Cape Verde or Cabo Verde is an African island country in the Atlantic ocean and it’s made up of 10 islands, 9 of which are currently inhabited. the islands are Sal, Santiago (the capital), Boa Vista, Fogo, Maio, Sao Vicente, Santa Luzia, Sao Nicolau, and Brava. The total population as of 2018 is over 543,767 people and official language is Portuguese and locals speak Kriolu.

I’ve been in Cape Verde for over 3 months now and I’ve noticed a few more things about Cape Verde below:

1. In Cape Verde or at least on Santiago island, the color of the ring on your wedding finger matters. It’s common for people who are single and not searching or people in a relationship, to wear a silver ring on their wedding finger. Married couples wear a gold ring on their wedding finger.

2. On your wedding day, it’s standard practice for the couples to drive around town in the back of a pickup truck waving so everyone can see that they’re married.

3. In Cape Verde, there’s a few gay people and being Gay is highly accepted. Cape Verde has an annual event called “carnival” which takes place for a few days in February and during the carnival this year, I noticed a lot of gay and straight men both young and old, wore dresses and makeup, parading the streets and everyone loved it. This is a sharp contrast to Nigeria where being gay is taboo and if you’re found “guilty of being gay”, you could face up to 14years in prison by law.

4. The police in Cape Verde are very serious, dressed very professionally and carry around intimidating weapons. To first worlders, this may not seem like a relevant point but as a Nigerian, this is sharp contrast to police officers in Nigeria. In Nigeria the officers are fairly dressed, are unserious about their work and you could bribe a police officer which is pretty shameful but that’s how it goes. In Cape Verde, you dare not bribe an officer, in fact attempting to bribe a police officer will land you in even bigger trouble than you could imagine.

5. Cape Verdeans eat octopus, squid, eel and other weird stuff that I find absolutely gross.

To learn more things to know about cape verde click here

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PS: The information provided on this page is based solely on my personal experiences and should not be considered as legal advice. Five foot nomad is not liable for any misrepresentation or misinterpretation of any and all posts on it’s website.

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