The Carnival in several countries marks a time of joy, celebration and excitement and Cape Verde is no exception! It is celebrated on almost all the islands but the main celebrations are held in São Vicente, São Nicolau and Santiago.

Carnival in São Vicente

This is the most popular and well known Carnival and the island during this season usually receives a considerable number of tourists who come to enjoy the Carnival.

The São Vicente’s Carnival takes plenty of inspiration from the Carnival in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and some local people like to call it “Brasilinho” (“little Brasil”).

Parades, parties and fun are all on the menu!  The Carnival is especially known for its “glamorous” parades with creative themes and costumes, musicians, dancers and a lot of rhythm.

Usually on the Sunday before the Carnival the animation it is provided by the “Mandigas”. They drag the most exited crowds with them during a fun and popular parade around Mindelo city to begin the Carnival festivities with the charismatic figures of “Mandigas”.

The “Mandigas” are typical figures of the São Vicente’s Carnival. They are people dressed as black warriors with their skin painted in dark oil, wearing rope skirts, shells on their arms and legs and with a stick weapon in their hand. They are responsible for the beginning of the animation and the party that symbolizes the carnival on this island.

At São Vicente’s Carnival the first parade is the famous “Night Parade” of the “Samba Tropical” group that opens the doors of the carnival parades. The party then goes on all night, even after the parades have ended. The Tuesday of Carnival is marked by the official parades with the groups competing for first place, and to represent the island’s best carnival group of the year!

The Carnival in São Vicente Island joins all the generations for the carnival party and the local people and tourists take the streets in order to support their favorite group and revel in the amazing energy of the São Vicente’s Carnival.

The Carnival in Mindelo has been so successful that they are thinking about creating a museum for the display of the costumes used during the parades.

Carnival in São Nicolau

Despite the popularity of Mindelo’s Carnival, some say that the Carnival of São Nicolau has been “stealing” the crown from São Vicente with regards to being the best Carnival of Cape Verde.

On this Island, the carnival is also very animated with parties and parades providing plenty of color and beauty, accompanied by the joy and energy of the people that takes part of this celebration.

Nowadays, the people of São Nicolau are embracing the spirit of the carnival more than ever and the preparation for this event usually starts after the New Year’s Eve celebrations. Groups gather to work on the music and songs, the choreography, floats and costumes – all with lots of imagination.

During the parades the streets of the Islands are filled with life, vibrant colours, art and good carnival music. Today this celebration has an audience that exceeds the locals and includes people from the various different Cape Verde Islands, as well as tourists who choose the fun and beauty of the São Nicolau’s Carnival.

Carnival in Santiago

Santiago Island has been working hard to elevate its Carnival parades to a new level, ensuring that their celebrations can provide the audience and fans of the Carnival the typical animation of these popular events.

Nowadays, this island has more groups and all of them give exceptional attention to detail to the floats, music, costumes and dancers to provide a lively carnival with energy and the typical animation of the drummers for the carnival parade.

The highlight of this year’s Santiago Carnival goes to a group of locals that joined the carnival on a “Night Parade”, as usually happens in São Vicente Island, preceding the official parade that takes place on the Tuesday of Carnival.

After the Tuesday parades, in the evening everyone prepares for the carnival parties where you can find people dressed in all kind of different masks. At these parties fun and the “batucada” are guaranteed and the party goes all night long, ending at sunrise.

The other Islands also celebrate the carnival season but with more modest parades for adults and children – but with the same joy and animation that you find only during the Carnival!

If you plan to come and have fun at the Cape Verde Carnival make sure you book all your flights and accommodation in advance and get ready for fun, parties and lots of laughs. And of course don’t forget to prepare your mask/costume to be a part of this celebration, sharing in the joy of the people from all around the Cape Verde Islands.

source: mydestination.com

Slavery, drought & neglect

When Portuguese mariners discovered Cape Verde in 1456, the islands were uninhabited but fertile enough to attract the first group of settlers six years later. They founded Ribeira Grande (now Cidade Velha), the first European town in the tropics, on the island São Vicente. To work the land, settlers almost immediately began to import slaves from the West African coast. Plans by Genoese investors to create large sugar plantations never paid off, especially after the Caribbean proved so productive. However, the islands’ remote yet strategic position made them a perfect clearinghouse and victualling station for the transatlantic slave trade. Within a century, the islands had grown wealthy enough to attract pirates, including a 1585 raid by England’s Sir Francis Drake.

In 1747, changing weather patterns, aggravated by deforestation and overgrazing, resulted in Cape Verde’s first recorded drought. In the 100 years from 1773, three droughts killed some 100, 000 people – more than 40% of the population each time. It was only the beginning of a cycle that lasted well into the 20th century. At the same time, the island’s economic clout fell as Britain, France and the Netherlands challenged Portugal’s control over the slave trade. As a result, Lisbon invested little in Cape Verde during the good times and offered almost no help during bad times. To escape hunger, many men left the islands, principally to work as hired hands on American whaling ships. Even today, Cape Verdean communities along the New England coast rival the population of Cape Verde itself, and foreign remittances account for as much as 20% of GNP.

Cape Verde’s fortunes revived with the advent of the ocean liner at the end of the 19th century. It became an important stopover for coal, water and livestock, and Mindelo, with its deep, protected harbour, became the island’s new commercial and cultural centre. When the airplane replaced the ocean liner, Cape Verde responded in kind, opening an international airport on Sal in 1948. Designed to service long, transatlantic flights, it remains a mainstay of the country’s economy.

Independence

Because much of Cape Verde’s population was mixed race, they tended to fare better than fellow Africans in other Portuguese colonies. Beginning in the mid-19th century, a privileged few even received an education, many going on to help administrate mainland colonies. By independence, 25% of the population could read (compared with 5% in Guinea-Bissau).

However, to the chagrin of the Portuguese, literate Cape Verdeans were gradually becoming aware of the nationalism simmering on the mainland. Soon, together with leaders of Guinea-Bissau, they had established a joint independence movement. In 1956 Cape Verdean intellectual Amilcar Cabral (born in Guinea-Bissau) founded the Marxist-inspired Partido Africano da Independência da Guiné e Cabo Verde (PAIGC), later renamed the Partido Africano da Independência de Cabo Verde (PAICV).

As other European powers were relinquishing their colonies, Portugal’s right-wing dictator, António de Salazar, propped up his regime with dreams of colonial greatness. From the early 1960s, one of Africa’s longest wars of independence ensued. However, most of the fighting took place in Guinea-Bissau, and indeed many middle-class Cape Verdeans remained lukewarm toward independence.

Eventually, Portugal’s war became an international scandal and lead to the nonviolent demise of its dictatorship in 1974, with Cape Verde finally gaining full independence a year later. Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau seriously considered uniting the two countries, but a 1980 coup in Guinea-Bissau ended talks.

Cape verde since independence

Although the PAICV nationalised most industries and instituted a one-party state, it managed to limit corruption, instituting remarkably successful health and education programs. Unfortunately, independence did not solve the problem of drought, and in 1985 disaster struck again. However, this time the USA and Portugal contributed 85% of the food deficit; their aid continues in a country that produces only about 20% of its food supply.

By the late 1980s there were increasing calls for a multiparty democracy, and in 1990 the PAICV acquiesced, allowing lawyer Carlos Veigo to found the Movimento para a Democracia (MPD). With a centre-right policy of political and economic liberalisation, the MPD swept to power in the 1991 elections. Privatisation and foreign investment – especially in tourism – brought only slow results however, and in 2001, the PAICV reclaimed power. This time it promised to adhere to more a centrist policy of prudent fiscal and economic management – largely the result of International Monetary Fund (IMF) mandates.

Cape verde today

With elections set for early 2006, the choice is very much between shades of grey, especially under the IMF’s watchful eye. Tourism is the nation’s main growth industry, and the country remains prosperous by West African standards. Famine is certainly no longer an imminent threat, yet improvements in the lives of the average Cape Verdean remain incremental, and for those without family abroad, conditions remain difficult.

source: http://www.lonelyplanet.com

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xj6ay3_green-energy-on-the-cape-verde-islands-global-3000_news#.UazyykCceXu

Read more  http://fromtheotherland.com/2010/12/top-10-species-of-cape-verde-wildlife/

READ MORE The islands of Cape Verde were discovered in the 15th century by the Portuguese

http://www.mydestination.com/capeverde/travel-articles/72315/sea-turtles-nesting-in-cape-verde

Visit the isle of Santo Antoa and enjoy one of the most spectacular hikes Cape Verde has to offer.

http://www.mydestination.com/capeverde/travel-articles/721211/a-hiking-treasure-in-cape-verde

The Present. Watch and be amazed.

The ideal spot for Surf,Kite & Windsurf for beginners as well as advanced surfers.

http://magicseaweed.com/Sal-Surfing/214/

SLOW  RHYTHMS & READ MORE.

http://www.economist.com/blogs/prospero/2013/04/music-cape-verde