The year 2020 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Cape Verdean Association (ACV) – the well-known body representing the Cape Verdean community settled in Portugal, based in the city of Lisbon – more specifically that of the institution that is today considered its first historical denomination, Cape Verde House.
The association is the result of the merging of Cape Verde House and the Democratic Action Group of Cape Verde and Guinea (GADCG, initially called the Democratic Action Group of Cape Verde – GADC), which decided to change their name and identity to the Association of Cape Verdeans and Guineans (ACG) and, later, following the post-colonial breakdown of the principle and ideal of unity between Guinea and Cape Verde and the project of organic union between the independent and sovereign republics of Cape Verde and Guinea Bissau, to the current Cape Verdean Association.
Thus, the Cape Verdean Association was able to become, remain, and continue to be the oldest and most emblematic association created by the Cape Verdean community resident in Portugal still in operation, surviving until today with this prestigious status of great responsibility, always renewed with the development of multiple and varied activities in support of the defence and promotion of the interests of the Cape Verdean community settled in Portugal.
It is in this highly dynamic context, especially in the spheres of culture and the promotion of citizenship and integration of Cape Verdeans and other Lusophone African citizens, the incentive of multiculturalism and interculturalism, the diffusion of the Portuguese language, together with the teaching and dissemination of the Cape Verdean language, that the Cape Verdean Association has earned the recognition of the Portuguese host society, the Cape Verdean community settled in Portugal, the state of Cape Verde and various Lusophone institutions, as substantiated by the following: the attribution of house of culture status by the Cape Verde Ministry of Culture; the attribution of associate observer status by the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP); the attribution, in the association category, of the Lusophony Merit and Prestige Award, in October 2019; and the awarding of two important state decorations at the Fiftieth Anniversary Gala of the Cape Verdean Association: the First Class Medal of Merit of the Republic of Cape Verde, by His Excellency President Jorge Carlos Fonseca, and the Medal of Honorary Member of the Order of Merit of the Portuguese Republic, by His Excellency President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.
It is, therefore, the festive atmosphere of the Cape Verdean Association’s fiftieth anniversary celebrations
– which has, unfortunately, been marred by the unforeseeable, disturbing and challenging circumstances that arose at the end of 2019 and, in Cape Verde and Portugal, at the beginning of 2020, as a result of the global outbreak and spread of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and consequent health and socio-economic crises – that is the context for this joint issue by the postal services of Portugal and Cape Verde of the commemorative stamp for the fiftieth anniversary of the Cape Verdean Association.
It was no coincidence that 18 October 2020 was chosen for the realisation of this issue, full of symbolism, the reason for which appears to be wholly plausible and justified by the double celebration that this date marks: on the one hand, the birthday of the great bilingual poet, eminent cultivator of the Portuguese and Cape Verdean languages, talented polemicist, staunch democrat and, moreover, unanimously considered to be the greatest composer of mornas (Cape Verdean folk songs) in Cape Verdean history, Eugénio Tavares; and, on the other, the Day of Cape Verdean Culture and Communities, of which the great nativist poet Eugénio Tavares is undoubtedly a vital figure, if not the greatest icon, and, for this very reason, elevated by the Cape Verdean government, in just recognition of his celebrated and rare genius, to patron of this emblematic day.
