CAPE VERDE CONSISTS OF FIFTEEN ISLANDS lying about 370 miles (600 kilometers) off the coast of western Africa. Nine of the islands are inhabited. The nearest mainland countries are Mauritania, Senegal, The Gambia, and Guinea-Bissau.Surrounded by the Sea
The Cape Verde (KAEP VUHR-dee) Islands are surrounded by the deep waters of the Atlantic Ocean. Strong currents running south along the Senegal coast kept the islands uninhabited for thousands of years. Portuguese sailors spotted the islands in 1456 C.E., and the Portuguese settled them shortly afterward. They established sugar plantations and brought slaves from the west African mainland to work on their plantations. From around 1500 to 1800, settlers also took part in the slave trade to the Americas. Slavery was finally abolished in Portuguese colonies in the mid–nineteenth century.
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CLIMATE |
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Some years it hardly rains on Cape Verde. On the southern islands, though, dramatic thunderstorms and flash floods wash precious soil into the sea. From December to February, a warm, dry wind called the harmattan blows in from the Sahara Desert, filling the air with choking clouds of dust.
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From around 1800 onward, whaling ships from the United States voyaged regularly to Cape Verde, and the sea captains recruited sailors from Cape Verde as crew. Some of these sailors settled in American seaports, and people of Cape Verdean descent still live along the east coast of the United States. Cape Verde also became an important refueling station for steamships. Cargo boats and passenger liners stopped in the islands to load stocks of coal and fresh food on board.
Life on the islands was never easy. Water was always in short supply, and in 1747 a series of devastating droughts began. Thousands of people died from hunger and thirst; in the twentieth century many immigrated to western Africa, Portugal, and the United States. From the mid-1990s, droughts reduced the island’s grain crop by 80 percent, and in 2002, the government appealed for international food aid after the harvest failed.
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FACTS AND FIGURES |
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Official name: República de Cabo Verde Status: Independent state Capital: Praia Other town: Mindelo Area: 1,557 square miles (4,033 square kilometers) Population: 420,000 Population density: 270 per square mile (104 per square kilometer) Peoples: 71 percent mixed African-European (creoles or mestiços); 28 percent African; 1 percent European Official language: Portuguese Currency: Cape Verdean escudo National days: National Heroes’ Day (January 20); Youth Day (June 1); Independence Day (July 5) Country’s name: The name Cape Verde probably comes from the nearest location on the mainland, the Cap Vert Peninsula in Senegal. Cap Vert means "green point of land."
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Until 1975 Portugal ruled Cape Verde. In 1956 educated Cape Verdeans began to campaign for independence, along with people in the African mainland colony of Portuguese Guinea (see GUINEA-BISSAU). After many years of fighting on the mainland, both countries won independence, and Cape Verde became a republic in 1975. Today it is a democratic, multiparty state. Everyone over the age of eighteen has the right to vote.
