grande . (...) She found the saint by the sea, after realizing the saint’s desire to live in a quiet place, she sheltered him in a cave on the banks where the church was to build and took care of him. It was customary to stroll along the seashore at that time in search of something that the sea could offer as food. She dedicated herself to being with the saint for her entire life and, despite the difficulties, Son Jon always answered her prayers. According to the people who told the story to my father, mother, and grandmother, how Mé Maia and Son Jon governed their lives. When she was old, Mé Maia asked Son Jon to let her see her family. Her relatives, knowing of her condition, came from the sides of Figueiral , to visit Mé Maia in Porto dos Carvoeiros . I remember an old lady telling me and my father this fact in Coculí , in 1942. Mé Maia 's family members came to Porto Novo, with a tick stick (the sisal flower), to improvise a bed on which she it would be carried to Ribeira Grande , on the back of men. When she heard about these preparations from her family, she said so to Son Jon ; ‘- Oh Jon, they came to pick me up, but I don’t agree to go with it. Give me my strength and my courage so that I can reach Ribeira Grande’ . While the men were preparing themselves to face the way back carrying Mé Maia , she decided to walk a little ahead to say goodbye to the people, accompanied by some ladies who also came to pick her up. When the men went on to reach Mé Maia , they never did. She was assisted by Son Jon . On very dark nights she used to go by the sea, she would turn a turtle upside down, and used her meat to feed herself and make oil from its grease to light the saint” (João Baptista da Luz, 1932-2018, known as Jon de Nhonhô, adapted from Lopes, 2017, pp. 55-56). A careful reading of the above excerpt, with no pretension in interpreting myths, suggests that the cult of the saint, in this case guarded by a woman, precedes the settlement of that arid region. In a more extended versions of the myth, the same storyteller refers to the maintenance of order in the old place of the festivities. Nhonhô (2018) explains how Mé Maia ruled Son Jon and, according to him, the saint not only accepted, but also helped, in structed, and guided Mé Maia in solving her problems 17 In addition to religious obligations, profane motivations (whether civic or erotic) present in the history of the festive corteges in Santo Antão , it remains to . This kind of narratives is abundant in the Santantonense historical oral heritage. Rodrigues (1997) presents us with an interesting collection of songs and traditional sayings from the island. As argued in Lopes (2017), the multiplicity of musical, poetic and performance events that take place during the cycle of festivities, from May 3 to June 29, is impressive. These cultural activities, almost always, attest the sociological tension between countryside and city, in the plurality of festive corteges that arrive in the city. The artistic events, transversal to the religious dimensions of secular and popular Catholicism, interpenetrate the profane, the erotic, the corporeal and the sacred. Historically, drumming on the island has had commercial and communication functions. And, until today drumming drives a 22 km annual pilgrimage. An event which is permeated by the heterogeneity from migrant life trajectories. As we know, few countries in the world have been as profoundly shaped by migration as Cabo Verde (Carling and Batalha, 2008). Immigration and emigration processes define the structural construction of the nation's identity. 17 Código de Vida – Jon d’Nhonho . Documentary exhibited on October 7 th , 2018. Available in: http://rtc.sapo.cv/index.php?paginas= 13&id _ cod=72217. Accessed on: 25/06/2020. Volume XXI Issue V Version I 11 ( ) Global Journal of Human Social Science - Year 2021 C © 2021 Global Journals Kola San Jon De Cova Da Moura : An Instrumental Case of Intangible Cultural Heritage Safeguarding in the African Diaspora in Portugal