Religions
The only religion permitted in Cape Verde at the start of population was Catholicism, administered by friars, vicars and chaplains of the Order of Christ (by force of the Papal Bull, Romanus Pontifex, from Callistus III), who accompanied the discoverers and settled in the communities that were being created. In the case of Cape Verde, this started in Ribeira Grande and Alcatraz, on the island of Santiago, although there is reference to Franciscan monks from the Convent of S. Bernardino de Atouguia being brought to Ribeira Grande in 1466.
The actions of the Catholic church in Cape Verde were fundamental, not just in strictly religious and moral terms, but also in education and culture, as the missionaries, clergymen and other religious people were well prepared and available to teach humanities, sciences, and the arts.
Within the apparatus of the church in Cape Verde at the time, the backdrop of the deep social transformation of this innovative Creole people becomes increasingly clear. They started to create an agglutinating language and among criticism that tolerated “broad customs”, they developed a process of internal mixing. They were then on the way to sealing a spiritual and religious pact to create a convergent world view between biblical precepts and the Catholic gospel on one side and divination, omens and ordeals that had always been present in the African imagination on the other side. The actions of the jacabouces, soothsayers who identified supernatural causes for illnesses, cannot have bothered the priests greatly, as they themselves were the curators of souls, they combated them in principle, and they obliged the usurper to return the patient to them and practiced natural medicine. These curandeiros (healers) were not just called by African Creoles, but often also by Europeans, who were attracted by the additional hope that African magic promised when they were afflicted. They would summon the intervention of forces from beyond to restore an earthly balance, in a way that corresponds to the idea of a miracle. The sense of sin and forgiveness were concepts with a place at the heart of Christian doctrine at the time, although the Jesuits complained that they were not able to sensitise the Creoles to these ideas, and they did not tend to “confess” sins for which they did not have the corresponding feeling of guilt.
From the perspective of those who were forced to leave their cultural and religious reference points in Africa, and after it has been diluted with time, it is clear that the omnipresent Catholic doctrine, which was presented with pomp and circumstance, did not move them so far from their origins. It had the advantage of appearing to be a genuine path to freedom and social advancement, a defense against justice and arbitrary power, in a climate of contemplation, learning and peace.
A good example of this symbiosis is the festas dos santos populares (feasts of the popular saints) in the months of May and June, which have been celebrated since the 16th Century in the name of the summer solstice, and which are common to the two religious traditions. They have popular forms, which bring together rituals from the Catholic liturgy and the animist rites in perfect harmony.
In the 20th Century, when the council of Vatican II opened the liturgy to culturally localised forms, it became clear that this cultural adaptation had already been carried out in Cape Verde over two centuries ago, as can be seen from the testimony handed down from the tabanca (village) of Achada Grande in Praia. Its headquarters was surrounded by a crude wall, which housed a chapel, a yard for dances, an infirmary, a prison a barracks, and its ceremonies included banners, crosses, candles and oil lamps, drums, shells, holy water from the mother church, images of saints, music, dances, plainsongs and litanies.
Through the contacts established with the United States of America in the 19th Century, other reformist Christian churches, such as the Nazarenes, the 7th Day Adventists and others established themselves and developed progressively across several islands.
More recently, churches from Brazil, such as Maná and the Templo Maior, among others, have grown im importance in various islands of the archipelago.
When the frontiers were opened to the countries of the Economic Community Of West African States (ECOWAS), the muslim religion also established a significant presence in Cape Verde.
The only religion permitted in Cape Verde at the start of population was Catholicism, administered by friars, vicars and chaplains of the Order of Christ (by force of the Papal Bull, Romanus Pontifex, from Callistus III), who accompanied the discoverers and settled in the communities that were being created. In the case of Cape Verde, this started in Ribeira Grande and Alcatraz, on the island of Santiago, although there is reference to Franciscan monks from the Convent of S. Bernardino de Atouguia being brought to Ribeira Grande in 1466.
The actions of the Catholic church in Cape Verde were fundamental, not just in strictly religious and moral terms, but also in education and culture, as the missionaries, clergymen and other religious people were well prepared and available to teach humanities, sciences, and the arts.
Within the apparatus of the church in Cape Verde at the time, the backdrop of the deep social transformation of this innovative Creole people becomes increasingly clear. They started to create an agglutinating language and among criticism that tolerated “broad customs”, they developed a process of internal mixing. They were then on the way to sealing a spiritual and religious pact to create a convergent world view between biblical precepts and the Catholic gospel on one side and divination, omens and ordeals that had always been present in the African imagination on the other side. The actions of the jacabouces, soothsayers who identified supernatural causes for illnesses, cannot have bothered the priests greatly, as they themselves were the curators of souls, they combated them in principle, and they obliged the usurper to return the patient to them and practiced natural medicine. These curandeiros (healers) were not just called by African Creoles, but often also by Europeans, who were attracted by the additional hope that African magic promised when they were afflicted. They would summon the intervention of forces from beyond to restore an earthly balance, in a way that corresponds to the idea of a miracle. The sense of sin and forgiveness were concepts with a place at the heart of Christian doctrine at the time, although the Jesuits complained that they were not able to sensitise the Creoles to these ideas, and they did not tend to “confess” sins for which they did not have the corresponding feeling of guilt.
From the perspective of those who were forced to leave their cultural and religious reference points in Africa, and after it has been diluted with time, it is clear that the omnipresent Catholic doctrine, which was presented with pomp and circumstance, did not move them so far from their origins. It had the advantage of appearing to be a genuine path to freedom and social advancement, a defense against justice and arbitrary power, in a climate of contemplation, learning and peace.
A good example of this symbiosis is the festas dos santos populares (feasts of the popular saints) in the months of May and June, which have been celebrated since the 16th Century in the name of the summer solstice, and which are common to the two religious traditions. They have popular forms, which bring together rituals from the Catholic liturgy and the animist rites in perfect harmony.
In the 20th Century, when the council of Vatican II opened the liturgy to culturally localised forms, it became clear that this cultural adaptation had already been carried out in Cape Verde over two centuries ago, as can be seen from the testimony handed down from the tabanca (village) of Achada Grande in Praia. Its headquarters was surrounded by a crude wall, which housed a chapel, a yard for dances, an infirmary, a prison a barracks, and its ceremonies included banners, crosses, candles and oil lamps, drums, shells, holy water from the mother church, images of saints, music, dances, plainsongs and litanies.
Through the contacts established with the United States of America in the 19th Century, other reformist Christian churches, such as the Nazarenes, the 7th Day Adventists and others established themselves and developed progressively across several islands.
More recently, churches from Brazil, such as Maná and the Templo Maior, among others, have grown im importance in various islands of the archipelago.
When the frontiers were opened to the countries of the Economic Community Of West African States (ECOWAS), the muslim religion also established a significant presence in Cape Verde.
