Africa-Press – Cape verde. The Government of Cape Verde will create a “house of friendship” in São Tomé and Príncipe to preserve and promote the history and culture of the two archipelagos, said the Cape Verdean Minister of State, Family, Solidarity and Social Inclusion.
Cape Verde will create a friendship house in São Tomé to preserve stories from the archipelagos
“São Tomé and Cape Verde have such a close, intertwined relationship, (…) and there is no house here that represents this friendship, that represents the two peoples”, said Fernando Elísio Freire to Lusa, at the end of a visit five days to São Tomé and Príncipe.
According to the Cape Verdean ruler, there is an agreement and will between the prime ministers of São Tomé and Príncipe and Cape Verde, respectively, Patrice Trovoada and Ulisses Correia e Silva, for the materialization of this project, this year, to tell the “history of how the Cape Verdeans got here, what they did” and the impact they had on São Tomé, as well as the São Toméans on Cape Verde since the period before independence.
“This project is already advanced. At this moment, São Tomé was left to provide us with the space so that we could equip and create the entire historical collection of what happened. There has to be collaboration between the two States and a third State, which is Portugal, so that we can explain this story well”, highlighted Fernando Elísio Freire.
Last week, the Minister of State, Family, Solidarity and Social Inclusion of Cape Verde was in São Tomé in contact with local authorities and Cape Verdean communities, and said he was impressed with the way Cape Verde’s culture it is preserved and lived by communities.
“All these days in São Tomé I have only spoken Creole with our community, I have danced to the songs of our land, which is a clear demonstration that, after almost 70 years, Cape Verde is still present, it is alive, within every citizen of Cape Verdean origin. This is extraordinary, they are currently the greatest ambassadors we have all over the world, but specifically here in São Tomé”, said Elísio Freire.
“It is an extraordinary work from generation to generation and this is what marked me most, the way in which Cape Verde remains extremely alive within São Tomé society, and this is a source of pride for us”, added the Cape Verdean official.
The minister reaffirmed Cape Verde’s intention to accelerate and expand the number of pensioners in São Tomé and Príncipe, but assured that there will be no increase in the value in the coming years.
“It has an overall cost of around 600 thousand euros per year, in São Tomé alone, to provide a pension to 1,150 citizens of Cape Verdean origin […] We know that people need income, education, health, training, housing, electricity water and sanitation. Having this, they can ascend” he highlighted. The Week with Lusa
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