Cape Verde: Dimensions in Nation-Building

Th is article seeks to analyze, in a socio-historical perspective, the formation of the Nation in Cape Verde. It argues that the archipelago took a singular path in Nation-building in Africa, through a combination of diff erent dimensions: social, geographical, political and religious, educational, administrative and literary. It is particularly important to understand these dimensions, since the Cape Verdean Nation precedes in centuries the creation of the independent State. Th is route was accompanied by the social mobilization of the mestizo, who, since the end of the 16th century, has been the main subject in the history of the archipelago.

The Upper Guinea origins of Papiamentu

This paper deals with the linguistic and historical relationships between Papiamentu and Upper Guinea Creole as spoken on the Santiago island of Cape Verde and in Guinea-Bissau and Casamance. In the linguistic section, the hypothesis that Papiamentu is a relexified offshoot of an early Upper Guinea Creole variety is lent support by focusing on the structural correspondences of the function words in five grammatical categories (pronouns, question words, prepositions, conjunctions and reciprocity and reflexivity). In addition, salient data from several early (18th and 19th century) Papiamentu texts is presented. The historical section provides a framework that accounts for the linguistic transfer from Upper Guinea to Curaçao in the second half of the 17th century