The Cape Verde Jews: an Identity Puzzle

The American historian and epistemologist Hayden White said that «there can be no ‘proper history’ which is not at the same time ‘philosophy of history’» (1973, p. XI). But it could also be argued that one cannot make history of philosophy or history of ideas without working on historical data. The data on which I would like to draw attention in this contribution are seemingly reducible to a small thing: they refer to a micro-history that has left few traces, some tombs, surnames, oral memories, and a couple of toponyms. In these pages I will try to show how emblematic this micro-history is to the Cape Verdean identity, the ‘caboverdianidade’ (‘Cape Verdeanness’), and how it can be so concerning identity in general. This micro-history is that of the Jewish presence in Cape Verde, on which I will provide some historical data and interpretative perspectives.