Biography
Tomé Varela da Silva was born in 1948 in Cape Verde. A poet, scholar, and philosopher, he is the author of several books in which he explored the oral tradition and the musical heritage of Cape Verde. Na Bóka Noti, his seminal four-part series, captured the changes the Cape Verdean language underwent over the course of three decades. The first volume was written in the alphabet proposed at the Mindelo Colloquium in 1979, whereas the fourth volume appeared in Alfabétu Kauberdianu, the alphabet style instituted by the government in 2009. He is regarded as one of the most important Cape Verdean poets of his time.
Sources
"Silva, T. V. da (Tomé Varela da)." World Cat. Accessed 22 July 2022. <http://worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n88660448/>.
"Tomé Varela da Silva." Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. 7 January 2020. Accessed 22 July 2022. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom%C3%A9_Varela_da_Silva >.
Tomé Varela da Silva: “The alphabet for Cape Verdean writing looked like a forest of accents” Islands Express. 10 May 2010. Accessed 22 July 2022. <https://arquivo.pt/wayback/20100707191557/http:/www.expressodasilhas.sapo.cv/pt/noticias/go/tome-varela-da-silva---o-alfabeto-para-a-escrita-do-cabo-verdiano-parecia-uma-floresta-de-acentos>.
