Cape Verde is an islandic country located on the west coast of Africa. The Cape Verdean culture is a unique mixture of European and African elements, as it was colonized by Portugal until 1975. National identity is rather fragmented, mainly because of the geographical division of the islands. The northern tend to identify more with the Portuguese colonizers, whereas the southern have a closer cultural affinity with Africa. This can be seen in the different dialect of Creole spoken in the North, reflecting a larger influence from the official language of Portuguese, versus the South where its leans more toward ‘African’ sounds.
The southern islands retain more of their African traditions even beyond language, with much less European influence. …show more content…
It has been a nation of emigrants fleeing persecution, of poverty and drought, but now faces the direst of challenges with a population that far outstrips both the natural resource endowment of the environment and the employment-generating capacity of the economy” (Finan, 327).
Cape Verde's history has been intimately linked with the Senegambia and Guinea on the African mainland. The Cape Verde story is also connected to the United States and Europe due to migration patterns. Uninhabited before the Portuguese and their African slaves began settling in the fifteenth century, these islands are at a crossroads. Because of this geographical location, Cape Verde is a multiethnic society (Bowman, 571). Due to Cape Verde’s geographical and historical realities, the nation faces challenges that many other nations do …show more content…
This two-way flow of people creating kinship ties and cultural merging was no less significant with respect to western Africa, where over the centuries Luso-Africans(or Portuguese Africans) became increasingly numerous and assertive with respect both to African landlords and resident Portuguese (Brooks, 104). Cattle, horses, goats, and pigs were pastured on islands with insufficient rainfall to sustain plantation agriculture. The reckless exploitation of the archipelago's fragile ecosystems was aggravated by the increasing population of both humans and domestic animals. During a three-year drought, famine caused many deaths and settlers threatened to migrate as a whole to western Africa (Brooks, 106). Cabo Verdeans' preference for an unsuitable grain crop resulted time and again in failed harvests and dependence on food imports. The toll of environmental degradation mounted over the centuries was made worse by unsustainable farming and herding practices and the consequences of droughts, some afflicted only a few islands, others the entire archipelago (Brooks,
The southern islands retain more of their African traditions even beyond language, with much less European influence. …show more content…
It has been a nation of emigrants fleeing persecution, of poverty and drought, but now faces the direst of challenges with a population that far outstrips both the natural resource endowment of the environment and the employment-generating capacity of the economy” (Finan, 327).
Cape Verde's history has been intimately linked with the Senegambia and Guinea on the African mainland. The Cape Verde story is also connected to the United States and Europe due to migration patterns. Uninhabited before the Portuguese and their African slaves began settling in the fifteenth century, these islands are at a crossroads. Because of this geographical location, Cape Verde is a multiethnic society (Bowman, 571). Due to Cape Verde’s geographical and historical realities, the nation faces challenges that many other nations do …show more content…
This two-way flow of people creating kinship ties and cultural merging was no less significant with respect to western Africa, where over the centuries Luso-Africans(or Portuguese Africans) became increasingly numerous and assertive with respect both to African landlords and resident Portuguese (Brooks, 104). Cattle, horses, goats, and pigs were pastured on islands with insufficient rainfall to sustain plantation agriculture. The reckless exploitation of the archipelago's fragile ecosystems was aggravated by the increasing population of both humans and domestic animals. During a three-year drought, famine caused many deaths and settlers threatened to migrate as a whole to western Africa (Brooks, 106). Cabo Verdeans' preference for an unsuitable grain crop resulted time and again in failed harvests and dependence on food imports. The toll of environmental degradation mounted over the centuries was made worse by unsustainable farming and herding practices and the consequences of droughts, some afflicted only a few islands, others the entire archipelago (Brooks,