Cabo Verde and the Creole South Atlantic

The Cabo Verde Islands are now a popular tourist destination but, guide books apart, there is little in print in English that covers their history and culture. This book offers a readable account not only of the islands’ past, but also of their place in the wider story of the South Atlantic’s Portuguese-speaking communities.

First settled in the fifteenth century, the inhabitants of Cabo Verde were of diverse origins. Some came from Portugal, others arrived as slaves from mainland Africa, and a third element comprised Jewish exiles from the Iberian Peninsula. From the earliest days, the islanders developed a mixed Creole culture with its own Creole Portuguese language. They had close relations with people of the upper Guinea coast, where many of them settled, and with the Guinea islands. Meanwhile the archipelago became a hub of the Atlantic slave trade.

Cabo Verde has also had a strategic importance— its history has to be seen in a global context, broader than simply that of the Portuguese imperial story. Malyn Newitt also fills a major gap in the bibliography of Atlantic history, slavery and the history of the African diaspora in the Atlantic.