Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
tion of primarily mixed European and African descent. About 40% of the population lives
on Santiago - mainly around the capital, Praia. The rest live largely in small towns
clustered in the agriculturally productive valleys. As tourism grows, so do the once-tiny
populations of arid Sal, Boa Vista and Maio, all of which have seen an influx of foreign
residents.
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Religion
The vast majority of Cape Verdeans are Roman Catholic. Evangelical Protestantism is
making inroads. Traces of African animism remain in the beliefs of even devout Christi-
ans.
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Arts & Crafts
Traditional crafts include weaving, ceramics, baskets, mat making and batik. Be aware
that most craft shops sell objects from the African mainland rather than Cape Verde itself.
While Cape Verde has the smallest population of any country in West Africa, its literary
tradition is one of the richest. However, little of that has been translated into anything but
Portuguese. Prior to independence, a major theme in Cape Verdean writing was the long-
ing for liberation. Poet, musician and national hero Eugénio Tavares (1867-1930) com-
posed lyrical mornas in Crioulo rather than Portuguese. In 1936, a small clique of intellec-
tuals founded a literary journal, Claridade, whose goal was to express a growing sense of
Cape Verdean identity. Themes of contemporary literature, best expressed by poet Jorge
Barbosa's Arquipélago, remain constant: sodade (longing and/or homesickness), myster-
ies of the sea and an attempt to come to terms with a history of oppression.
Much of Cape Verdean music evolved as a form of protest against slavery and other
types of oppression. Today, two kinds of song dominate traditional Cape Verdean music:
mornas and coladeiras, both built on the sounds of stringed instruments like the fiddle and
guitar. As the name suggests, mornas are mournful expressions of s odade - an unquench-
able longing, often for home. With faster, more upbeat rhythms, coladeiras, in contrast,
tend to be romantic love songs or else more active expressions of protest. Another popular
style is funaná, built on fast-paced, Latin-influenced rhythms and underpinned by the ac-
cordion. The most African of music and dance styles is batuko, with lots of drumming and
call-and-respond chanting.
 
 
 
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