Cape Verdean-Portuguese relations

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Cape Verdean-Portuguese relations
Location of Portugal and Cape Verde
PortugalPortugal Cape VerdeCape Verde
Portugal Cape Verde

The Cape Verdean-Portuguese relations describe the interstate relationship between Cape Verde and Portugal . The countries have had direct diplomatic relations since 1975.

The close and diverse relationships go back to the Portuguese colonial history since the 15th century, when the uninhabited Cape Verde Islands were first sighted by Portuguese sailors in 1445 and settled after 1456. Since then, the countries have been closely linked historically, economically and culturally. The administrative structure of Cape Verdean, for example, is based on the administrative structure of Portugal in terms of structure and terminology .

Portugal is Cape Verdes most important trading partner and investor, there are also diverse cultural and personal connections, with the important Cape Verdean community in Portugal as an important element. After the Brazilians, the Cape Verdean immigrants make up the largest foreign population in Portugal.

history

15th century to 19th century

Ribeira Grande on Santiago 1589, map by Baptista Boazio

Portugal took possession of the uninhabited islands in 1456 and began permanent settlement around 1461 with the establishment of a military post on the island of Santiago , from which the main town of Ribeira Grande developed. The Portuguese built the first Christian church south of the Sahara here in 1495 and Cape Verde became the seat of a governor general and thus the first official colony of the emerging Portuguese Empire . In 1513 the first census took place in the Cape Verde Islands; it resulted in 162 free residents, including 58 white, 16 black and 12 priests, the rest were soldiers and prisoners. Slaves , on the other hand, were counted 13,000.

Colonial governor's palace in Mindelo

As a stopover for overseas trade, especially for the slave trade , the capital, Ribeira Grande , became very prosperous in the course of the 16th century. The encounter of the slaves of the different home regions of West Africa with the Portuguese colonial masters triggered the first creolization of colonial history. The Cape Verdean Creole spoken in Cape Verde today , a Creole language based on Portuguese , found its origin here.

With the wealth came attacks by pirates, including Francis Drake several times . Often slaves escaped who settled freely in the hinterland of Santiago and were known as Badius . They are considered to be the primal cell of the independent Cape Verde.

The Portuguese operated plantations on the Cape Verde Islands, but the low rainfall and frequent periods of drought have repeatedly led to famines in which thousands of people died, mostly without receiving any major help from the mother country. As the population continued to grow in the 17th and 18th centuries, these famines increased.

American slave traders and whalers began to stock up on Cape Verde around 1740. In doing so, they laid the foundation for the emigration of Cape Verdeans to the east coast of the USA, which continues to this day.

As the plantation economy became more and more impossible and famine increased in the course of the 18th century, many Portuguese entrepreneurs gave up and released their slaves. Since then, people of mixed European and African descent have made up a large part of the free population of Cape Verde.

With the abolition of slavery during the 18th and 19th centuries and after the frequent droughts, Cape Verde's economic importance continued to decline. Epidemics and volcanic eruptions also affected the islands. Steam shipping, which in particular used the Cape Verdean high-sea port of Mindelo as a stopover and coal store, then brought about a revival, and the salt trade, especially on the islands of Sal and Maio , continued.

Since the 20th century

Copy of the Lisbon Tower of Belém in the center of Mindelo

The First World War in 1914 ended the modest growth phase on Cape Verde, and emigration increased again afterwards. The Portuguese motherland did little to alleviate the hardships on Cape Verde.

During the semi-fascist Salazar dictatorship in Portugal from the 1930s onwards, Cape Verde experienced a relative economic recovery, with the settlement of the fish processing industry (especially tuna processing, including through French investments). Cape Verde also kept its secondary schools, which led to a somewhat higher level of education here than in the other colonies and thus contributed to the supply of administrative officials for the Portuguese colonies.

In 1951 Cape Verde was the first colony to receive the status of a Portuguese overseas province . However, this was little more than cosmetic in nature, and the emerging idea of ​​independence continued to grow. Amílcar Cabral in particular , the son of Cape Verdean parents, became a central figure in the anti-colonial struggle against the Portuguese Estado Novo regime, which reacted with relentless harshness.

In this context, the regime expanded its political prison, which had opened in 1936 on the main island of Santiago in Cape Verde, into a concentration camp with the Campo do Tarrafal . Resistance activists and political prisoners from all over the colonial empire and the mother country were interned here and often systematically tortured, many died in the process.

In contrast to Angola , Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau , where the Portuguese colonial war broke out from 1961 , Cape Verde was not the scene of an open guerrilla war.

In Campo do Tarrafal , the central political prison of the Portuguese dictatorship

The Carnation Revolution on April 25, 1974 finally ended the dictatorship in Portugal. As a result, the now democratic Portugal put an end to the colonial war, released its African territories into independence and put its international relations on a new basis. In particular, the new, progressive Portugal sought partnership relationships with a large number of African countries. In this context, Cape Verde also gained independence from Portugal and the relationship between the two states was given a new basis.

On July 18, 1975 , João de Sá Coutinho Sotto Maior , Portugal's ambassador to Guinea-Bissau , was the first representative of Portugal to be accredited in Cape Verde . Parallel already the Portuguese embassy in the Cape Verde capital Praia under the direction of the transition on 30 June 1975 affaires Manuel António Pacheco Jorge Barreiros opened July 6 In 1975, the first accredited representative of Portugal in Praia was.

According to this, Cape Verde, under its one-party system of the PAICV, oriented itself towards the planned economy of the socialist states, while Portugal on Cape Verde limited itself economically to development cooperation projects .

After the market economy opened in 1990, companies from the economically fast-growing Portugal emerged as the most important investors in Cape Verde, particularly in key industries such as energy and banks. To this day, Portugal has remained Cape Verde's most important economic and political partner, and mutual state visits at all levels take place regularly.

Both countries are also cooperating in setting up the state institutions of Cape Verde and coming to terms with their common history, for example in the judiciary, administration or the National Library of Cape Verde . The political prison in Tarrafal was initially converted into a memorial site as the Museu do Tarrafal and then into a full museum in the 2010s and inaugurated on January 20, 2016 by the Prime Ministers of both countries, José Maria Neves and António Costa .

migration

development

Construction of the Estádio Municipal de Braga designed by Souto Moura for the 2004 European Championship: to this day, many Cape Verdean immigrants work in the Portuguese construction industry

Since the Portuguese discovery and settlement of the Cape Verde Islands in the 15th century, Portuguese have settled there, and people from Cape Verde have come to Portugal.

Up until the Carnation Revolution in 1974 there was a relatively manageable number of mainly business people and students who came to Portugal from Cape Verde, but after Cape Verde's independence, retornados went to the previous mother country. In addition, Portugal subsequently became the preferred destination for Cape Verdean emigration, along with the east coast of the USA and the Netherlands.

After the free-market restructuring of Cape Verde's economy in the early 1990s, the former colonial power Portugal, which has experienced considerable economic growth since joining the EU in 1986, became the most important investor in Cape Verde. With it came new Portuguese entrepreneurs, technicians and skilled workers. At the same time, large construction projects such as Expo 98 , the construction of the motorway in Portugal and the 2004 European Football Championship attracted Cape Verdean workers.

After the Brazilians (with almost 16%), citizens of Cape Verde are now the largest group among the foreign population in Portugal with almost 15%.

In 2010, Portuguese made up 3.6% of the Cape Verdean population and around 10% of its foreign residents. This makes them the fifth largest group among the foreign population of Cape Verdean.

numbers

Portuguese Consulate in Mindelo

In 2015, 38,674 Cape Verdean citizens were registered in Portugal, 25,123 of them in the Lisbon district (mainly in the greater Lisbon area ) and 7123 in the Setúbal district (mainly in the towns of Margem Sul do Tejo ). Your remittances in 2016 amounted to 14.9 million euros.

In 2015, 14,795 citizens, including dual citizens, were registered in the Portuguese consulates in Cape Verde. In 2010, the number of Portuguese citizens in Cape Verde was given as 1716, after 838 in 2000. The transfers to Portugal in 2016 amounted to 1.74 million euros.

Portuguese Cape Verdean origin

Renato Sanches when Portugal won the European Championship in 2016

A large number of prominent Portuguese were born in Cape Verde or come from Cape Verdean families. A small selection follows as an example:

  • Lura in Milan (2007)

  • Sara Tavares in Warsaw (2011)

  • Nelson Évora at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro

  • G-Amado (2016)

  • Nani in the national jersey of Portugal (2012)

  • Gelson Martins in the jersey of Sporting Lisbon (2016)

The Portuguese embassy in the Cape Verdean capital Praia

diplomacy

Portugal maintains its embassy in Cape Verdes capital Praia , on Avenida OUA in the Achada de Santo António district . Honorary consulates have also been set up in Mindelo and Espargos on the island of Sal .

The Cape Verdean embassy is located in Lisbon at 33 Avenida do Restelo , in the municipality of Belém . There are also honorary consulates in Coimbra , Porto , Setúbal , Portimão on the Algarve and in Angra do Heroísmo on the Azores Islands .

Twin cities

Despite the comparatively small state territory of Cape Verdean, there are now 108 city ​​and community friendships with Portuguese municipalities or are being initiated (as of 2018). They are a sign of close relationships and a long history together. For example, the numerous partnerships between Portuguese municipalities and the Cape Verdean town of Tarrafal go back to the Campo do Tarrafal concentration camp there . It served as the central political prison of the authoritarian Estado Novo dictatorship, to which opponents of the regime from all parts of Portugal and its colonies were deported and often tortured there. The concentration camp was also restored in cooperation with Portuguese municipalities and inaugurated as a memorial and museum in 2016 by the heads of government of Cape Verdes and Portugal.

The partnerships exist at different levels, for example between districts ( concelhos ), municipalities ( freguesias ), individual places or even local authority associations. The first Cape Verdean-Portuguese friendship between cities came in 1983 with the two capitals Praia and Lisbon .

economy

Sagres advertising on the island of Sal : Portuguese brands dominate the Cape Verdean beer market

The Portuguese Chamber of Commerce AICEP has a branch in the Cape Verdean capital Praia . In Portugal's capital Lisbon is with the Câmara Bilateral em Portugal bilateral Portuguese-Cape Verdean Chamber of Commerce .

A large number of Portuguese companies are active in Cape Verde. The Portuguese energy company Galp, for example, operates a network of filling stations on all Cape Verde islands, and the Portuguese savings bank Caixa Geral de Depósitos has stakes in two of Cape Verde's most important banks. The Portugal Telecom holds about 40% of the CV Telecom and Portuguese companies are in the growing tourism active of the Cape Verde Islands.

The Cape Verde escudo has been linked to the Portuguese escudo since 1998 and thus to the euro since 1999 .

In 2016, Portugal exported goods and services worth 339.9 million euros to Cape Verde ( 2015 : 285.5 million; 2014 : 289.3 million; 2013 : 268.3 million; 2012 : 264.6 Million). Of the goods, 18.9% had machinery and equipment, 13.0% agricultural products, 12.7% food (especially beer and dairy products), 10.5% metal goods, 8.8% minerals and ores (especially cement and building materials) and 8.7% chemical-pharmaceutical products (especially medicines).

In the same period, Cape Verde delivered goods and services worth 65.0 million euros to Portugal ( 2015 : 72.2 million; 2014 : 79.2 million; 2013 : 87.2 million; 2012 : 71.9 Million). The goods included 54.0% clothing, 29.7% shoes, 4.9% food (especially canned fish), 4.2% metal goods (including scrap) and 2.4% fuel.

This put Portugal in first place in Cape Verdean foreign trade in goods, both among buyers and among suppliers. In Portuguese foreign trade in goods, Cape Verde was ranked 24th as a buyer and 94th as a supplier.

Culture

Institutions

The Portuguese cultural institute Instituto Camões is present in Cape Verde, in particular with university collaborations, two cultural centers in Praia and in Mindelo, a language center and a lecturer .

In Portugal there are some Cape Verdean cultural and civic associations, in addition to the Associação Caboverdiana z. B. the Associação Cabo-verdiana de Sines e Santiago do Cacém u. a.

literature

Germano Almeida to the Portuguese Publishers Editorial Caminho relocated

The Portuguese-born Eugénio Tavares (1867-1930) is considered the national poet Cape Verdes.

Authors from Cape Verde write mostly or partially in Portuguese and are often published in Portugal, such as Germano Almeida .

In 2009 Arménio Vieira became the first Cape Verdier to win the Prémio Camões , the most important literary prize in the Portuguese-speaking world .

Movie

The Portuguese cinema produced a number of films in Cape Verde , in addition to documentaries also feature films such as the internationally award-winning football film Fintar o Destino or Pedro Costa's Casa da Lava with Inês de Medeiros . The Portuguese director Francisco Manso also shot here several times, including the 1997 film adaptation of Germano Almeida's novel “O Testamento do Senhor Napumoceno”.

Pedros Costa's award-winning film Vitalina Varela from 2019 is a milieu study with the Cape Verdean leading actress Vitalina Varela.

In 2019 the award-winning feature film Djon África by the Lisbon director couple João Miller Guerra and Filipa Reis was released . The Portuguese-Brazilian-Cape Verdean production tells the story of the Cape Verdean-born Portuguese and Rastafarian Djon África, who goes in search of his father in Cape Verde and thus also of his identity.

Among the numerous documentaries is u. a. O Arquitecto ea Cidade Velha from 2003. The Portuguese director Catarina Alves Costa accompanied the projects of the Portuguese architect Álvaro Siza Vieira for the structural preparation of the UNESCO World Heritage candidate Cidade Velhas . The film was shown at a number of film festivals in 2004 (in Germany at the Göttingen International Ethnographic Film Festival ). T. was also awarded, for example with the audience award at the Portuguese festival Caminhos do Cinema Português in Coimbra . In 2007 it was released on DVD by Midas Films .

music

Cesária Évora live at the Lisbon Cinema São Jorge on November 26, 2008

The diverse music of the Cape Verde Islands is partly strongly influenced by Portugal, such as the morna , which is related to the Portuguese fado . The cavaquinho , a small guitar from Portugal, is of great importance in Cape Verdean music.

Especially the group Os Tubarões , which existed from 1976 to 1994 and released a number of albums in Portugal, made the music of Cape Verde known in Portugal, in particular the styles Morna, Coladeira and Funaná. Her singer Ildo Lobo (1953-2004) was also active as a solo artist and became one of the most popular singers in Cape Verde.

Some of the internationally best known representatives of Cape Verdean music such as Lura or Sara Tavares were born in Portugal and still live there today. Many other Cape Verdean musicians also live in Portugal, especially in Lisbon, such as Tito Paris or Nancy Vieira . Musicians from Cape Verde also perform frequently in Portugal. Cesária Évora, for example, was a frequent guest in Portugal.

The Hip Hop Tuga , the Portuguese hip-hop is, by rappers influenced from the Cape Verdean community in Portugal. The well-known Portuguese musician Boss AC, for example, was born in Cape Verde.

Sports

Soccer

Nani in the Portuguese national jersey (2012)

Football is the most popular sport in both countries. As a result of the centuries of Portuguese presence, football in Cape Verde is strongly influenced by Portuguese football . Football fans in Cape Verde follow the events of the Portuguese Primeira Liga on a daily basis, and the Cape Verdean top division, the Campeonato Cabo-verdiano de Futebol , is dominated by branches of Portuguese clubs such as Sporting Lisbon , Benfica Lisbon and Académica de Coimbra , such as the multiple Masters Académica do Mindelo and Sporting Clube da Praia . Emblems and jerseys of the three big Portuguese clubs Sporting, Benfica and FC Porto can often be seen in the streets of Cape Verde .

The Cape Verde national soccer team and the Portuguese national team have met three times so far, each with a win, a defeat and a draw (as of February 2017). They played against each other for the first time on May 27, 2006, when Portugal won the friendly match in Évora 4-1.

The Cape Verdean national team has been trained several times by Portuguese head coaches. Since 2018, the Portuguese Rui Águas has been national coach there again .

Cape Verde soccer players often play in Portugal. Many also take Portuguese citizenship and occasionally join the Portuguese national team. The most famous Cape Verdean players in the Portuguese national team include Nani and Renato Sanches , who became European champions with Portugal in 2016 . Also Gelson Martins , Rolando , Celestino and a number of other kapverdischstämmiger footballers played and play for Portugal.

Other

Nelson Évora after winning the gold medal for Portugal at the 2007 World Cup in Osaka

Cape Verdean athletes from many sports often go to Portugal to compete for clubs there and use the better training opportunities there, especially track and field athletes. Some of the Cape Verdean athletes were born in Portugal, such as the Paralympic athlete Márcio Fernandes .

Nelson Évora in particular should be mentioned here . The son of Cape Verdean parents won numerous prizes and medals for Portugal, including gold at the 2008 Olympics .

Athletes from both countries have so far participated in all Jogos da Lusofonia , the games of the community of Portuguese-speaking countries .

Web links

Commons : Cape Verdean-Portuguese Relations  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Overview of diplomatic relations between Portugal and Cape Verde , diplomatic institute in the Portuguese Foreign Ministry , accessed on May 4, 2019
  2. ↑ Entry on Colónia Penal do Tarrafal / Museu do Tarrafal (under Cronologia ) in the Portuguese list of monuments SIPA, accessed on June 18, 2017
  3. ↑ Perfil dos Imigrantes em Portugal (Profile of Immigrants in Portugal), academic study (PDF access, p. 24), accessed on May 7, 2017
  4. ↑ a b Dossier on Portuguese emigration (PDF download, pp. 117f.), Portal of the Portuguese Foreign Ministry on Portuguese communities abroad, accessed on May 7, 2017
  5. ↑ Official alien statistics by district , Portuguese Immigration and Border Agency SEF, accessed on May 5, 2017
  6. ↑ Overview of Cape Verdean-Portuguese migration (Table A.6), accessed on May 5, 2017
  7. ↑ Overview of Cape Verdean-Portuguese migration (Table A.3), accessed on May 5, 2017
  8. ↑ List of Portuguese missions abroad , website of the Portuguese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, accessed on May 4, 2017
  9. ↑ List of the Cape Verdean consulates ( memento of the original dated November 19, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on the website of the Cape Verde Embassy in Portugal, accessed on 21 May 2017 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / embcv.pt
  10. ↑ Overview of the presence in Cape Verde , website of the Portuguese Chamber of Commerce AICEP, accessed on May 4, 2017
  11. ↑ Overview of the Galp activities in Cape Verde , Galp Energia website , accessed on May 7, 2017
  12. ↑ a b c Bilateral economic relations between Portugal and Cape Verde , Excel file retrieval from the Portuguese Chamber of Commerce AICEP, accessed on May 4, 2017
  13. ↑ Overview of the activities of the Instituto Camões in Cape Verde , accessed on May 6, 2017
  14. ↑ Entry on Djon África in the Internet Movie Database , accessed on October 13, 2019
  15. ↑ Information on the DVD cover O Arquitecto ea Cidade Velha , Midas Filmes 2007
  16. ↑ Cape Verdean-Portuguese relations in the Internet Movie Database (English)
  17. ↑ see list of international matches of the Portuguese national soccer team # international match balance sheets