Cabo Verde, a Portuguese-speaking Atlantic island nation off the coast of West Africa with a population of roughly 600,000, has become one of the most unexpected stories of the 2026 World Cup and is drawing new attention to a little-known Sephardi Jewish past.
The archipelago, also known in English as Cape Verde, held Uruguay to a 2-2 draw on Sunday in Miami, after opening its first-ever World Cup with a 0-0 draw against Spain. Reuters reported that Kevin Pina scored Cabo Verde’s first World Cup goal, a free kick from more than 30 meters, before substitute Helio Varela equalized in the second half.
For a country whose population is smaller than many world capitals, the result was about far more than football. Cabo Verde’s players celebrated with supporters who waved flags, sang, and watched a small island nation force its way into the global conversation.
Reuters reported that coach Pedro Leitão Brito, known as Bubista, said the team’s mission went beyond results and was also about showing the world Cabo Verde’s culture, music, history, supporters, and identity.
That history includes a Jewish chapter rarely known outside the islands and their diaspora.
Cape Verde's unexpected Jewish history
According to the Cape Verde Jewish Heritage Project, Sephardi Jews from Morocco and Gibraltar settled in Cabo Verde in the mid-19th century, after Portugal abolished the Inquisition in 1821 and after Portugal and Britain signed a trade and navigation treaty in 1842. Many Moroccan Jews traded with Gibraltar, and some arrived in Cabo Verde carrying British passports.
The group says tombstone inscriptions in Hebrew and Portuguese show that many of these Jews came from Moroccan cities including Tangier, Tetouan, Rabat, and Mogador, now Essaouira. Their surnames included Anahory, Auday, Benoliel, Benrós, Benathar, Benchimol, Brigham, Cohen, Levy, Maman, Pinto, Seruya, and Wahnon.
The families settled mainly on Santo Antão, São Vicente, Boa Vista, and Santiago, where they worked in commerce, shipping, administration, and other trades. The Cape Verde Jewish Heritage Project says the Jews were often considered important figures in the local economy.
Their story did not end in a dramatic expulsion or a famous rupture. It faded more quietly. The Jewish population was small and mostly male, and many Jewish men married local Catholic women. Over generations, the organized Jewish community disappeared into Cabo Verdean society. Today, the country has virtually no practicing Jewish community, but many descendants still speak with pride about Jewish ancestors whose names remain part of family memory.
What remains is deeply personal: cemeteries, surnames, oral histories, and restored gravestones facing the Atlantic.
Preserving a piece of Jewish history
The Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported in 2017 that the government of Cabo Verde listed Jewish cemeteries and several Jewish-associated structures as part of the country’s National Historical Patrimony. JTA reported that the designation meant the cemeteries could not be destroyed and that some buildings linked to the Jewish community could not be altered.
The Cape Verde Jewish Heritage Project has worked for years to restore Jewish burial grounds, including in Praia, Boa Vista, and Santo Antão. The organization said two Jewish cemeteries in Ponta do Sol and Penha de França were rededicated in 2018 in a ceremony attended by descendants of Cabo Verde’s Jewish community, local and national officials, representatives from the US and Israel, the chief rabbi of Lisbon, and local residents.
The American Jewish Committee reported in 2024 that the Jewish section of Praia’s cemetery, dating from the 19th century, had been restored in 2013 by the Municipal Chamber of Praia and the Cape Verde Jewish Heritage Project, with funding from Morocco’s King Mohammed VI. AJC said commemorative plaques unveiled in Praia included reproductions of the original Portuguese and Hebrew epitaphs and signage explaining the migration of Moroccan Jews to Cabo Verde.
The World Monuments Fund has also worked with the Cape Verde Jewish Heritage Project to survey archives in Cabo Verde, Portugal, Morocco, and Gibraltar and to conduct interviews with descendants. The fund said the research aimed to document the legacy of Sephardi families and their descendants in Cabo Verde, after earlier research on the subject had been scattered and incomplete.
A different look at Jewish life in Africa
The story places Cabo Verde on a different Jewish map. Jewish life in Africa is often associated with Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Ethiopia, and South Africa. Cabo Verde’s Jewish history points to a smaller Atlantic route: Moroccan Jews, Gibraltar, Portuguese colonial rule, shipping, trade, intermarriage, and memory preserved through graves rather than synagogues.
The Jerusalem Post reported in 2019 that then-president Reuven Rivlin, meeting Cabo Verde’s Prime Minister José Ulisses Correia e Silva, referred to the rich Jewish history of Cape Verde and thanked the country for protecting Jewish cemeteries.
Now, the World Cup has given that story a contemporary opening.
Cabo Verde qualified for the World Cup for the first time in 2025. Reuters reported at the time that it was one of the smallest countries in tournament history to qualify. Its first two matches have now turned it into one of the tournament’s most discussed underdogs.
For many football fans, Cabo Verde is a new discovery. For Jewish readers, it is also a reminder that Jewish history reached small islands far beyond the familiar centers of Jewish life. As Cabo Verde tries to extend its World Cup run, the cemeteries of Praia, Boa Vista, and Santo Antão tell another story: of Moroccan Jewish families who crossed the sea, built lives on remote Atlantic islands, and left behind names and stones that descendants are still working to protect.