The Upper Guinea origins of Papiamentu

This paper deals with the linguistic and historical relationships between Papiamentu and Upper Guinea Creole as spoken on the Santiago island of Cape Verde and in Guinea-Bissau and Casamance. In the linguistic section, the hypothesis that Papiamentu is a relexified offshoot of an early Upper Guinea Creole variety is lent support by focusing on the structural correspondences of the function words in five grammatical categories (pronouns, question words, prepositions, conjunctions and reciprocity and reflexivity). In addition, salient data from several early (18th and 19th century) Papiamentu texts is presented. The historical section provides a framework that accounts for the linguistic transfer from Upper Guinea to Curaçao in the second half of the 17th century

Analysis of malaria associated genetic traits in Cabo Verde, a melting pot of European and sub Saharan settlers

Malaria has occurred in the Cabo Verde archipelago with epidemic characteristics since its colonization. Nowadays, it occurs in Santiago Island alone and though prophylaxis is not recommended by the World Health Organization, studies have highlight the prospect of malaria becoming a serious public health problem as a result of the presence of antimalarial drug resistance associated with mutations in the parasite populations and underscore the need for tighter surveillance. Despite the presumptive weak immune status of the population, severe symptoms of malaria are not observed and many people present a subclinical course of the disease. No data on the prevalence of sicklecell trait and red cell glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency (two classical genetic factors associated with resistance to severe malaria) were available for the Cabo Verde archipelago and, therefore, we studied the low morbidity from malaria in relation to the particular genetic characteristics of the human host population. We also included the analysis of the pyruvate kinase deficiency associated gene, reported as putatively associated with resistance to the disease. Allelic frequencies of the polymorphisms examined are closer to European than to African populations and no malaria selection signatures were found. No association was found between the analyzed human factors and infection but one result is of high interest: a linkage disequilibrium test revealed an association of distant loci in the PKLR gene and adjacent regions, only in non-infected individuals. This could mean a more conserved gene region selected in association to protection against the infection and/or the disease.

Boletin dos alunos do Líceu Gil Eanes

Este Boletin destina-se a ser o registo das actividades dos alunos do Líceu Gil Eanes (centro na M.P.), em continuação a uma tradição interrompida com a publicação da ultima edição da Revista Certeza. Contamos dar-lhe a regularidade da publicação(pensamos em números mensais) que caiba dentro das nossas possibilidades. Esperamos, pois, o apoio de todos os nossos colegas para que o Boletim seja aquilo que podemos e devemos fazer