António Barbosa Da silva, Ph.D.
This book is a collection of some of my articles written in the monthly Catholic journal Terra Nova from 1991 to 2012. I have two purposes for writing this book. First, I want to create a retrospection of what has happened since the introduction of democracy in Cape Verde on January 13, 1991, when for the first time free elections were held on our islands, resulting in party pluralism that now constitutes the base of our democracy. Secondly, I desire to share with all Cape Verdeans certain fundamental aspects of what I have written during the past two decades about various topics relating to the challenges facing us in the development of Cape Verde. These topics include the issues of health, social justice and democracy, the implementation of which should be based on a humanistic Christian ethic that is essential in promoting the dignity of and respect for all Cape Verdeans. My reflections have always had as their main focus the issue of development in Cape Verde, particularly on the issues of public health and human rights, specifically the rights to life, personal security, liberty and freedom of speech. My articles published in Terra Nova before January 1991 were compiled in the anthology A Odisseia Crioula (The Creole Odyssey), edited jointly by my brother Domingos Barbosa da Silva and myself. These articles were written at different times and consist of disparate themes, addressed to various audiences depending on the socioeconomic and political environments in which they were written. In this book I have attempted to group the texts in a way that builds a coherent narrative—simplifying, clarifying and developing certain passages, which for various reasons I was unable to do at the time of their publication. In light of these goals, I do not give preference to the chronology of the selected articles, but rather to their content. I have had to modify some of the articles in an attempt to re-contextualize them into a new context, after they have circulated in dif
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