Famine and PovertyAuthor(s): Robert HarrisonSource: Africa Today, Vol. 10, No. 3 (Mar., 1963), pp. 8-9Published by: Indiana University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4184398 .

Accessed: 14/06/2014 18:49

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

.

Indiana University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Africa Today.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 194.29.185.145 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 18:49:36 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

The Cape Verde Islands PORTUGUESE GUINEA

CAPE VERDI ISLANDS SANTO ANPA

(E2 ~~~~SAL

i,A16 vICENTE 4 J4 ,l

-AG W LCGLA I

WGA VISTA

ROERT HARRISON OG aAIG b A A

',SAGo Ti-AC

S: OMiE 300 MILE'.S ofr the coast ol( Senegal an(d about the same distance south (o)f the Tropic of Cancer

lie the ten habitable islands, phlis a few small heaps of rock, t;hat; make uip the volcanic Cape Veride Islands. T'he terrain is rough a4nd rocky (one peak stands nearly 9,300 feet;), and muich of it is not arablc; there are few good lhaibors (though one exception is the perfectly r-otund crater of an old voleatno at Mindelo ont Sao Vicente). The sea. between the islan(ds is also roughl, so that boating is often dangerous and always dliffricult. The great recurrent; problem is drought and erosion, pro(duiced partly by the geographical location of the islands and partlly by the Wholesale deforesta- tion pr-acticed by the settlers and the goats they intro- duced. The name, Cape Verde, incidentally, is that of a point of land on the West coast of' Africa nearest to the islands.

The islands, uninhabited at tlhe time, were claimed for Portugal in 1460, and Portuguese settlers began moving in immediately. African slaves were brought in to work the land, and by 1.466 Cape Verde had be- come a station for the overseas slave trade. The es- tablishment of a fueling station some centuries later at Mindelo did much to develop the islands, as did the emigration to the United States in the latter part of the 19th century of Cape Verdians who sent back enough of their wages t-o play an important part in the economy.

From this it will be suirmised that the economy has always been in an extremely (lelicate balance . . . and ssuch is the case. T'he per capita income is a small frac- tion that of Portugal, which has perhaps the lowest living standards in Western Europe. The islands have never been able to grow enouigh food, for instance, or to prodluce enotigh of much of anything else for their own needs. Aside from coal and oil (which must be imported in the first place), Cape Verde has also sup- plied ships with water (a fairly scarce commodity.) The main exports have always been canned fish and salt. Tobacco, sugar, coffee, and a nut used in soap manufacture are also produced.

Famine has, for centuries, been a present or poten- tial threat, and the population hias fluctuated wildly in resplonfse to the food supply. In 1900 it was a little, over 147,000. The 19)50 population was also 147,000. 8lut just before the 1940 famine the population was 181,000. The 1960 population was said to have climbed to 202,000. A Portuguese doctor has stated that "In the course of the last 227 years, there have been over 30 famines .. . More than 20,000 persons died in the famine of 1940 . . . Most had died! from chronic hLunger."

Partly because of the difficulty o'f communication among the islands, social services such as medicine and education are quiit;e inadequate. In the midst of ssuch tropical disea.ses as malaria and tetan'us, three hospitals and 20 doctors for 200,000 people on ten islands scattered over an area of 35,000 square miles can not do much to safeguard health. Nor can one primary school per parish.. an(d one secondary school for the whole archipelago ensure a trained leadership for the future. In spite of all this, Cape Verde has the highest rate of literacy among the Portuguese African territ6ries, and except for starvation the health of the people is relatively good.

For Cape Verde as a whole, mestiCos (those of mixed Portuguese and African ancestry) constitute over three-fifths of the population. The next most nu- merous group consists of Africans, with Europeans only about eight peercent of the total. The language is officially Portuguese, of course, but it is more nearly "pidgin" Portuguese, and in fact, because of isolation, some of the islands tend to develop their own dialects. To the great chagrin of Lisbon, the Portuguese re- ligion and even Portugues6 civilization itself have lost some of their purity in contact with an alien culture.

Even so, the Lisbon Government regards the popiu- lation of Cape Verde in an entirely different light

ROBERT HARRISON iS a Portuguese-speaking Texan currently. in West Africa.

8 AFRICA TODAY

This content downloaded from 194.29.185.145 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 18:49:36 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

from that of its other African territories such as Angola: the indigenato (the juridical set of police controls applied to "natives") has no place here, nor is there any system of assimilation, for all citizens of whatever color or ancestry are considered civilized. The inhabitants of Cape Verde therefore come far closer to the status of those of Porttigal itself, and the territory to being an actual overseas province. The Portuguese Government has officially stated that Cape Verde is already integrated with Portugal; as it offi- cially states much the same thing with regard to Angola, where most of the people have nothing to say about even their own, local government, and with regard to Madeira, which sends representatives to the Portuiguese Cortes in Lisbon, it is not easy for an ouLtsider to grasp the distinctions.

For administrative pturposes the islands are divided into 12 concelhos, which are subdivided into 31 fre- guuesias (parishes). The Governor is appointed by Lis- bon and is assisted by two councils. The Cape Verdi- ans have the right of vote under the same laws as the Portuguese in the Metropole. Many Cape Verdians hold high government posts, and many others hold official positions in Portuguese Guinea on the continent.

The Portugguese firmly believe that the Cape Verdi- ans have never entertained any thought of independ- ence. As the Portuguese have thotught the same thing about each of their other territories where rebellion has broken out, it should surprise no one to learn that there is an independence movement, not in Cape Verde, to be surd-liberty is a plant that does not flourish in the Portuguese climate-but of Cape Verdian emi- grants in Dakar and Conakry. The Mouvement de Liberation des Iles du CapNVert (to give it its French

name) is the only important organization working excltusively for independence for Cape Verde; most of the 30,000 Cape Verdians in Senegal belong to the branch there led by Jose ,Andrade, and there is another large branch in Guinea. Groups working for the inde- pendence of both Portuguese Guinlea and Cape Verde include the Guinean Liberation Front, headed by Ibrahim Diallo, and, most important, the African In- dependence Party df Guinea and Cape Verde, led by Amilcar Cabral.

One organizational problem arises from tlhe fact that Portugal has used so many Cape Verdians, with their superior education, as administrators in Portu- guese Guinea. As most of these are mestiqos and are resented on racial grounds by the Africans, as they have the privileges of full Portuiguese citizenship, and as the Guineans naturally distruiist government offi- cials, the problem of the Cape Verdians seeking sup- port for their independence movement has been some- what complicated, Nevertheless, with both groups foreed to work outside Portuguese territory there is more rapport than could otherwise be the case.

Meanwhile, in Cape Verde the Portuiguese Govern- ment seems to be making a real effort to compensate in some measure for centuries of neglect. A new water supply and drainage system will be undertaken shortly on the islands of Sao Vicente and Sao Tiago. New private secondary schools, with government subsidy, are planned, the first to be opened later this year with four more to follow in the next three years. However, Portugal itself is far from wealthy, and there seems at present little hope that the economy of the islands can ever be self-supporting. The future will be at the very least difficult.

A Test of Solidarity

OUR EAST AFRICAN CORRESPONDENT

H ERE UNDER THE SHINING MOUN- HTAIN (Lit. Kilima-njaro), the smoke is clearing away from the town of' Moshi (Lit. smoke). Members of the 60 delegations to the Second Afro- Asian Solidarity Conference, plus 40 groups of observers and swarms of staff workers and pressmen are filter- ing away through the airport.

Only a few weeks before, President Nyerere had proclaimed the change of name of Kilimanjaro's loftiest

point, from Kaiser Wilhelm Spitze to Uhuru Peak. And as he made his dec- laration, Kirilo Japhet, one of the founders of the Tanganyika African National Union, atop the peak, un- furled the national flag from a moun- taineer's ice ax.

Seventeen thousand feet below this memorial was the setting of the Soli- darity Conference. President Nyerere welcomed the delegates with a speech whose echo resounded prophetically

over the entire week. Nyerere set forth a definition of neo-colonialism long needed, and pointed out from just where to expect the "second scramble for Africa."

Neo-colonialism, he said, is simply new attempts by outsiders to control Africa. Afro-Asiaii solidarity can be based only upon everyone's accept- ance of "the right of the people of every country to have the government they want." Whether others outside think the choice right Qr wrong is none of their business.

Dr. Nyerere set freedom's basic moral principle of self-determination and respect for the dignity and worth of in(lividual persons against the principle of those who assume that they have some divine right to manip- ulate others and interfere in their affairs.

And while everyone beat the dead horse of European imperialism, Dr. Nyerere warned of being duped by

MARCH :963

This content downloaded from 194.29.185.145 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 18:49:36 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions