Cape Verde Encore

Sunday night I went with my host and their “cousins” to Cape Verdean night at “Le Mandingo” the club for the Hotel Sofitel Teranga right by the Place de l’independence downtown. (when I asked my host sister how she was related to them, she replied that they were from the same group of villages and had the same last name, therefore they were cousins). One of the cousins, Mami (her name, I kid you not) is a “mannequin.” Mannequin is the French word for model, which in my opinion is a more honest term for it than the English word. Model connotes exemplary, and what are models exemplary of? A good eating disorder? Mannequins on the other hand are objects designed to display clothing. Ultimately her occupation makes no difference, she took no longer than my host sisters in doing her make-up, was just as broke when it came to pay for the cab and danced pretentiously in front of the mirror at the club like everyone else. Since it was Sunday we left the house at 1:30 AM or slightly earlier than usual. Once at the club the Cape Verdean zouk live band performance I was promised got reduced to a dweeby looking dude in white jeans lip-synching three songs in the middle of the dance floor. I don’t speak Cape Verdean Creole but I understand enough of the Portuguese influence in it to know that the songs are not about anything, the choruses always prominently feature words like “sentimento,” “coracao,” “amor,” and “quero.” Other than that it was “Cape Verdean” night because they played more zouk and funana than usual, but they still went through the typical Dakar club mix so I filled my Lil’ Jon, 50 cent, Mimz, Daddy Yankee and Don Omar quotas for the week. I was just glad that men here don’t have to dress up to go out. I thought I was casually dressed in my uniform of dark blue jeans, high-top Chucks and a short-sleeve T-shirt, but there was some dude there in a giveaway T-shirt, navy blue wind-breakers and running shoes. He beat me. He looked like he was going to go jogging after leaving the club at 5 AM. The women of course were super-made and dressed up.