Letter from Praia, 1979.

• Author: Marks, Edward

No single term comes to mind to describe 1979 in Cape Verde; it was a year of drift in some respects with the continuation of existing trends and the occurrence of a number of contradictory events.

The eleven-year drought is, of course, the dominant consideration, affecting not only Government policies but seriously draining both public and official morale. The international community continues to be generous and both emergency food assistance and development aid ran at a high level throughout the year. Whether or not development assistance, largely devoted to agriculture, is in fact a meaningful development strategy in Cape Verde remains an open argument but the GOCV, loath like any less developed country to refuse aid, persists in pursuing it. Unfortunately, few of the development projects have yet produced much in the way of visible progress, and there are growing signs of impatience, both within the leadership elite and the general public, with the Government's development record.

On the political side, the Government of Cape Verde increasingly shows signs of institutional insecurity. Both government bureaucratic procedures and security controls continue to expand. The undercurrent of competition between Prime Minister Pedro Pires and Minister of Defense Silvino da Luz continues, with Pires having further consolidated his position as the President's man, and da Luz having had a bad year in a number of ways. The Soviet Union continued an intensified effort to expand its influence during 1979, with only mixed results. Its military assistance program to the new Cape Verde Armed Forces moved smoothly ahead, but all efforts to build on that program met with sharp rebuffs. Indeed, negative reaction among the Cape Verdean political elite contributed much to Silvino da Luz's problems during the year.

Cape Verde relations with Senegal blossomed, under the stimulus of a deepening personal relationship between the two respective Presidents. Meanwhile the formal commitment to unification between Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau continues to be honored largely in the breach but certainly the special relationship between them remains alive.

The year, therefore, was a mixed one: the important long-term trend internationally was the growing intimacy with Senegal, while internally the persistent rivalry between Pedro Pires and Silvino da Luz, intermingled with a growing sense of insecurity and tension and combined with vague feelings of impatience with the lack of progress in a now independent country, dominates the scene.

No ready or simple term comes to mind to characterize the year- 1979 in Cape Verde. A number of trends continued and a number of events - some of them quite dramatic - occurred, but contradictions abounded and the year is without a specific direction. In other words, life went on in Cape Verde without any dramatic turning point.

The general population continued to adjust itself to the rule of the PAIGC, although without any marked enthusiasm. The leadership continues to struggle with the problems of development, bureaucracy and government, finding them difficult and probably insoluble in the short run. Ideologically, the Party and the Government continue to modify their revolutionary ideology while pursuing efforts to obtain greater control over, and instill greater discipline in, the country. Most importantly, the rains failed again and the drought continued for another year. Continued drought, now into its eleventh year, remains the major preoccupation in Cape Verde. 1979 was especially disappointing as the rains came early and in quantity and the corn crop promised to the best in years, almost a return to "normal." Then, in October, the rains failed to return and the corn withered and died. Net corn production for the year was zero, although some minor crops such as beans turned out fairly well.

The continued drought is taking an...