Sergio Frusoni
Sergio Frusoni was a poet and promoter of the Cape Verdean Creole language.
Biography
Sérgio was born in Mindelo on the island of São Vicente, the son of Italian immigrants Giuseppe Frusoni and Erminia Bonucci. At the age of 24, he began to work at the Western Telegraph Company and changed later on to Italcable. In 1947, he managed the O Café Sport in Mindelo, the main city of São Vicente, where he presented poems and anecdotes in Crioulo. After that he went back to work for Italcable. In the 1960s, he conducted the theatre group Theatro do Castilho in Mindelo. For a number of years, he was chronicler at the radio Barlavento, where he produced the program Mosaico Mindelense in Crioulo.Sérgio wrote many short stories and poems in the Creole of São Vicente. He died, aged 73, in Lisbon. He is well known in Cape Verde, but almost unknown outside the island.
On June 7, 2005, Capeverdean president Pedro Pires paid homage to Sergio Frusoni and declared him as one of the greatest Crioulo poets.
Corsino Fortes described Frusoni in Paralelo 14.
Legacy
Some of his poems would be a part of the Tertúlia collection which featured poems made by other poets. In 2004, it was performed in a play at the 10th Mindelo Theatrical Festival.Works
Some famous poems and short stories
Chronicles in Crioulo
- ''Mosaico Mindelense''
Short stories in Crioulo
Contrabónde in Miscelânea luso-africanaNa TribunalDum Bóca pa ôte- ''Mute convérsa pa nada''
Poems in Creole
ContrabóndePracinhaEra um vêz um coquêrPresentaçôm Pa diante ê qu’ê caminFlôr de Béla SómbraFonte de nha Sôdade, LembrómeMnine d' SanvicentePrograma para meninosMarí MatchimDiante de mar de SanvicenteSanvcênte já cabá na nadaSê BrinqueCarta d'AngolaNha Chica- ,
- Sonnet in crioulo dedicated to
Poems in English
- ''Sonnet''
Poems in Portuguese
In MortisÀ SograNa Hora X- ''A Marmita''
Theatre
- - de Sérgio Frusoni
Articles and columns
- Two poems in the literary journal ´ 'Claridade-Revista de Arte e Letras' no.9-1966: Fonte de nha Sodade and Tempe FelixTextos Crioulos Cabo-Verdianos, published in the book Miscelânea luso-africana, edited by Marius F. Valkhoff,
- Short story Contrabónde in Miscelânea luso-africanaA Poética de Sérgio Frusoni: Uma Leitura Antropológica, a collection of Poems in the crioulo of São Vicente with Portuguese translation, collected by Mesquitela Lima,