In the years since independence in 1975, Cabo Verde has become a stable African democracy. Throughout the islanders’ push for autonomy, music helped to serve as a catalyst for change. The songs of Norberto Tavares and his peers contributed to the process by reinforcing a new postcolonial national identity: one that no longer privileged European connections at the expense of African roots. Tavares lived to experience community and national acknowledgments for his lifework during his last years. The prime minister of Cabo Verde awarded Tavares the county’s highest honor, the Medal of Merit for Distinguished Service, at his New Bedford home in December 2005. The New England Cabo Verdean community also honored his cultural contributions, and the Cabo Verdean recording industry acknowledged his work “Maria” with a Gold Album Award at the Gamboa Music Festival in 2005.

Norberto Tavares Cultural Center

In Tavares’s hometown, Assomada, Culture Minister Manuel Veiga approved the Centro Cultural Norberto Tavares (Norberto Tavares Cultural Center) in 2014 at the site of the former post office, a prime location on Assomada’s historic town square. The building now functions as a community center with activities for youth and adults year-round. The center includes a small museum containing Tavares artifacts, and larger spaces for performances, lessons, and presentations. Dr. Eduardo Adilson Camilo Pereira designed the museum exhibits and has been involved in the organization and preservation of Tavares archival materials donated by the family. Before the space was renamed in Tavares’s memory, it contained a small exhibition space dedicated to tabanka, and those materials are still part of the museum offerings.

The Norberto Tavares Foundation and Norberto Tavares Music School in Assomada

Following Tavares’s death, friends and family decided to create a nonprofit humanitarian organization in 2011 to continue his aspirations for a better world. Its mission is to educate and empower young people through the power of music and culture and to aid musicians, educators, elders, and students. It has organized a series of fundraising events to aid projects in the United States and Cabo Verde. Tavares dreamed of establishing community music schools throughout Cabo Verde that would focus on teaching youth local styles. Toward this goal, the Norberto Tavares Foundation (NTF) successfully opened a new community music school in Assomada in January 2017, and there is talk of schools in other locations.