Proud to be a Goan: colonial memories, post-colonial identities and music

Abstract

During 451 years of colonial history, catholic Goans used music as a mediator of identity negotiation. In a political context repressing musical sonority of Indian flavour, in which Portuguese was the official language, catholic Goans created their own music, sung in Konkani and performed according to Portuguese models. Mandó among other hybrid and ambivalent musical genres, comprehen- sible for colonial rulers and Goans but with different significance for both, acquired an emblematic status. After 1961 Goa becomes an Indian territory, and the Goan diaspora, into Europe, America and Africa, increased. With it, the homeland myth created the ne- cessity to isolate some cultural ingredients in order to maintain their cultural ties within an alien territory. Musical genres de- veloped in Goa were recreated not for their colonial memory but because they allowed Goans to prove their difference. This paper tries to inscribe Goans as a paradigmatic case of diasporic com- munities where music acquires central status in the process of post-colonial identification and as an instrument of conciliation.