Cape Verde
Cape Verde is located on the West coast of Africa. The capital of Cape Verde is Praia. Cape Verde is Republican. Cape Verde gained its’ independence on July 5th 1975 (from Portugal). Cape Verde is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean which helps them trade their main export, fish. It’s mostly known for its’ native music. Cape Verde is currently a popular tourist destination in warm waters and scenic beaches. Cape Verde is home to the Tarrafall de Monte, Trigo River, Brava volcano, fogovolcano, and many other landforms and bodies of water.
Unoccupied on their discovery in 1456, the Cape Verde islands became part of the Portuguese empire in 1495. A majority of the people who live there today are mixed Portuguese and African ancestry. Positioned on the great trade routes between Africa, Europe, and the New World (The United State of America), the islands became a wealthy center for the slave trade but suffered economic problems after the slave trade was abolished in 1876. In the 20th century, Cape Verde served as a shipping port. In 1951, Cape Verde's status changed from a Portuguese colony to overseas colonies, and in 1961 the land became full Portuguese citizens. An independence movement led by the African Party for the Independence of Guinea-Bissau (another former Portuguese colony) and Cape Verde was founded in 1956. On Jan. 13, 1991, the first multi-party elections, since independence, resulted in the ruling African Party for the Independence of Cape Verde (PAICV) losing its majority to the Movement for Democracy Party (MPD). The MPD candidate, Antonio Monteiro, won the subsequent presidential election, and was easily reelected in 1996. In 2001, Pedro Pires became president.
Mayra Andrade was born in Havana, Cuba but her parents are both from Cape Verde. She spent her early childhood in Praia, Cape Verde. Andrade spent the first years of her life in Cape Verde. Because her father was a diplomat (a person appointed by a national government to conduct official negotiations and maintain political, economic, and social relations with another country or countries) for the Cape Verdean government, she traveled with her family and lived in many countries during her childhood. She spent around two months of the year in the Cape Verdean island of Santiago. Then, at the age of six, she went with her mother and diplomat stepfather to Senegal, Angola and Germany. When she returned to Cape Verde at the age of fourteen, she began to sing and won a gold medal at the 2001 Francophone Games contest in Ottawa. Andrade moved to Paris in 2002 when she was 17 years old and has lived there ever since. Most of the lyrics of the songs on her albums are in her native Cape Verdean Crioulo language. The first song she remembers singing is "O Leãozinho" by the Brazilian musician Caetano Veloso, whom she has cited as a musical influence. I picked Cape Verde because Cape Verde was colonized by Europeans and its natural resources were stripped from the land and left alone. Until the Slave trade began, men, woman and their children where pulled out of their house and thrown on boats against their wills and shipped all over the world. Some families where separated, some people never made it, and some people could not take it so they jumped off the ships. I found it interesting how the Europeans came to even the smallest countries and took over killed and in-slaved their people. Even though these were sad actions Cape Verde soon after recovered from those days. Today, Cape Verde is a great place to visit and has a good steady tropical climate year round (unless you're trying to grow crops). It's cooler than most of the rest of West Africa. The average day time high temperatures range from about 20 - 28 Celsius (70 - 85 Fahrenheit), with the warmer temperatures falling from May to November. For the tourist, it's basically warm enough to hike and swim throughout the year, although nights can get chilly from December through March. The harmattan does reach half the archipelago, bringing hot winds and Saharan sands along with it during November - March. Most of the rain falls between the end of August and beginning of October. The best time for festivals is around carnival in February, Mindelo on Sao Vicente Island in particular should not be missed. The busiest season is between November and April, when the dry warm weather attracts lots of Europeans looking to escape their winter.