In many countries around the world, controversy surrounds state policy on language. The West African archipelago of Cape Verde is no exception. Ever since the country’s independence from Portugal in 1975, a movement of bilingual Cape Verdeans has spearheaded planning efforts for the national language (Cape Verdean Creole) in an attempt to build the case for making it the country’s co-official language. Nevertheless, these individuals face resistance from others who view the project as an attempt to marginalize the current official language (Portuguese) and/or regional dialects of Cape Verdean Creole. This study looks at texts taken from the discourse of language policy in Cape Verde in order to identify the language ideologies, i.e. “sets of beliefs about language articulated by users as a rationalization or justification of perceived language structure or use” (Silverstein, 1979, p.497), that Cape Verdeans use to support or to resist certain language policy and planning options.