At Sea
We are sailing north in more than just the geographical sense. The Cape Verde Islands achieved their independence from Portugal in 1975 and it is one of those fascinating might-have-beens of history to speculate on what would have happened to its economy had the archipelago remained Portuguese and become part of the European Union like those other Portuguese Atlantic islands, Madeira and the Azores. The European Union is an essentially redistributive system with money from the center invested in the periphery by means of assorted equalization and regional funds. The Canary Islands, our current destination are every bit as African and the Cape Verde archipelago: indeed, unlike Cape Verde, they had an old-established native Guanche population that probably migrated there from north Africa. The economic benefits of membership of the European Union for the Canary Islands, as an autonomous region of mainland Spain, is so readily apparent that support for island independence movements is insignificant. Indeed, so keen have the islands been to stress their European lineage, that the study of the Guanche culture in the Canaraies has been fraught with controversy. The Cape Verdeans, proudly independent on their barren islands in the rain shadow of the Sahara Desert, are materially the poor relations.
Both island groups share the same history as stepping-stones between the Old World and the New. Columbus used the Canary Islands to provision his ships, taking sugar, cotton and bananas to the New World for the first time in his epoch-making voyage of settlement in 1493. A generation earlier, Portuguese explorers had established themselves and their goats on the Cape Verde Islands, the city of Cideda Velha that we visited on the island of Santiago just a few days ago being the first European toehold in the tropical world. From there, African slaves were transported across the notorious 'Middle Passage' to work in the plantations of the Americas, north and south. In the Cape Verde islands particularly, the legacy is one of material poverty but of great cultural richness. The celebrated music of the islands combines African rhythms, Portuguese fado and Brazilian salsa to produce a tradition of distinction. It is that exuberant sound that lingers in the memory as we sail between two worlds.
We are sailing north in more than just the geographical sense. The Cape Verde Islands achieved their independence from Portugal in 1975 and it is one of those fascinating might-have-beens of history to speculate on what would have happened to its economy had the archipelago remained Portuguese and become part of the European Union like those other Portuguese Atlantic islands, Madeira and the Azores. The European Union is an essentially redistributive system with money from the center invested in the periphery by means of assorted equalization and regional funds. The Canary Islands, our current destination are every bit as African and the Cape Verde archipelago: indeed, unlike Cape Verde, they had an old-established native Guanche population that probably migrated there from north Africa. The economic benefits of membership of the European Union for the Canary Islands, as an autonomous region of mainland Spain, is so readily apparent that support for island independence movements is insignificant. Indeed, so keen have the islands been to stress their European lineage, that the study of the Guanche culture in the Canaraies has been fraught with controversy. The Cape Verdeans, proudly independent on their barren islands in the rain shadow of the Sahara Desert, are materially the poor relations.
Both island groups share the same history as stepping-stones between the Old World and the New. Columbus used the Canary Islands to provision his ships, taking sugar, cotton and bananas to the New World for the first time in his epoch-making voyage of settlement in 1493. A generation earlier, Portuguese explorers had established themselves and their goats on the Cape Verde Islands, the city of Cideda Velha that we visited on the island of Santiago just a few days ago being the first European toehold in the tropical world. From there, African slaves were transported across the notorious 'Middle Passage' to work in the plantations of the Americas, north and south. In the Cape Verde islands particularly, the legacy is one of material poverty but of great cultural richness. The celebrated music of the islands combines African rhythms, Portuguese fado and Brazilian salsa to produce a tradition of distinction. It is that exuberant sound that lingers in the memory as we sail between two worlds.
