Cape Verdeans, also called Cabo Verdeans (Portuguese: cabo-verdiano), are a people native to Cape Verde, an island nation in West Africa consisting of an archipelago in the central Atlantic Ocean. Cape Verde is a multi-ethnic society, which means that it is home to people of many different ethnic backgrounds. Cabo Verdeans do not consider their nationality as an ethnicity but as a citizenship with various ethnicities.
Ethnic groups
The Cape Verdearchipelago was uninhabited when the Portuguese landed there in 1456. Africans from the main lands and Arabs from adjacent West Africa were brought to the islands to work on Portuguese plantations. As a result, many Cape Verdeans are of mixed ethnicity. European ancestors also include Italian and French. The last time Cape Verde counted racial origin was in the 1950 census.
Prior to independence in 1975, many thousands of people emigrated from drought-stricken Portuguese Cape Verde, formerly an overseas province of Portugal. Because these people arrived using their Portuguese passports, they were registered as Portuguese immigrants by the authorities. Today, more Cape Verdeans live abroad than in Cape Verde itself, with significant emigrant[14] Cape Verdean communities in Brazil and in the United States (102,000 of Cape Verdeans descent in the U.S., with a major concentration on the New England coast from Providence, Rhode Island, to New Bedford, Massachusetts).
In 2008, Portugal's National Statistics Institute estimated that there were 68,145 Cape Verdeans who legally resided in Portugal. This made up "15.7% of all foreign nationals living legally in the country."[2]
Languages
Cape Verde's official language is Portuguese. It is the language of instruction and government.[citation needed]
The culture of Cape Verde reflects its mixed West African (Badiu) and Portuguese roots. It is well known for its diverse forms of music such as Morna, and a wide variety of dances: the soft dance Morna, the Funaná, the extreme sensuality of coladeira, and the Batuque dance. These are reflective of the diverse origins of Cape Verde's residents. The term "Criolo", or also "Kriolu"[18] is used to refer to residents as well as the culture of Cape Verde.