Koladeras, Literacy Educators of the Cape Verdean Diaspora: A Cape Verdean African Centered Call and Response Methodology

Abstract

Koladeras are women who use call and response in impromptu songs that may contain proverbs, stories about the community, their life experiences, and who and what they see in their world from their own perspective. Via qualitative methods of (auto)ethnography, personal and life story narratives, and interviews, I look at how koladeras’ as literacy educators of multiple generations of Cape Verdeans. I identify African centered koladera literacies and discuss how have been passed down and taken different forms from generation to generation and next and argue for inclusion of these literacies in academia. More specifically, I argue that koladeras are literacy educators who have taught generations of Cape Verdeans how African centered Cape Verdean literacies challenge narrow, racist, classist, and sexist notions of literacy.