Information about Cape Bojador

Cape Bojador or Cape Boujdour (Arabic: رأس بوجادور, pronounced Ra's Boujador in Arabic) is a headland on the northern coast of Western Sahara, at 26° 07' 37"N, 14° 29' 57"W. (Various sources give various locations: this is from the Sailing Directions for the region.), as well as the name of a nearby town with a population of 41,178^[1].

It is shown on nautical charts with the original Portuguese name "Cabo Bojador", but is sometimes spelled "Cape Boujdour". It is said that it is also known as the "Bulging Cape," although no references to this usage are to be found in standard geographical references. The Cape's name in Arabic is "Abu Khatar", meaning "the father of danger."

The cape is not prominent on maps but may be located by looking 220 km (120 nautical miles) due south of the southwestern point of the hook of Fuerteventura, Canary Islands.

Historical significance

The discovery of a passable route around Cape Bojador, in 1434, by the Portuguese mariner Gil Eanes was considered a major breakthrough for European explorers and traders en route to Africa and later to India. Eanes had made a previous attempt in 1433 which resulted in failure, but tried again under orders of Prince Henry the Navigator, who first sent him in 1424. He was successful after the fifteenth expedition. The disappearance of numerous European vessels that made prior attempts, despite its violent seas, to round the Cape led some to suggest the presence of sea monsters. The region's coastal areas quickly became a very important area for the Portuguese traders, whose first delivery of African slaves to Lisbon occurred in 1434. The mythic importance of the cape for Portugal was captured in Fernando Pessoa's eary 20th century work "Mensagem." In famous stanzas from this longer poem Pessoa wrote of the enormous costs of the Portuguese explorations to the nation. Capturing the symbolic importance to the nation of rounding Cape Bojador, Pessoa wrote: "He who wants to pass beyond Bojador, Must also pass beyond pain." (Quem quer passar além do Bojador, Tem que passar além da dor.)

The reason for the fearsome reputation of the cape is not immediately obvious from maps, where it appears as the southwestern point of a slight hump in the coastline, bounded at its other end by Cabo Falso Bojador, ten nautical miles to the northeast. Nor does what is said in the Sailing Directions sound terribly formidable: "Cabo Falso Bojador is formed by several tall sand dunes. ... A rocky shoal, with a least depth of 4.8m, extends up to 3 miles N of the cape. A rocky patch, with a least depth of 8m, lies about 2 miles W of the cape. The coast between Cabo Falso Bojador and Cabo Bojador, 10 miles SW, consists of a sandy beach fringed by rocks. Clumps of scrub top the sand dunes which stand about 0.5 mile inland of this beach. Heavy breakers have been observed along this coast at all times. Cabo Bojador, a very low point, is located 9.5 miles SW of Cabo Falso Bojador and is bordered on the S side by black rocks. From the N, the cape appears as a mass of red sand with a gradual slope towards the sea. From the W, the cape is difficult to identify, but from the S its extremity appears as a reef which dries in places and is marked by breakers even in calm weather."

Examining the Pilot Charts for this area, however, it becomes clear that the main concern lay in the changes in winds that occur at about the point at which Cape Bojador is passed in sailing down the coast. It is here that the winds start to blow strongly from the northeast at all seasons. Together with the half-knot set of current down the coast, these conditions would naturally alarm an ignorant and superstitious Medieval mariner used to sailing close to the land and having no knowledge of what lay ahead. In the end it was discovered that by sailing well out to sea -- far out of sight of land -- a more favorable wind could be picked up.

In modern time

Spain claimed a protectorate over the coastal region from Cap Blanc, far to the south of Cape Bojador, to a point about 200 km to the north in 1884. In 1975, as Spain pulled out, and following the Madrid Accords, Morocco sought to gain control over the area, leading to disputes between Morocco and Algeria, who funds the Polisario Front, the organization which proclaimed the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic in 1976.

Today the towns near Cape Bojador are prospering due to a large influx of Sahrawi settlers though many of the native Sahrawis are still refugees in the camps of Tindouf, Algeria.

In the Tindouf region of Algeria, there is a refugee camp for Sahrawis named after Cape Bojador. See Daira de Bojador.

References

• Sailing Directions (Enroute), West Coast of Europe and Northwest Coast of Africa (Pub. 143) (Bethesda: National Geo-Spatial Intelligence Agency, 2005), p. 214, s.v. "Cabo Bojador."
• Charles Ralph Boxer, The Portuguese Seaborne Empire, 1415-1825 (London: Hutchinson and Co., 1969) [Caracanet, 1991], pp. 25-6.
• Atlas of Pilot Charts: North Atlantic Ocean (Washington: National Imagery and Mapping Agency, 2002).

External links

• Satellite image of the town in Google Maps

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