Formation of Cape Verdean society and identity

Settlement brought together, within a deeply unequal colonial system, people from Europe and Africans who had been forcibly transported from the continent. Their languages, practices and knowledge changed over generations in a new island environment.

This history gave rise to a Creole society with its own cultural forms. Portuguese remained the language of colonial administration, while varieties of Cape Verdean Creole, or Kriolu, became languages of everyday life, memory and creation.

Cape Verdean identity was therefore not formed through an abstract encounter: it carries the imprint of slavery, colonial hierarchies, resistance, inter-island mobility and enduring connections with the wider world.