CAPE VERDE BASIN

Portuguese Bacia Do Cabo Verde, submarine depression in the Atlantic Ocean that rises to meet the submerged Mid-Atlantic Ocean Ridge to the west and the western African coast to the east. With the contiguous Canary Basin (north), it forms an arc that swings around the western coast of Africa west and southwest of the Cape Verde islands. Though the greater part of the Atlantic Ocean floor is covered by oceanic oozes, in the Cape Verde Basin, which has an average depth of more than 23,600 feet (7,200 m) below sea level, the ooze is replaced by red clay. Here the waters are warmer and saltier and are joined by cooler waters from the Sierra Leone Basin on the south. The Canary Current, flowing southward into the basin, blends with and is warmed by the Atlantic Equatorial Countercurrent in the west and the Guinea Current to the south. Cultural life Portuguese customs and culture have influenced the islands, but they are blended with African traditions as well. Popular culture demonstrates the African heritage. There is a rich body of oral narratives. Popular characters in these stories are Ti Lobo and Chibinho (Uncle Wolf and Nephew). Improvised singing is a feature of social gatherings and festivities. The melancholic morna, expressing the sorrows of emigration and love, is a song form unique to Cape Verde. Since the late 19th century, Cape Verde has produced some outstanding writers and poets. Between 1936 and 1960 the cultural magazine Claridade (Clarity) was the focus for an artistic movement that marked a break with Portuguese literary traditions and established a Cape Verdean identity. Baltasar Lopes da Silva, who used the pseudonym Osvaldo Alcntara for his poetry, is a key figure from this period. Later writers have extended the movement's interest in the Creole culture to use Crioulo as well as Portuguese. Corsino Fortes is the best-known poet of this later generation. One television channel and two government radio stations broadcast in Portuguese and Crioulo. A weekly government newspaper, Voz di Povo (Voice of the People), is published in Praia. Foreign publications circulate freely, as do local magazines. There is a publishing house, the Cape Verdean Institute of Books, which specializes in works on Cape Verdean history and culture.