Culture of the Month : Cape Verde (November 2007)
Every month, our Cultural Awareness prefects - Menen Hailu and Eva Oppong - will bring to this page information and interesting facts about a particular culture.
 
The Republic of Cape Verde is a republic located on an archipelago in the Macaronesia ecoregion of the North Atlantic Ocean, off the western coast of Africa. The previously uninhabited islands were discovered and colonised by the Portuguese in the fifteenth century (though there may have been earlier discoveries). The country is named after Cap Vert (meaning Green Cape.)
Full name: The Republic of Cape Verde
Population: 482,000 (UN, 2005)
Capital: Praia
Area: 4,033 sq km (1,557 sq miles)
Major languages: Portuguese, Crioulo (a mixture of archaic Portuguese and African words)
Major religions: Christianity
Life expectancy: 67 years (men), 73 years (women) (UN)
Monetary unit: 1 Cape Verdean escudo = 100 centavos
Main exports: Shoes, clothes, fish, bananas, hides, pozzolana (volcanic rock, used to make cement)
GNI per capita: US $1,870 (World Bank, 2006)
Internet domain: .cv
International dialling code: +238
Cape Verde is poor in natural resources, prone to drought and with little arable land, the Cape Verde islands are heavily dependent on food imports, sometimes in the form of aid.
The former Portuguese colony comprises 10 islands and five islets, all but three of which are mountainous.
This is Mindelo city, São Vicente Island. A Replica of the Lisbon's Tower of Belém. It was the Capitania (Captaincy) in the colonial era, now it is being restored for a museum
Cape Verde was uninhabited when the Portuguese arrived in 1460 and made the islands part of the Portuguese empire. Due to its location off the coast of Africa, Cape Verde became an important watering station, then sugar cane plantation site, and later a major hub of the trans-atlantic slave trade, that would later form the contemporary African Diaspora.
Many Cape Verdeans are of black African and Portuguese descent, the rest are of black ancestry.
The culture of Cape Verde reflects its mixed African and Portuguese roots. It is well known for its diverse forms of music such as Morna and the urban Angolan kizomba, and a wide variety of dances: the soft dance Morna, and its modernized version, passada, the Funaná - a sensual mixed Portuguese and African dance, the extreme sensuality of coladeira, and the Batuque dance. These are reflective of the diverse origins of Cape Verde's residents. The term "Cabo" is used to refer to residents as well as the culture of Cape Verde.
Famous Cape Verdeans include Ceasaria Evoria (one of the most famous african singers) and Dana Barros (a basketball player for the Celtics) and many more.
see previous Culture of the Months at the following links:
Ghana
Malta
Ethiopia
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