Cape Verde

Discover Cape Verde

Fun Foods

Cachupa

Cape Verde has 10 islands, and one of them has a volcano that erupted in 2014. People still live on it. They even grow grapes inside the crater and make wine.

That takes guts.

These volcanic islands sit off the coast of West Africa in the Atlantic Ocean. When Portuguese sailors arrived in 1456, nobody was living there. Portugal claimed the islands and used them as a base for the slave trade.

Countless enslaved Africans passed through Cape Verde on their way to the Americas.

The islands suffered under Portuguese rule for over 500 years. Then came Amílcar Cabral. He founded a movement to fight for freedom and inspired people across Africa.

He was assassinated in 1973, but his dream came true. Cape Verde became independent in 1975.

Hard times didn't end there. Terrible droughts in the 1940s killed more than 50,000 people from starvation. Many Cape Verdeans left for America to survive.

Today, more Cape Verdeans live in the US state of Massachusetts than on some of the islands.

The most famous Cape Verdean is Cesária Évora, the "Barefoot Diva." She sang sad, beautiful songs called morna and always performed without shoes. She won a Grammy and made the whole world fall in love with her islands.

Your family needs to visit Sal Island for beaches and the Pedra de Lume salt crater, where you float without trying. Boa Vista has sea turtles nesting on the sand.

Fogo Island lets you hike Pico do Fogo, an actual active volcano. Mindelo is the culture capital with the best music and Carnival.

Cachupa is what Cape Verdeans eat, and it's amazing. This slow-cooked stew has corn, beans, vegetables, and meat all mixed together. Families cook it for hours.

Leftovers get fried up for breakfast the next day.

Carnival in Mindelo is the real deal. Dancers fill the streets in feathered costumes and sequins. Batuku music pounds through the night.

Enslaved women created batuku when they were banned from using drums, so they turned cloth into instruments instead.

Cape Verdeans speak Crioulo, a blend of Portuguese and African languages.