Cape Verdeans

Cape Verdeans
Total population
491.875 (2010 Census)[1]
Total population of Cape Verde
Regions with significant populations
 Portugal 68,145[2]
 United States 33,119 (Cape Verdeans born)[3]
Languages
Portuguese, Cape Verdean Creole
Religion
Predominantly Roman Catholicism
Protestantism, Irreligion

Cape Verdeans, also called Cabo Verdeans (Portuguese: cabo-verdiano), are the citizens of Cape Verde. Cape Verde is a sociedade mestiça (mestizo society; as described in Portuguese), which means that it is home to mixed race people. Nearly all Cape Verdeans or their ancestors immigrated within the past five centuries.

Racial groups

The Cape Verde archipelago was uninhabited when the Portuguese discovered it in 1456. Slaves from adjacent West Africa were brought to the islands to work on Portuguese plantations. As a result, many Cape Verdeans are mulattoes (mestiços in Portuguese), having biracial origins. European ancestors also include Spanish and Italian seamen who were granted land by the Portuguese Empire, followed by Portuguese settlers, exiles, and Portuguese Jews who were victims of the Inquisition. Many foreigners from other parts of the world settled in Cape Verde as their permanent country. Most of them were Dutch, French, British (English), Arab and Jewish (from Lebanon and Morocco).

Cape Verdeans 1950 census
Racial group Ref. % of Cape Verde population
Mestiços [4] 69.6 69.6
 
Negroes (West African)[5] 28.4 28.4
 
White[6] 2.0 2
 
Other or unknown[7] 0.0
The last time Cape Verde counted racial origin was in the 1950 census.

A genetic study revealed that the ancestry of the population in Cape Verde is predominantly European in the male line and West African in the female line; counted together the percentage is 56% West African and 44% European.[8]

Diaspora

Main article: Cape Verdean diaspora

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[9] Cape Verdean communities in Brazil and in the United States (500,000 Cape Verdeans descent, 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."[10] Most notably, Portuguese professional footballer, Cristiano Ronaldo is of part-Cape Verdean descent through his paternal great-grandmother, Isabel da Piedade who at age 16 immigrated to the Portuguese island of Madeira from her native Praia, Cape Verde where she worked in the main city of the island, Funchal and married a Portuguese man, José Aveiro, Cristiano's paternal great-grandfather.[11]

There are other significant Cape Verde populations in Angola (45,000), São Tomé and Príncipe (25,000), Senegal (25,000), the Netherlands (20,000, of which 15,000 are concentrated in Rotterdam), France (25,000), Spain (12,500), Italy (10,000) Luxembourg (7,000) and Scandinavia (7,000). There is a Cape Verdean community in Argentina numbering 8,000.

Languages

Cape Verde's official language is Portuguese. It is the language of instruction and government.

Cape Verdean Creole is used colloquially, and is the mother tongue of virtually all Cape Verdeans. Cape Verdean Creole or Kriolu is a dialect continuum of a Portuguese-based creole. There is a substantial body of literature in Creole, especially in the Santiago Creole and the São Vicente Creole. Creole has been gaining prestige since the nation's independence from Portugal.

Religion

Religion in Cape Verde (2010)[12]

  Catholic Church (78.7%)
  Other Christian (10.4%)
  Other or Non Religious (10.9%)
A church in Santiago, Cape Verde.

More than 93% of the population of Cape Verde is nominally Roman Catholic, according to an informal poll taken by local churches.[13] About 5% of the population is Protestant.[14] The largest Protestant denomination is the Church of the Nazarene.[13]

Other religious groups include the Seventh-day Adventist Church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons), the Assemblies of God, the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, the New Apostolic Church, and various other Pentecostal and evangelical groups.[13] There are also small Bahá'í communities and a small Muslim community.[13] The number of atheists is estimated at less than 1 percent of the population.[13]

Culture

Main article: Culture of Cape Verde

The culture of Cape Verde reflects its mixed West African 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" is used to refer to residents as well as the culture of Cape Verde.

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Cape Verdean people.

References

  1. ↑ Estado da população cabo-verdiana
  2. ↑ A Semana. "Cape Verdeans make up 15.7% of all foreigners in Portugal." Retrieved January 20, 2008. Archived February 29, 2008, at the Wayback Machine.
  3. ↑ "PLACE OF BIRTH FOR THE FOREIGN-BORN POPULATION IN THE UNITED STATES, Universe: Foreign-born population excluding population born at sea, 2007-2011 American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved 16 July 2013.
  4. ↑ Fractionalization in Portuguese colonial territories in 1950, according to the Portuguese Yearbook, 1950, vol. II. Racial composition of total population (Page: 6)
  5. ↑ Fractionalization in Portuguese colonial territories in 1950, according to the Portuguese Yearbook, 1950, vol. II. Racial composition of total population
  6. ↑ Fractionalization in Portuguese colonial territories in 1950, according to the Portuguese Yearbook, 1950, vol. II. Racial composition of total population (Page: 6)
  7. ↑ Fractionalization in Portuguese colonial territories in 1950, according to the Portuguese Yearbook, 1950, vol. II. Racial composition of total population
  8. ↑ "Actualidade". Asemana.sapo.cv. Retrieved 2013-01-31.
  9. ↑ Jorgen Carling, 2004, p.113-132
  10. ↑ A Semana. "Cape Verdeans make up 15.7% of all foreigners in Portugal." Retrieved January 20, 2008. Archived February 29, 2008, at the Wayback Machine.
  11. ↑ "Cristiano Ronaldo of Cape Verdean descent, according to Portuguese newspaper". www.asemana.publ.cv. 13 January 2009.
  12. ↑ (CABO VERDE). Retrieved 06-10-2012.
  13. 1 2 3 4 5 International Religious Freedom Report 2007: Cape Verde. United States Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (September 14, 2007). This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  14. ↑ Susanne Lipps: Kapverdische Inseln, p.47. Ostfilern 2009.
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