The story
Independence Day Cultural Celebrations in Praia/Mindelo/national
Marking July 5, 1975, when Cabo Verde formally received its instruments of independence from Portugal in Praia after a movement organised from 1956 through the PAIGC under Amilcar Cabral, this national holiday combines formal state ceremony with popular celebration featuring morna, funana and coladeira music, the national dish cachupa, and grogue sugarcane spirit, alongside street parties across every island.
Cabo Verde's independence movement took organised political form in 1956 with the founding of the PAIGC, the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cabo Verde, led in significant part by Amilcar Cabral, and that decades-long struggle culminated on July 5, 1975, when the country's newly elected National Assembly formally received the instruments of independence from Portugal in a ceremony held in the capital, Praia, ending roughly five centuries of Portuguese colonial rule.