“The cow horn was used as a musical instrument to pass on messages such as death announcements. There were cow horn players at different locations so the messages could spread quickly from one side of the island to the other. The gobi that accompanies it is a small cup to pour liquor in for the horn player.

Playing the kachu is quite intense, it requires a technique similar to playing the trumpet. To make one you slide a small iron bar as far as you can into the horn. Where it gets stuck you dig a hole to blow. This one was made for Ciro Eleonora, my great uncle. He was one of the people who brought the tradition of seú to the city center in the 1940s-50s, turning it into a parade.”

One of the things we noticed during this project is that the transfer of traditions always comes down to the people themselves. They decide which elements are kept, modified or left behind. Seú has gone from the countryside to the city and has transformed from ceremony to celebration, yet the kachu is still there.