🇨🇻 Cape Verde
Praia
Praia is the capital of Cape Verde (Cabo Verde), an island nation of 550,000 people on 10 volcanic islands 570 km off the coast of Senegal in the Atlantic Ocean — a former Portuguese colony (discovered uninhabited in 1456, colonized with enslaved Africans who became the majority of the population, independent in 1975) that has become one of Africa's most stable democracies and development success stories, ranking first in the Ibrahim Index of African Governance for West Africa. The Cape Verdean people (the Badiu of Santiago Island, where Praia is located, are the most African in character; the Sampadjudo of the northern islands are more Portuguese-influenced) speak Kriolu (Cape Verdean Creole, a Portuguese-based creole with significant West African vocabulary) and Portuguese; the culture is defined by the concept of saudade (a Portuguese word for nostalgic longing, difficult to translate — a deep emotional state of longing for something loved and lost or absent) expressed most perfectly in morna music, the traditional Cape Verdean musical genre that the world knows through the voice of Cesária Évora (1941–2011, "the Barefoot Diva", who performed without shoes in solidarity with Cape Verde's poor and whose recordings of morna made Cape Verde's music internationally famous). Praia is on the island of Santiago (the largest Cape Verde island), a volcanic landscape of dramatic ribeiras (river gorges), baobab trees, banana and sugar cane plantations in the valleys, and the plateau (plateau — hence "Praia") of the capital city overlooking the Atlantic. The historic quarter of Plateau has the finest colonial architecture in the country, and the 1.5 hrs drive to Cidade Velha (the first European city built in the tropics, UNESCO World Heritage, founded 1462) is the essential Cape Verde historical experience.