April 12, 2025

Like many isolated islands, today’s port of Mindelo on the island of Sāo Vincente in the country of Cape Verde is one of 10 islands that were uninhabited when Portuguese explorers discovered them. Lying in the mid-Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Senegal in West Africa, Cape Verde later played a key role in the African slave trade.

Although the islands of Cape Verde are mostly volcanic and sparsely populated, (some of the islands have no residents) it is uniquely beautiful as many parts of the desert states are in the United States.

Cape Verde is a country that is defined in so many ways by what isn’t there. More Cape Verdians live outside the country than live in it. It is one of the only countries in the world where the diaspora population outnumber those who live at home. Estimates are about 1 million live abroad while the islands are inhabited by about half of that. Do they not like their country? No. People leave because they have to not because they want to. The lack of employment, the need for education and to support families at home is what drives them. Anyone who is part of the diaspora will tell you that when you pack your bags a piece of home still travels with you.

This is not a new migration.

Cape Verde was built by enslaved Africans under colonial rule. Cape Verde became one of the first Creole societies in the Atlantic a mix of African and European cultures, languages and traditions. The migration began as part of The Atlantic Free Trade agreement and later through waves of economic migration. We are talking about centuries of migration pulling people away by economics yet still holding on to an idea of home. How do you describe what it feels like to miss something that you can’t explain?

I found the answer in a mural on the side of a building in Mindelo.

Cesaria Evora was born in 1941 to a single mother struggling to cope. Cesaria was singing in bars at 14 to dock workers who came to the port of Mindelo. Although her voice was as strong as the wind blowing through the open door, she lived on the meager tips that were left for her. Like others she left Cape Verde and worked as a cook, maid or panhandled money to survive. She did not sing for 20 years. She decided to come back to Cape Verde in her 40’s just a quiet return to Mindelo. But things were about to change.

Prompted to sing in a bar again her haunting voice was heard by a record producer who invited her to Paris, where she recorded a song called “The Barefoot Diva.” That name stuck and for the first time in decades Cesaria Evora stepped into her own story. That voice, an honest voice, a lived in voice, a voice that held a thousand good-byes spoke to the world. Her album Voz d’ Amor (Voice of Love), won a Grammy Award in 2004. Her’s is the voice of someone who is trying not to cry but sings anyway.

Cesaria Evora created a music genre called morna. It is Cape Verde’s signature music. It is often compared to American blues. It is slow, melancholy. It lives in a minor key; it sways to the rhythm of the ocean. It is full of longing, nostalgia but not just for a place but for a person, a time, a version of yourself that no longer exists. It is music for those who left and for those who desire to come home.

Cesaria Evora wasn’t young when she became successful. She wasn’t polished, she didn’t speak English, she didn’t speak French even though she became successful in Paris. She never signed a record contract with a major record label, and she always performed barefoot at her concerts. Yet, her music took people to a place they hadn’t been to in years. It conveyed the feeling that although you left you didn’t have to let go. She answered this question for all people around the world who yearned to connect with their past. How do you describe what it feels like to miss something that you can’t explain? You keep the music and the memory alive.

Cesaria Evora died in 2011. That is the year the mural was painted.

Thanks for traveling with us.