Para além da crise. Jovens, mulheres e relações familiares em Cabo Verde

Abstract

In Africa in recent decades the family, as a social and moral category, gained new contours. In the dominant discourses, both institutional and common sense, there is a paradoxical view of the family. Cited as a social and identity pillar of constantly renewed importance, the contemporary family is also categorized as being in crisis, “dysfunctional” and therefore identified as the root of many contemporary social problems. Based on ethnographic data collected among women and youths of poor urban areas the city of Mindelo (Cape Verde), we propose a critical analysis beyond the discourse about the family crisis. The transnational family networks, changes in gender relations and the dynamics of intergenerational reciprocity will be revealed as central resources for a majority of Cape Verdeans poor people to structure their identities and life courses and thus tackle the growing uncertainty that characterizes contemporary African contexts.