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The Canary Islands are off the coast of West Sahara. That’s the most sparsely populated area of Africa today.

Maybe, as the desert expanded, the seafaring people moved north and south to more hospitable places. Leaving nobody in West Sahara to recontact the Canaries.

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You don't have to guess, because that part of history is well documented. During the middle ages, present-day Morocco all the way to the latitudes of the Canary Islands was often controlled by major powers, such as the Umayyad Caliphate, the Almoravids, and the Almohad Caliphate. They were all naval powers, but their interests were elsewhere.

The Canary Islands doesn't belong to Africa.

Nobody said otherwise.

…and yet tectonically it is not part of the African plate.

Nobody claimed otherwise…

Do you suppose the first Guanches felt the bump when they went over from one plate to the next in their boats?

What? The Canary Islands are very much part of the African Plate. Here, you can see the islands clearly on the map: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_Plate

Are you mistaking them with the Azores?

Geographically it does, ever looked at a map?

Politically its part of Spain of course.

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