{"id":2,"date":"2014-12-01T22:28:16","date_gmt":"2014-12-01T21:28:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cvraiz.com\/?page_id=2"},"modified":"2024-03-13T13:23:35","modified_gmt":"2024-03-13T12:23:35","slug":"voorbeeld-pagina","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/cvraiz.com\/?page_id=2","title":{"rendered":"Maps"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cape Verde & Upper Guinea<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Nowadays when the average Cape Verdean is asked about his mainland African origins the first thing he will most likely mention is Guin\u00e9. Which by default would imply modernday Guin\u00e9 Bissau. Not surprising given the long mutual history of these ex-Portuguese colonies. However a more correct interpretation would be Upper Guinea or as it was known in the 1500\u2019s \u201cGuin\u00e9 de Cabo Verde\u201d<\/span><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Actual control by the Portuguese was ever decreasing from the moment Northern Europeans (from France, England and the Netherlands) made their first appearance on the scene at the end of the 1500’s. Even though the Portuguese kept claiming the whole area as their exclusive domain (meaning seaborne trade, there were no actual territorial conquests besides Cape Verde). That\u2019s why nowadays Guin\u00e9 Bissau is only a small part of Upper Guinea<\/span><\/strong> especially after Casamance (southern Senegal) also got ceded to France in 1888.<\/p>\n

Still there\u2019s plenty of evidence that people from outside of Guin\u00e9 Bissau & Casamance kept entering Cape Verde not only in the 1500\u2019s\/1600\u2019s but also in the 1700\u2019s and 1800\u2019s. The trading and cultural connections of Cape Verde & Guin\u00e9 Bissau with Luso Africans operating outside<\/span> of Guin\u00e9 Bissau\/Casamance<\/span><\/strong> are probably the main reason behind this.\u00a0<\/span>Cape Verdean priests have been reported to still visit (irregularly) Luso-African settlements in Gambia and Sierra Leone in the 1700\u2019s. Even more so Luso Africans outside of Guin\u00e9 Bissau would be connected with Luso Africans in Cacheu and Bissau in Guin\u00e9 Bissau which functioned as regional entrepots based on relay trading. Additionally continued English\/French slave imports in the early 1700\u2019s from Senegambia proper have been documented for Cape Verde.<\/p>\n

Cape Verde-based traders and Luso African traders took over ancient regional trading networks which were already existing before the arrival of the Portuguese. Although ultimately slave trading was deemed to be most profitable in fact a very diverse trading system was being maintained.<\/span><\/strong> Africans insisting on barter trade and a very localized demand of specific goods ensured that trading patterns were very much regionally interdependent.<\/p>\n

Besides mere continuation of already exisiting trading patterns it can be argued that Cape Verde-based traders and Luso African traders also expanded (volume of trading goods and areas being serviced) and enhanced\/innovated (new products and markets) regional trade. Naturally they were motivated by selfinterest (just like their African trading partners)<\/span><\/strong>. But leaving aside the socially disrupting slave trade possibly they actually also might have generated some positive effects for local economies. Especially the Colombian Exchange<\/a> of crops (maize, manioc, etc.) might have been beneficial.<\/p>\n

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Guin\u00e9 de Cabo Verde<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

This map is depicting the situation around 1580<\/strong><\/span>. However many of these regional trading networks within Upper Guinea (from Senegal to Sierra Leone) were maintained by Crioulo speaking Luso-Africans up till the late 1700\u2019s. They were living in small communities scattered across the Upper Guinean coastal line. Their cultural and genetic bonds with Cape Verde were also being maintained in later centuries until complete assimilation and modern imperialism set in during the 1800\u2019s. Many historians have studied these trading networks. Especially the work of George E Brooks<\/a> is highly recommended!<\/p>\n

(click to enlarge)<\/p>\n

\"Trade<\/a><\/p>\n

Source<\/strong>:\u00a0Atlantic Islands: Madeira, the Azores, and the Cape Verdes in Seventeenth-Century Commerce and Navigation<\/a>\u00a0(T. Bentley Duncan, 1972).<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

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Slave trade from Upper Guinea to Latin America by way of Cape Verde<\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

This map is depicting the situation during the mid 1500’s when Cape Verde’s function as a main hub for Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade was having its peak. Cape Verde\u2019s functioning as a major slave trade port is assumed by historians to have ended in the 1600\u2019s. Cacheu in Guin\u00e9 Bissau was deemed to be more convenient. The captives were overwhelmingly heading for the Hispanic Americas in this early timeperiod. Genetically speaking this is still detectable in the African DNA of many Latin Americans.<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0 I have termed this as a Upper Guinean Founding Effect. See these blogposts for more discussion:<\/p>\n