Cabo Berde

Kobèrdè (Cabo Verde)

The former plantations Cabo Verde, or Kobèrdè, Seru Fortuna and Stenen Koraal, or Kurá (di) Piedra, together once formed the plantation De Zeegening ("The Blessing").

This is the history of Kobèrdè, a former small plantation at the end of the Rooseveltweg, just before the bend to Hato. It is further bordered by the neighbourhoods Seru Fortuna to the north, Stenen Koraal to the east, and to the south by Goede Hoop (Speransa).

The name Cabo Verde refers to the Cape Verde islands, which lie off the far west of the African continent. They were conquered by the Portuguese and played an important role in the slave trade. It is known that the language spoken on these islands shows a lot of similarity with our Papiamentu.

Both Curaçao and this island group had in the past to deal with a very unwelcome guest: Jacques Cassard.

Nico Eigenhuis relates on Google that the capital of the Cape Verde island group was destroyed in 1712 by the French privateer Jacques Cassard. A year later the same Cassard invaded Curaçao, besieged the island for a number of days and left only after he had received jewels and ransom that was collected among the citizens.

Plantashi (The plantation)

In Suriname, too, there had been a sugar plantation on the Surinamerivier named Cabo Verde since 1677. The plantation of the same name on Curaçao was a kunuku with a lot of mondi (bush) and also manzaliña trees, which usually grow only in water-rich areas.

On the estate Cabo Verde and nearby Goede Hoop there were at least three dams, the best known of which was called the Dam di Señora di Michelle, because the dam ran east of her house. Señora di Michelle was a Lebanese lady who had a small wooden shop here, kept a few sheep and cows, and also sold concrete blocks from a warehouse built of zinc sheets. Nobody knew her real name; she was always referred to as "Michelle's wife". Her house stood on the spot of the present KFC on the Rooseveltweg, and the later house of the Luis de Lannooy family and the (now closed) shop Dovester were built on her former kunuku.

Further along the Rooseveltweg, on the edge of Cabo Verde and level with Mahuma, there are also nine so-called "teachers' houses". These were built on land that had been sold to the Roman Catholic School Board. Most of these houses have now been converted for commercial purposes and are no longer recognisable as dwellings. Similar houses also stand in a row on the east side of the Seru Fortunaweg, diagonally opposite the school at Santa Maria.

Wowo di awa (Eyes of water)

Kobèrdè was very rich in water, thanks to the abundance of water coming from Seru Fortuna. It flowed through the present Muizenberg and, via Kobèrdè and Goede Hoop/Speransa, to Mahuma. On the other side, rainwater also flowed off east of the Ser'i Mahuma to Tanki Kobèrdè, a natural water catchment, where rainwater remained standing for a long time. It is said that at Kobèrdè there was a Tanki grandi (large tank) and a Tanki chikí (small tank), the latter of which was filled in for housing construction. On the water-rich terrain, various small springs arose spontaneously after the rainy season, which were called wowo di awa (eyes of water).

Pos di Kobèrdè (The well of Kobèrdè)

In the kunuku there was also a large well, the Pos di Kobèrdè, where residents of the neighbourhood and of neighbouring districts such as Kurá Piedra (Stenen Koraal), Mahuma, Santa Maria and even Buena Vista came to fetch water. Even during the great drought around 1930 there was still water in the well. With the sale of the land to the government in 1976, however, it was filled in. Also, because of the soft clay soil, part of the terrain had to be filled with diabase for the construction of 105 new public-housing homes. Another part of the plantation was sold to private individuals, but the heart of the original plantation Kobèrdè is still inhabited by the Rojer and Pablo families, heirs of the remarkable Ma Nene di Kobèrdè.

Ma Nene

The Jewish planter Abraham Henriquez Juliao was the owner of the plantation De Zeegening, which was divided into the lands now known as Cabo Verde, Seru Fortuna and Stenen Koraal. In his last will in 1848 Juliao bequeathed the piece of land named Cabo Verde to, among others, Seferina Agnes Gomes (a granddaughter of Rosa Florina Juliao). Abraham Juliao had earlier given the piece of land Betlehem to his natural son, Felix Marten Henriquez Juliao. Betlehem, alias Louis Paula, is a place on the Weg naar Hato. According to Brenneker this is at the present Hondurasweg 46, where the foundations of a small church could be seen for a long time.

The rest of his possessions in Kurá Piedra, Juliao bequeathed to his children by marriage.

Businesswoman

The plantation Kobèrdè thus belonged to the Juliao-Gomez family, ancestors of Jeannette Juliet-Pablo. She says: "According to tradition Rosa Florina Juliao was a black woman and my great-great-grandmother. In 1874 the division of the estate took place and her granddaughter, Seferina Agnes or Angela — Ma Nene — Gomes, inherited her grandfather's estate. Ma Nene was in her time one of the few women who could read and write and was known as a well-to-do lady. As a businesswoman she also had a house in Otrobanda where she stayed for business when she had herself driven to the city by kitoki — horse cart."

She was married to Willem Hendrik — Shon Wein — Rojer. Christel Monsanto, who has studied the genealogy of families on Curaçao, tells: "The father of Willem Hendrik Rojer was Johannes Martinus Polder Rojer (1819–1900). He was not married and invented the name Rooispruit for his enslaved partner, Eliza. In 1853 Rojer freed his partner and their ten children under the name Rooispruit. They thus bore the name of their mother. Only later in their lives did they all almost as a matter of course become Rojer."

Banban di Kobèrdè

Ma Nene thus also appears in some documents as "Seferina Agnes Gomez, married to Willem Hendrik Rojer / Rooispruit". Jeannette Juliet-Pablo: "A well-known son of Ma Nene was Abraham — Banban — di Kobèrdè, who ran part of the terrain as a kunuku. Banban also let his cows and goats graze here and drink water from the Tanki Kobèrdè. He sold milk, eggs and agricultural products and managed a maize mill that many people from the wide surroundings used.

Banban was a striking personality, a handsome figure who often rode around on horseback or with a horse cart," says Juliet-Pablo.

Fresh milk

He was probably on good terms with his neighbour across the way, Zjèn Koítu, who lived in the bend of Seru di Mahuma just before the entrance of the caves of Hato. Zjèn Koítu (Manke Zjèn, "Lame Zjèn") was an Aruban-Indian horse trainer who limped because he had once fallen from a horse. This did not stop him from continuing to do the work.

Also on the other side of Kobèrdè, on the Rooseveltweg, lived the later author, the late Carlos-Papa-Baromeo. He told: "Every day, early in the morning, you could hear when Banban went to milk his cows. He would let out a loud cry and we neighbourhood boys would go in a group to Kobèrdè, glasses and little bowls in hand, to have them filled with warm milk. After that the milk was poured into two large cans at Kobèrdè."

Whirlwind

Baromeo also told about a whirlwind that once raged over Mahuma and tore off several roofs and carried away chicken coops: "In the present Schonegevelstraat, Jan di Wimpy cut off the tail of the whirlwind with two crossed kuchú hulandes (machetes). The weakened whirlwind then drifted over Mahumaweg in the direction of Kobèrdè. Banban fired a number of shots in a cross shape at the whirlwind, which then died a slow death in the Tanki Kobèrdè." The tanki di Kobèrdè is dry today.

A cousin of Banban was Nicolaas Rojer, Tachi di Kobèrdè, one of the first modern car mechanics, who had set up his garage at Kobèrdè. He was also the founder of the Union of Truck Drivers. Other family members are Julio Abraham Rojer, who was a district teacher/headmaster at Dokterstuin and one of the first Curaçao judges, and Josefa "Fina" Pablo-Rojer, a devoted nurse and active member of the Catholic church community of Santa Maria.

Salty terrain

Between the turn-off to Campo Alegre and the Caboverdeweg lies a sizeable stretch of mondi that is also part of Kobèrdè. But here nothing could ever be farmed or built. As a result of a lot of rainwater over thousands of years and the direct proximity of Laman di Nòrt (the north coast), the soil became salty, and it was handed over to the government earlier.

With thanks to: Jeannette Juliet-Pablo, Christel Monsanto, Jeroen Heuvel and Mongui Maduro Library.