Baptized in Grog
Cabo Verde is simply magical.
I mean, it is such a funny feeling to be in a place and also be genuinely happy, but that’s how we feel. Granted, salmonella poisoning didn’t help and we aren’t yet able to explore the 9 other islands due to the pandemic, but coming here was a kind of homecoming for us. As a product of the slave trade, West Africa will forever hold a special place in my heart. This is especially true, now more than ever, because everyone thinks that I am Cabo Verdean … so much so that they speak to me in the local language, Krioulu … a language very similar to Portuguese but different enough that I will need a tutor to learn the specific dialect spoken here in Praia.
Looking Cabo Verdean and then saying I don’t speak Krioulu raised a few eyebrows so I’m going to do what I can to get the basics quickly.
One of my dear colleagues who is trying to help me learn also took us to the “old city” (Cidade Velha), the first settlement in all of Cabo Verde. A beautiful colonial village teeming with rich history just 20 minutes from Praia, we visited the Fort, a cathedral in ruins, and the pillory in the townsquare.
Now, I had to google a pillory, but our tour guide explained that this was the place where people, mostly slaves, were beaten or killed as a matter of public spectacle.
As our tour moved away from the sight of the pillory to the rocky beach, I couldn’t help but imagine my own ancestors having potentially left these very shores, a native son come home, come full circle.
My spirits were immediately lifted by the sight of two traditional dancers, older women with traditional cloth tied about their butts. They told us that during the slave trade, their ancestors would use drums to communicate across the islands. The slave traders caught on and took the drums away so the women used their bodies as instruments to move messages across the city. These women named themselves our aunties as they baptized us in a local moonshine called grog, a kind of homemade rum made from sugarcane. They gathered everyone’s hands on top of the other, poured the grog over all of our hands and declared that we had returned home.
Indeed, we have.
Once the Rona is done, make sure you guys come visit and I too will make sure that you are baptized in Grog!
Peace and blessings,
… the trendy one
ps - have you listened to the latest episode of the family we choose?
