Summary Impact Type

Research Subject Area(s)

Download original

Summary of the impact

The Republic of Cape Verde is an island nation of approximately 500,000
people off western Africa. Following a history of European colonization,
particularly in the context of slave trading, it achieved independence in
1975. Its economy is largely service- and tourism-oriented, making
enhanced recognition of its heritage of paramount social and economic
importance. At the invitation of the University Jean Piaget, Cape Verde,
and working with the country's Ministério da Cultura, the
University of Cambridge has conducted excavations since 2006 and trained
local archaeologists since 2007. This work helped underpin the Ministry's
successful bid, in 2008 to 2009, for Cape Verde's first World Heritage
Site (WHS) - overturning a previous negative decision by the Bureau of the
World Heritage Committee in 1992.

Underpinning research

Since 2006, Marie Louise Stig Sørensen and Christopher Evans
(respectively Reader in the Division of Archaeology and the Executive
Director of the Cambridge Archaeological Unit, both employed by the
University of Cambridge for over twenty years) have conducted pioneering
archaeological investigations on the Cape Verde islands, focusing on the
Portuguese early slave-transhipment port-of-call centre of Cidade Velha
(also known as Ribeira Grande). Prior to their involvement there had been
no professional archaeological investigation of the early colonial history
of these islands and their important position within the emergence of the
Trans- Atlantic slave trade.

Until their work, the history of Cape Verde had only been known through
textual sources. This archaeological research has therefore added
invaluable new information including the layout of the earliest settlement
(Cidade Velha), the character and phasing of the earliest religious
structures, and the development of local cultural forms. The
archaeological works undertaken by Sørensen and Evans have begun to reveal
the contribution of the island's African population, which hitherto was
almost invisible despite the country's existence being the result of the
slave trade. Through such discoveries their work has contributed in
important ways both to grand narratives, such as studies of Portuguese
imperial expansion in the Atlantic World, and to specific socio-political
discussions of the construction of creolized cultures, in particular
whether west-African Luso-African identities and cultural-political
practices extended to Cape Verde.

Between 2006 and 2011 Sørensen and Evans conducted an environs landscape
survey and located several of the major building complexes from the
foundation of Cidade Velha reconstructed on the basis of early maps.
Concurrent test excavations led to the discovery in 2007 of the remains of
N. S. da Conceição, the earliest known European church in the
tropics (fifteenth century AD) as well as the remains of an early hospital
and a Jesuit seminarium (both sixteenth century AD). Rescue excavations
were also conducted within the waterfront-area of the early town.

The work altered understanding of the historical importance of Cidade
Velha, as it provides material proof of text-based interpretations of the
presence of fifteenth-century religious structures and the
sixteenth-century presence of the Jesuits. The archaeological work has
revised previous assumptions about the layout of the earliest settlement
and its subsequent development, and complements evidence of
worldwide-trade previously only witnessed through commercially rescued
shipwrecks. In addition, the work demonstrates that there are still
several unexplored ruins covered by alluvial deposits.

The significance of the research has been widely recognized by key
scholars in the field of Portuguese early colonialism: Abulafia
(Cambridge), Manuel (Lisbon) and Caritas (Funchal). Arguably its most
significant academic contribution underpinning the WHS bid is in revealing
that there is a tangible physical record of the early colonial activities,
including the slave trade and the emergence of a creole Luso-African
culture.

References to the research

(in alphabetical/chronological order)

Key Research Outputs:

1. Evans, C., Sørensen, M.L.S. and Richter, K. 2012. An early Christian
church in the Tropics: Excavation of the N. S. da Conceição, Cidade Velha,
Cape Verde. In Green, T. (ed.), Brokers of Change: Atlantic Commerce
and Cultures in Precolonial Western Africa. (Proceedings of the
British Academy 178.) Oxford: Oxford University Press/British Academy,
173-192. INT1* category peer-reviewed publication on the European
Reference Index for the Humanities. ISBN: 9780197265208
DOI: 10.5871/bacad/9780197265208.001.0001

2. Sørensen, M.L.S. 2007. What does sustainability have to do with it?
Reflections upon heritage language and the heritage of slavery and
missionaries. In Carman, J. and White, R. (eds), World Heritage:
Global Challenges; Local Solutions. (BAR International Series 1698.)
Oxford: Archaeopress, 75-80. ISBN: 9781407301402

4. Sørensen, M.L.S., Evans, C. and Richter, K. 2011. A place of history:
Archaeology and heritage at Cidade Velha, Cape Verde. In Lane, P. and
MacDonald, K.C. (eds), Slavery in Africa: Archaeology and Memory.
(Proceedings of the British Academy 168.) Oxford: Oxford University
Press/British Academy, 421-442. INT1* category peer-reviewed publication
on the European Reference Index for the Humanities. ISBN: 9780197264782
DOI: 10.5871/bacad/9780197264782.001.0001

*INT1 - International publication with high visibility and influence
among researchers in the various research domains in different countries,
regularly cited all over the world.

Details of the impact

Discovering the existence of an almost totally unexplored archaeological
record of the history of the early settlement of Santiago Island has had
impact of clear reach and significance. As all prior attention had focused
on the standing ruins in Cidade Velha, this discovery greatly influenced
the thinking of the Ministry of Culture of Cape Verde and resulted in the
overturning (in 2009) of a previous decision (in 1992) by the Bureau of
the World Heritage Committee to deny Cidade Velha inscription on UNESCO's
World Heritage List. Discovery of the earliest church and other early
remains at Cidade Velha, as a result of Sørensen and Evans' archaeological
excavations, was used in supporting documentation for the Ministry's new
and successful World Heritage Site bid, with the International Council on
Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) noting that "there is no doubt about the
authenticity of the monumental ruins and archaeological remains of Ribeira
Grande". The impact of the Cambridge research is both implicitly and
explicitly acknowledged by UNESCO in their emphasis on continued
international cooperation and mention by the ICOMOS Advisory Body of
"Archaeological research ... inside the property, particularly in the
cathedral, in cooperation with the United Kingdom".

Archaeological training by Cambridge (from 2007 onward) also figured in
the initial WHS bid document, and two trainees have gone on to work in the
newly established World Heritage Office in Cidade Velha. Given the success
of this initiative ICOMOS have recommended that the Management Committee
for the Cidade Velha site continue to "pay particular attention to the
competencies and training of the personnel directly in charge of the
property" - a priority which the Cambridge archaeologists are continuing
to support with on-going provision of training.

The Cambridge discoveries of buried ruins of important buildings have
significantly influenced the shape of the 2013-2017 Management Plan for
the Cidade Velha WHS drawn up by the Ministry of Culture, and they have
asked Sørensen and Evans to act as advisers on its implementation. Their
archaeological research and professional involvement have contributed
importantly to satisfying UNESCO's expectation of care for the
archaeological resource, as well as demonstrating the potential for
further enhancement of the town's historical significance and added value
in terms of tourism. Thus the archaeological research and management plan
together offer the potential of sustainable local socio-economic
development.

As Cape Verde is an extremely poor country, the importance of developing
high-revenue, but low-impact, tourism is obvious. Recognizing this
imperative, the mayor of Cidade Velha has now purchased land including the
earliest church with a view to full excavation and public display. As a
direct result of Cidade Velha gaining World Heritage status, the town has
become a much more attractive tourism destination, and will thus be a
source of local employment and increased tourist revenues. The value of
Cambridge's archaeological work for tourism is unambiguous, one example
being its inclusion in the 2011 edition of the Brandt Travel Guide
for Cape Verde.