The Jews of Cape Verde

Abstract The island nation of Cape Verde (Cabo Verde) offers a unique history. Uninhabited when first discovered by navigators working for the Portuguese king in the mid-fifteenth century, the archipelago soon became populated by a mix of people from Catholic, Jewish, and Indigenous African religious traditions. Some arrived voluntarily, some were refugees, and others were forced to go there, and it can be argued that the modern world’s first “creolized” population was created on the islands. This chapter explores this unique history and the ways that contemporary Cape Verdeans, both on and off the islands, are now rethinking their own and their nation’s Jewish legacy.