Cape Verdean American Community Activist Dies
Our office has been contacted and informed of the shocking news that Toney DaMoura passed away last week after an illness of several months.
The University of Rhode Island community has lost an important advocate who helped sensitize the campus to the needs of Cape Verdeans. Under the leadership of Toney DaMoura, and his successor, Madalena Rodriguez, the Cape Verdean Students Association (CVSA) reached the peak of its visibility and influence on campus during the early and mid-1990's. During those years, I recall vibrant campus observances of the birthday of the martyred freedom-fighter Amilcar Cabral of Guinea during Cape Verdean Awareness Week; periodic bidon shipments to Cape Verde; and lectures by Richard Lobban, Marlene Lopes, and other Rhode Island- and New England-based authorities on Cape Verdean history and culture.
A member of a family of 11 siblings, Toney was known to many through the prominence of his family in the Cape Verdean Independence Day celebrations at India Point Park, and through his participation on Intervideo, Cape Verdean Afro-Beat, and other ethnic and youth-oriented media. To the best of my recollection, the DaMoura family sent at least five of the siblings to URI. It has been my understanding that Toney earned both a bachelor's and a master's degree from URI. Some will recall him from the graduate assistantship he served in the Carlotti Administration Building. Toney DaMoura has passed at the age of 39.
