Cape Verde independence activist, women’s rights activist, and pharmacist Isaura Tavares Gomes was born on February 22, 1944, in Santiago, Praia, Sotavento Islands, Cabo Verde (Cape Verde), one of the smallest nations globally, comprising ten islands and five islets off the western coast of the … Read MoreIsaura Tavares Gomes (1944- )
José Maria Pereira Neves is a Cape Verdean politician who is currently President of Cape Verde, having previously served as Prime Minister of Cape Verde from 2001 to 2016. He is a member of the African Party for the Independence of Cape Verde (PAICV). Neves … Read MoreJosé Maria Neves (1960- )
The first president of independent Guinea Bissau was Luis Severino de Almeida Cabral who was born on April 10, 1933, in the city of Bissau in what was then Portuguese Guinea. His parents were from the Portuguese colony of Cape Verde which consisted of several … Read MoreLuis Cabral (1931-2009)
Aristides Maria Pereira, the son of Porfirio Pereira Tavares and Maria das Neves Crus Silva, was the first President of Cape Verde. He was born on November 17, 1923 in Boa Vista, Cape Verde. At the time of his birth, Cape Verde, ten islands off … Read MoreAristides Pereira (1923-2011)
Négritude cinema director, activist, feminist Sarah Maldoror was born Sarah Ducados on July 19, 1929, in Condom, France, of emigrant parents from the Francophone Caribbean Island of Guadeloupe. She later selected her name after the hero of the Comte de Lautréamont’s novel Les Chants de … Read MoreSarah Maldoror (1929-2020)
Tavares, a band of brothers, was a rhythm and blues and funk and soul group. They have also been known as The Tavares Brothers of Cape Verdean heritage (near Senegal) and Chubby & The Turnpikes. They comprised six of seven sons and one daughter of … Read MoreTavares (1969-1976)
On September 16, 1928, the Okeechobee Hurricane or Hurricane San Felipe Segundo, one of the most devastating tropical cyclones in Florida’s weather history and one of the ten most intense hurricanes to hit the United States mainland, came ashore near Palm Beach, Florida. It began … Read MoreOkeechobee Hurricane of 1928
Emanuel, or Manuel, Lopes was Seattle, Washington’s first black resident. He came to Washington Territory and this small frontier town of fewer than 180 non-indigenous residents in 1858, seven years after its founding. He opened a restaurant and barbershop, soon establishing himself as an independent … Read MoreEmanuel Lopes (1812-1895)
Afro-German politician, human rights activist, and scholar Pierrette Herzberger-Fofana was born in Bamako, Mali, but grew up in Dakar, Senegal, the daughter of a Cape Verdean mother, Dona Joaquina Semedo-Lopès, who was Christian, and a Guinean father who was Muslim. Her early experience with nationalities and religions greatly influenced the course of her life. A … Read MorePierrette Herzberger-Fofana (1949- )
Judge George Neves Leighton and his twin sister, Georgina, were born in New Bedford, Massachusetts on October 22, 1912, to Cape Verdean immigrants Antonio Neves Leitao and Anna Silva Garcia Leitao. His last name was changed, with his parents’ permission, to Leighton by an elementary … Read MoreGeorge Neves Leighton (1912-2018)
