Cabo Verde

According to old legends, the islands of Cabo Verde, fortunate islands of the Micronesia originated from the ruins of mythical Atlantis continent taken away into the profoundness by portentous cataclysm. Formed by little sand and much water, the country archipelago is today the Republic of Cabo Verde. It is situated at 445 km from the western coast of Africa. It is formed of 10 islands and 8 islets with about 4033 km2 of superficies. Volcanic in origin, the 10 islands of which 9 are inhabited are divided into two groups: the windward group composed of the islands of São Vicente, Santa Luzia, São Nicolau, Sal and Boavista, and the leeward group composed of Santiago, Maio, Fogo and Brava.

The settlement and the colonization of the islands imposed a meeting of two cultures. One African, the other European. In a resource less land and a great distance separating the colonial potency, the two groups mingled until the generalization of the miscegenation from which would be born the Creole society. This is their story, from their humble beginning to the present day. It is by no mean endorsed or supported by Cabo Verde’s government.

The Creole society which was neither African nor European began with the discovery of the islands in 1456, or according to the official records, 1460. Everything indicates that they must have been uninhabited. Yet it is possible that at some time or other Africans from the continents and Arabs might have landed there by chance before the Portuguese arrived. In 1462 King Afonso V of Portugal granted the archipelago to his brother Prince Fernando who later divided the island of Santiago between two land grantees (donatarios). European settlement began at Ribeira Grande ("the great stream") on the leeward side of Santiago Island which offered a reliable fresh water supply and a moderately protected harbor. An assortment of Portuguese exiles and reprieved convicts, Genovese and Flemish adventurers and Sephardic Jews were included among the first European settlers

The Portuguese at once began to settle Santiago, the largest island, and a few years later Fogo. The donatory or captaincy to whom it had been granted by the Portuguese crown introduced a few white men- Portuguese, Spanish, Genovese, and others. With its potential as a base, and its favored geographical position, the archipelago was settled with slaves from the African coast. For a while Santiago served as a taking off point for ships going to the Gulf of Guinea, the Angolan coast, S.Tomé and Brazil. It formed a base for protecting, provisioning and careening ships, and for bringing together slaves imported from the rivers of Guinea for acclimatization and export.

The settlement of Santiago was carried out rapidly. The population especially the slaves, grew steadily. The territory was divided into two captaincies, the southern based on Ribeira Grande, and the Northern on Alcatraz, which did not last long as it lacked the means to survive. Once the administrative and religious division was made, the land was distributed to Europeans of the higher strata of society. This in turn distributed the land into large and small plots under the “morgadio” system. The morgadio system was based on the Portuguese vinculo which basically passed on the land to the male line by primogeniture. The person holding the vinculo passed or supported brothers with income gained from the land. The maladministration of the land from the first period of settlement caused the emigration that would later happen throughout the islands.
Agricultural and pastoral development depended on the existence of a steady work force.

The Europeans maintained that they did not possess the physical stamina to carry on the working of tilling the land and suchlike in a tropical climate. Moreover his position as master would not allow him to undertake manual labor without undermining his social prestige. So they made use of slave labor. The slave trade was not explicitly permitted in the original Royal Charters and Warrants. It began illegally, on the initiative of the inhabitants when they saw that it would be an important and lucrative source of wealth. The trade was officially sanctioned and authorized under the royal warrant of 1472 which gave the existing inhabitants of Santiago the privilege of being able to have slaves male and females, to work for them, enable them to live better. Santiago became an important repository for slaves. Here slaves became acclimated (taught the catechism, baptized and given rudiments in of Portuguese) to make him more acceptable, and more expensive in overseas market.

In the first century, the Europeans were in a position of blatant privilege. He directed and organized the slave masses, regulated their work, and made sure they were obedient. The slave was employed cultivating the land, herding cattle, picking cotton, or domestic tasks like weaving, etc. This is where the distinction of house slave and field slave came about. White artisans, many of them exiled convicts, taught other skills to the more proficient and acclimated slaves. This outlined the socio-professional structure that later evolved and expanded. At first African grains and root crops were cultivated to support the precarious subsistence economy. Maize was introduced from America at the end of the 15th century. It became the staple food crop. Cattle were reared for their milk and milk, cotton and sugar canes were planted. Orchid, lichen which produced red dye was gathered and sold to overseas market such as Portugal and other European countries. Salt, which were prominent on the island of Maio and Sal were collected for export. The way the in which the resources of the island were distributed worked towards the impoverishment of the masses in favor of the crown and a small group of bourgeoisie. This created resentment for the crown and the crown contractors. The Crown lacked the financial resources and was not interested in investment for development, nor did it command enough human resources to exploit the economic potential of the islands effectively, or resources to even set up services to collect and administer its own revenues.

From the get go, the Crown established that the companies or large landowners would pay a fixed amount annually. This would have worked fine, but the crow had set up the best lands to itself. For example, cattle’s had their own pasture and watering places, this was in addition to trade which the Crown had restricted trade. Foreign owned companies or ships could only do business with the crown or monopolies set up or financed by the Crown. Infractions to the law carried heavy penalties. What was left to the people was almost nothing. Since they could not trade with foreigners, they bartered or cultivated their meager plot.

To make up for their chronic deficiencies, the rules and laws set up by the Crown provoked the formation of a powerful and extensive and smuggling network which eventually became institutionalized. This small group included the small landowners, many treasury officials, the clergy, and the people in general. Shielding one another, they diverted produce and merchandise to ports where they could trade with foreign ships. Even after the royal decree of 1687 which threatened to give the death penalty to anyone caught trading with foreigners. The people were not intimidated, for the Crown never had the power to enforce the inspection or prevent fraud. Around this period, slave trade was leased out. Feeling harmed and left out by the big monopolies controlling the trade, the large landowners joined the small landowners and the people, protected by the connivance of the authorities, who were themselves caught up in the swindle of dealing with goods and provisions bought from foreigners.

For the latter part of the 1500’s and 1600, Portugal was under Spanish rule. After the restoration of the Portuguese monarchy in 1654, caused partly by dissensions with Spain, which had diminished trade with the countries of South America under Spanish rule. Trade on the Islands had been based on trade with foreigners, this had come to a screeching halt under Spanish rule and the frequent sacks to Ribeira Grande and Praia by foreign Pirates contributed to the disintegration of the Island economy. This caused many to leave the island in order not to impoverish themselves further. The slaves also used these periods of frequent attacks by pirates to flee and form their own communities in the interior of the island because it provided them with a natural defense because of the high altitude of the mountains. The Crown refused the local governments proposal to infuse and raise the value of currency in circulation around the islands. Whites began leaving to return to Europe or the Americas in order not to face the deplorable conditions on the islands.

On a note, slaves were not indentured for life in Cabo Verde. For the majority of its history, slaves became free and owned slaves themselves. Those who intermingled with the whites, became free and landowners themselves after the death of their master. The mixing of white men and black woman produce the large mulatto population of Cabo Verde today. It is not as if the black woman had a say in this, for they were property, to be used and dealt with as the whites saw fit. Great injustice, but this just shows some of the privileges that whites had.

The history of the islands, from its initial discovery to the present day, has been punctuated by natural disasters. The climate of Cabo Verde is tropical and unstable. There are two annual seasons, the dry season and the rains. The rainfall is low and irregular; hence droughts are frequent and prolonged. Irregular and unpredictable rainfall prevents plants from seeding and growing, so farming declines and there is a serious lack of food. As the population increased, both human and animals, more and more land was taken away and most of the times overgrazed. To maintain basic necessities for a growing population, trees were cut without thought about afforestation. When pasture was not available, goats and cattle ate away the scanty vegetation. The loss and destruction of vegetation and the unregulated use of pasture land, aggravated by frequent droughts, hastened on soil erosion. The two most common agents were and still are the torrential rains and winds. The winds and rain both combine blow away or wash the best layers of organic material in the soil down to the sea, in other words everything around Cabo Verde combines to make life difficult and hard.

The irregularity of the rains caused a grave lack of basic subsistence foods such as maize, beans, etc. This caused famine which brought out catastrophic mortality of the population. At times, up to 30 percent of the population died, and the livestock reduced to ridiculous numbers. The most recent drought, 1903, and 1947-8, over 80,000 deaths occurred. This was from a population of less than 200,000. Stories about the sacrifices are abound throughout the islands. Most of that generation that experienced the last famine is still around to tell the stories of what happened. Some were horrific. From the 1500’s down to the mid of the 1900’s, drought played a role in the economy of the island.

Epidemics of cholera and small pox and other diseases have been causes of widespread death around the islands. Natural disasters, famine, and high poverty rate contributed to the decline and emigration of the general population. With the decline of the local economy, and famine, the people began looking for answers and help from the royal Crown, and later the Portuguese government. The answer was always the same, either ignored or failed to provide adequate resources to help its subjects. This reluctance to help created resentment for the Portuguese government which would eventually see its downfall and the independence of Cabo Verde.

The 1930s saw an increase in nationalism in Cape Verde. In 1956, Amilcar Cabral created and organized the African Party for the Independence of Guinea – Bissau and Cape Verde (PAIGC), which formed the basis of the two nation’s independence movement, and began an armed struggle in 1961 against the colonial army of Portugal. There was fierce fighting in Guinea-Bissau and popular demonstrations in Cape Verde. On July 5, 1975, Cape Verde became independent. Aristides Pereira, who took the lead of PAIGC after the assassination of Amilcar Cabral on January 20, 1973, became the first President of Cape Verde and Pedro Pires the first Prime Minister
Cape Verde was ruled by the African Party for the independence of Cape Verde (PAIGC/PAICV) between 1975 and 1991. The Movement for Democracy (MPD) won the first multi-party elections in 1991. Antonio Mascarenhas Monteiro became President and Carlos Wahnon Veiga , the Prime Minister. These 1991 elections, which were universal, direct, and with secret ballots, were noteworthy for being completely peaceful and for being the first in the 1990s wave of democratic elections in Africa.
Elections in 1996 returned the MPD and President Monteiro to power. In 2001, the former ruling Party, PAICV won the elections. The former Prime Minister, Pedro Pires became President of the Republic by only 12 votes difference and José Maria Neves became the Prime Minister. These elections were judged free and fair by domestic and international observers, and Cape Verde is considered to have one of the most democratic systems and best human rights record in Africa. The Government is responsible to the National Assembly and is elected every 5 (five) years.

Cidade Velha

Santiago, the cradle of the Cape Verdean identity was originally called “Cidade da Ribeira Grande”, the former capital of Cape Verde across some centuries. Cidade Velha was the first European center built by the Portuguese in the tropics during the adventurous period of geographical discoveries. When speaking about the history of Cape Verde, Cidade Velha is an obligatory reference. The signs of those times still remain today with particular importance to heritage, culture and people of Cape Verde. The first Cape Verdeans were born at Cidade Velha, a meeting point of the first Europeans and slaves coming from the West Coast of Africa to settle and cultivate the islands. The mixing of these two different cultures blending brought about the essence of Creole culture and language and a new people, the Cape Verdean. Ribeira Grande once played an important role both in the development of commerce and navigation and in the Portuguese discoveries. It was also the first ecclesiastical and civil capital established in Cape Verde. The parish of “Nossa Senhora da Conceicao” was erected in 1462 at Ribeira Grande that witnessed the early presence of priest in Cape Verde. Situated at approximately 10 miles from Praia, the capital of the archipelago, Cidade Velha is both a tourist attraction, with its historical monuments and a pleasant site preserved for those who are interested in the history of Cape Verde’s people. The ruins of “Se Cathedral”, the first cathedral built by the Portuguese in Africa, are well preserved in order to keep all the important references regarding Cape Verde’s culture particularly that of Santiago, the mother island of the Capeverdean culture.

Because of its strategic location half way between Europe, Africa, Americas, Asia and India - the archipelago of Cape Verde acted as a staging post for trade with the African mainland. During the 16th century it was dominated by slaves' traffic from the Guinea coastal areas being trans-shipped to the Americas and Europe. For these reasons, Cidade Velha was ordained a city in 1533. However, Ribeira Grande’s flourishing time would last only for a short period. Its decadence began at a time when it ceased to be a point of commercial and navigation interests. The economic recession took place and many Europeans left the city. Besides, pirates’ attacks most notably led by the Englishman, Francis Drake, in 1584 much contributed to the decadence of Ribeira Grande.

Situated at a distance of only a few miles from Cidade Velha, the harbor of Praia de Santa Maria would become a commercial center as the navigators abandoned Ribeira Grande due to disease that beat down on the city after the rainy seasons. On December 13, 1769, the administrative center moved to Vila da Praia which was ordained a city in 1858 and therefore Cidade Velha was abandoned to itself and to the ignorance of men. Vasco da Gama, on his way to India, Cristovao Colombo, Pedro Alvares Cabral and Sebastian Del Cano are some of famous navigators who anchored in Cape Verde especially in Ribeira Grande. The Fortaleza of Sao Filipe, one of the grandest historical monuments of Cidade da Ribeira Grande witnesses the Portuguese presence in Cape Verde. Its construction would begin in 1593 after the pirates’ attacks led by Francis Drake, in 1585.

Local people will direct visitors to the trading post “Pelourinho”, the ornate marble pillar in the center of the city square, erected some centuries ago and considered the symbol of the royal authority and the living proof of slavery in Cape Verde. According to some historians, Ribeira Grande has never experienced the development corresponding to that of a city. However, for convenience, the King Don John III, proposed to create the Diocese in Cape Verde. The aim of this proposal was to facilitate the ordination of the native priests and to better organize the evangelization of the slaves coming from the West Coast of Africa before being transported to the Americas. The church of Nossa Senhora do Rosario, today a historical heritage and one of the oldest churches in Santiago and Cape Verde was established around 1495. In 1652, on his way to Brazil, the priest Antonio Vieira used this church to preach to the population.
At that time, what really stuck the great Portuguese orator was the presence of smart clergymen and canons that according to himself, made the best of the Kingdom feel envy. May 4th 1712 marked the decline of Cidade Velha. On that day, Cidade Velha was attacked by French pirates led by Jacques Cassard. The pillage amounted to 3 million pounds thus making Cidade Velha gradually loose her former greatness. The research proves, however, that the history of Cape Verde’s people began at Cidade Velha over five centuries ago.

History of Praia

Praia began being populated during 1515 with the arrival of slaves taken captive from the Africa. That year the first population settlement was established at the Port of Praia with people from the villages of Ribeira Grande, and mainly Alcatrazes. The abandonment of Alcatrazes had begun at that time; its merchants moved to Praia because of the ample port. The importance of the new population center increased such that by 1536 a regular church was being built, and it was the seat for several authorities. The village of Praia de Santa Maria began to develop. Its captain and governor of justice was Gomes Balieiro, and the legislative chamber was functioning.

During the early years of the 1700’s, twelve warships, commanded by Jacques Cassart, anchor at the port of Praia Negra. They disembarked without facing resistance from the local population, and militia commander Manuel Dias de Moura, who surrendered and remained a prisoner, at the main church. In the village the pirates burned the thatch houses; only those with tile roofs were left standing, and they looted the inhabitants' belongings.

In 1826 governor-General Antonio Pusich submitted a report to the central authorities in which he proposed a transfer of the capital from Praia to Sao Nicolau or Sao Antao. The argument: that the village was disease-infested. On March 13 The two legislative chambers of the island, meeting in the village of Praia, in the presence of the governor, the bishop, public officials, and many common people, celebrated assumption by D. Joao VI of the title Emperor of Brazil, and in view of this great event they asked that the village be increased in rank to a city, capital of the islands, and lordship of Guinea, being dubbed forever the Imperial City of Braganza.
The following year, the regent Dona Isabel Maria asked the governor of Cape Verde for precise information to determine whether the village met the conditions for being elevated in standing to a city. The request was denied, based on the consideration that it would offend the inhabitants of Ribeira Grande, who possessed that regalia for a long time, in recognition of their nobility, education, and civil and ecclesiastic dignity.

In 1834 Prefect Manuel Antonio Martins proposed to the governor that the capital be changed to the island of Boa Vista; this proposal was not approved.

In 1835 the issue of whether to transfer the "capital" from the village of Praia came to the fore once again, this time to Sao Vicente, because of Praia's insalubrious conditions. The tertiary sector of Praia objected to this proposal, arguing that the insalubrious conditions could be done away with by local improvements that should be carried out in view of the large number of ships that sought to put in at the port, and since Santiago is the more important island in terms of agriculture, and the richest and the most populous.

In 1836 Governor Domingos Correia Arouca organized a company, with a capital investment of 4 million reis, to build a dock in the port of Praia. He sought laborers to work on this construction project, and on the project to link the island of Santa Marta to land. He organized an underwriting to build a clock tower, "for in the village they spent hours banging the bell with a hammer."

During 1838 A decree was issued ordering that the main authorities, including in the village of Praia, should maintain their permanent residences on the island of Sao Vicente, in the new town that was being built and that was to be called Mindelo.

In 1841 The cornerstone was laid for the new hospital on May 30, 1841

1849 In the opinion of governor Joao Pereira de Melo, it was essential to move the government seat, from July to February, out of Praia to a healthier place. Otherwise, "the offices shut down completely, and the employees groan, as they fall ill, with no benefit to the public service; many of them, once they escape, continue to convalesce until the rains come again. Also in 1849, two private persons submitted proposals in which they undertook to erect the buildings needed for housing the government, one in the interior of Santiago, the other on Sao Vicente. The latter, businessman Joao Antonio Martins, required that the government, in consideration of his initiative, not consent to having slaves on that island. None of the proposals was accepted.

1858 By decree of April 29, the village of Praia was elevated to the category of city, with the name City of Praia de Santiago

1863 Construction of the dock, which had begun on March 3, 1859, and in which 1,200 large quarry stones bought in Lisbon were used, was completed.