Portuguese research on the slave trade 263Would Central and South America be as they are today without the
contribution made by the African, whether as a slave or as a free man? The
answer is obviously no.
Brazil, for example, was profoundly influenced by the Bantu culture
(which in certain aspects was far more influential than the Sudanese culture)
in the areas of music, language, food, magical and cult practices, even though
the latter are quite syncretistic. Most Brazilian musical instruments are nothing
other than adaptations of Angolan instruments. Another sign of this influence
is the way society was organized at the time when the 'Casa Grande' was one
of the prominent social features. Apart from these generic aspects, the most
' vital ' sign of African cultural influence is the presence in Brazilian society of
the Negroes and mestizos (individuals of mixed blood: from a white man and
Negro woman, or even from two mestizos). Despite the 'injection' of white
blood, Negro blood is still very strong in Brazil.
Another, perhaps more interesting, example is the creóle islands : Cape
Verde, practically all the West Indian islands and, on another level, Sao Tomé.
Generally speaking, these islands have a creóle population with a creóle lan-
guage and a creóle culture. The degree of miscegenation, and linguistic and
cultural intermixture may vary. Nevertheless, the reality of these islands should
not be underestimated or denied.
The creolization, in the broadest sense of the term, of the inhabitants of
the Cape Verde islands has the Portuguese language and culture as its base,
just as the creolization of Haiti, Guadeloupe and Martinique is based on
the French language and culture, and the creolization of the Dominican Repub-
lic on the Spanish language and culture. The same applies to other islands and
areas which we are unable to mention owing to lack of space.
In all these areas, the dominant human type is markedly African, although
there is evidence of hybridism. Apart from physical appearance, we should
consider the main aspect of culture: the language. To give an example, the
Cape Verde creóle, spoken by all the inhabitants (although the majority under-
stand Portuguese), has a vocabulary which is 90 per cent Portuguese (including
various archaic forms), 5 per cent Mandingo or Fula, with the remaining 5 per
cent being derived from various other European languages. However, the basic
grammar of the language is of African origin.
The same sort of situation may be encountered in Haiti where 90 per
cent of the population speak a creóle French, and in the Dominican Republic
where the language is a creóle Spanish.
Various European languages, and Portuguese in particular, were in
some degree influenced by the African languages. However, this influence was
confined to the acceptance of a limited number of words which today form
part of the national vocabulary. Such a phenomenon is the normal outcome
of this type of relationship between peoples who speak different languages.