C. Verdeans’ Native Language Is Cape Verdean, Not Portuguese

Agnelo A. Montrond

The term Kriolu is derived from the Portuguese word Crioulo, which in turn is derived from criar meaning “to raise” and olo defined as “house - a typical African house in the Portuguese African colonies.”

The slaves deliberately created Kriolu as a language they could use to communicate among themselves yet not be understood by their owners. The colonizers did not want to welcome Kriolu because it would have jeopardized their absolute power to control the situation. Therefore, they tried unsuccessfully to eradicate the Cape Verdean language and their cultural identity. Even though the temptation to do so has had the opposite effect, we have to admit that some Cape Verdeans of different generations have successfully assimilated that colonizer’s mentality and consider themselves culturally superior to their own people to the extent of looking down upon their own cultural values and identity. That explains the resistance correlated to the identity crisis that some Cape Verdeans may still be facing which urgently needs to be addressed.

Inspired on what Amilcar Cabral said, “a people’s culture serves as the touchstone of their identity”, we must be prepared to understand and effectively deal with these kinds of behavior. It is due to the fact that during the colonial era, the attempt was to brainwash the people of the colony of Cape Verde. Indeed, everything was geared towards the culture of the colonizers, which was the de facto culture Cape Verdeans needed to learn and master. The curriculum in schools reflected that ill-conceived colonial policy: students were forced to learn geography, language, history and culture from the colonizers’ perspective and encouraged to ignore their own. They had to learn the names of every single river in Portugal and the history of all the kings of Portugal. In addition, they had to read texts that were impregnated with the colonizers' ideology. This tactic gave birth to a sense of inferiority and inadequacy among the people, which is still bearing a negative impact on some.

For centuries, the colonizers have promptly repressed the movement towards the decolonization of mentalities. The imposition of Portuguese as the only official language has been nothing more than a provisional atrocity, being that Cape Verdeans in the archipelago, as well as in the diasporas, have always naturally and spontaneously resisted any such attempt. Kriolu has appeared, and continues to appear, as the language that has definitely defined and shaped our culture. Portuguese has always been learned in an academic setting in school whereas life skills have been learned in Kriolu at home, in playgrounds, etc, through social interactions.

In the United States, Cape Verdeans are identified as a separate group; they are not Portuguese, but rather Cape Verdeans. Their native language is Cape Verdean, not Portuguese. The Cape Verdean language is an autonomous language with its own structure and lexicon, which reflect both its Portuguese and West African derivation. The Portuguese influence is seemingly obvious considering the lexical nature of the majority of the Cape Verdean language vocabulary. However, the West African influence seems to be ignored. In fact, the Cape Verdean and West African languages exhibit similarity and parallelism: adjectives following the noun, the use of intonation to differentiate between interrogative and declarative sentences, frequent repetition of words, African morphological structures, lack of distinction of voice, verbal adjectives, etc.

Thus far, a great deal has been accomplished with regard to this issue: a unified alphabet for the orthography of Cape Verdean Kriolu, “ALUPEK” has been approved by the Cape Verdean government; literary materials in Cape Verdean Kriolu are available online, in books, periodicals, academic texts, and in other forms. Those resources have and continue to be provided by numerous authors including, but not limited to Manuel Veiga, the author of the Introduction to the Cape Verdean Kriolu grammar book, Tomé Varela, Kaka Barbosa, Danny Spinola, and Manuel Da Luz Gonçalves. However, there is more work ahead, namely an amendment to the Cape Verdean Constitution, which declares Portuguese as not solely the official language, intended to provide Cape Verdean Kriolu with the status that it deserves and make it the other official language along with Portuguese. Nevertheless, we are not trying to reinvent the wheel when we claim, on a positive and constructive tone, that the Cape Verdean language lacks sufficient visibility in the United States. Neither do we need to be rocket scientists or geniuses to perceive that Cape Verdean Kriolu lacks recognition in Brockton, the City of Champions and home of more than 25 000 Cape Verdeans. Our leaders need to be more proactive in their joint endeavor of promoting awareness and recognition of our linguistic identity in order to demystify the imbroglio: Portuguese or Cape Verdean Kriolu, which is the native language of Cape Verdeans?

It is time to empower the natural expression of the Cape Verdean soul both in the archipelago and in the Cape Verdean communities in the diasporas. The people of Cape Verde have always expressed the need for a balanced linguistic compromise between the two languages, which will definitely lead to the dual role of Cape Verdean Kriolu and Portuguese for all Cape Verdeans worldwide. Our hope is that the Minister of Culture, Doctor Manuel Veiga, the leader of our dream, in conjunction with the Cape Verdean legislative branch, wisely will make it happen. More power to him and all those who are assisting him in that endeavor.

Agnelo A. Montrond