Cape Verde, officially the Republic of Cape Verde, is a state in West Africa. Located on the Cape Verde Islands in the Atlantic Ocean, 600 km from the coast of Africa.
In 1456, the Venetian Kadamosto discovered a number of
islands of the archipelago, which, due to their location opposite the
Cape Verde Peninsula (port. Cabo Verde), were also called the “Islands
of Cape Verde” and were called that way throughout the colonial period.
In 1975, after gaining independence, the state received the name
"Republic of the Cape Verde Island" or simply "Cape Verde Islands"
(port. Ilhas do Cabo Verde).
Until the mid-1980s,
foreign-language versions of the country's name sounded in a translated
form. In 1986, the country's government adopted the new name of the
state "Republica do Cabo Verde" - "Republic of the Green Cape" and
decided to stop its semantic translation into other languages. On
October 24, 2013, the country's delegation to the United Nations brought
this demand to the attention of the world community.
The Republic of Cape Verde is located in the central Atlantic off the west coast of the African continent. The archipelago consists of nine inhabited islands and another 16 small islands. The 10 stars on the flag represent the islands. A distinction is made between the northern islands above the wind (Ilhas de Barlavento) and the southern islands below the wind (Ilhas de Sotavento). The islands above the wind are Santo Antão, São Vicente, São Nicolau, Sal, Boa Vista and the uninhabited islands of Santa Luzia, Branco and Raso (these uninhabited islands are nature reserves). The Sotavento group includes Maio, Santiago, Fogo and Brava as well as the uninhabited island group of Ilhéus do Rombo and de Cima.
The Cape Verde archipelago is of volcanic origin. The highest elevation in the Cape Verde Islands is the smooth volcanic cone of Pico do Fogo at 2829 meters high. In 1995, after a 44-year period of dormancy, it erupted again. This created the 1920 m high flank crater "Pequeno Fogo", on the edges of which hot fumaroles are still active. This flank volcano was active again from November 23, 2014, spewing clouds of ash and fire. The escaping lava, which poured into the caldeira with three main streams, destroyed two towns and several other small settlements in the caldeira. Volcanic activity ended on February 8, 2015. The islands in the northwest, Santo Antão, São Vicente and São Nicolau, as well as Santiago, are also young volcanic and high mountainous, while the eastern islands are much older, flatly eroded except for a few relic mountains and have a limestone base. The archipelago also includes the following seamounts: Seamount Nola (west of Santo Antão), Seamount Boavista (east of Boa Vista), Seamount Cape Verde (southeast of Boa Vista), Seamount Maio (east of Maio) and Seamount Cadamosto (south of Brava). The João Valente reef south of Boa Vista may also be one of the seamounts. With the exception of the Ribeira da Torre and the Ribeira da Paúl (both on the island of Santo Antão), there are no permanently water-bearing rivers or streams on the islands. In the interior of Boavista, the small freshwater lake Odjo d’Água exists all year round. In the rainy season, the otherwise dry valleys of the Ribeiras (= streams) often swell into raging torrents and destroy roads and paths, which then sometimes remain impassable for long periods.
The climate is mild, oceanic, similar to that on the Canary Islands.
However, it is warmer and drier and is influenced by the northeast trade
winds.
Due to its location just south of the Tropic of Capricorn,
there are only slight annual fluctuations in temperatures. The climate
is also characterized by small temperature differences between day and
night (usually around 5 °C) and relatively high humidity all year round
(around 70%). Daytime temperatures are between 23 and 30 °C all year
round, with nighttime temperatures around 18 °C in winter (January to
April) and 24 °C in summer (August to October). The soil is very dry
everywhere, the average rainfall in the capital is around 250 mm per
year, otherwise usually only between 100 and 200 mm. Most of the
rainfall falls from August to November. The water temperatures of 22 to
27 °C make the country attractive for beach tourism.
The vegetation of the Cape Verde Islands is semi-desert-like due to
the dryness. There are, among other things, dry grasslands, and in the
eastern part the islands are also covered with large dunes or salt
marshes (mangroves). There are also some palm species such as the Canary
Island date palm, which are adapted to the dryness.
The fauna on
the islands is comparatively poor. Before human settlement, there were
no mammals on the islands except for one species of bat. There are also
some small reptile species, such as geckos and skinks. Sea turtles
occasionally lay their eggs on the beaches.
In 2021, 69.8 percent of Cape Verde's residents used the Internet. The only major city is the capital, Praia. Only a few cities have more than 10,000 inhabitants. These figures refer only to the core city and not to the entire administrative area of the city (municipality).
The uninhabited islands were circumnavigated by António Fernandes in
1445 and discovered and first set foot on (Boa Vista) in 1456 by the
Venetian Alvise Cadamosto, who was sailing for the Portuguese service.
Antonio da Noli, a Genoese captain who was also sailing on behalf of the
Portuguese prince Henry the Navigator, continued to explore the islands
in 1458 in collaboration with Diogo Gomes, discovered most of the
remaining eastern Cape Verde, named the archipelago Ilhas de Cabo Verde
and began to settle the islands in 1461 as governor of the Portuguese
crown. In fact, Diogo Gomes later claimed to have been the first of the
two to have seen the island of Santiago from afar and also to have been
the first to set foot on it. However, Antonio da Noli managed to make
the return journey to Portugal earlier and was understandably rewarded
by Henry the Navigator with the credit for the discovery, which, in the
words of Diogo Gomes, "I, Gomes, discovered". Due to the rivalry between
the two, Diogo Gomes is considered the true discoverer of the main
island of Santiago in Portuguese historiography.
The islands were
named by the Portuguese after Cabo Verde (Green Cape) on the west coast
of Africa. The name reflects the history of discovery and the late
medieval navigation technique. Until the geographical longitude was
reliably determined in the 18th century, navigators followed the West
African coast to the cape so as not to miss the archipelago in the
vastness of the Atlantic. Christopher Columbus, who passed through the
Cape Verde Islands on his third voyage to America in 1498, noted that
the name did not really fit the mostly desert-like, dry character of the
archipelago.
Settlement of the archipelago began with a small
Portuguese military station in 1461 on the main island of Santiago and
on the island of Fogo.
In 1532, an independent bishopric was
established. With the dispatch of a governor general, the island was
given official status as a Portuguese colony. From 1461 onwards, Cape
Verde played a role in economic history as a Portuguese military station
and outpost for further voyages of discovery and for the extraction of
Roccella tinctoria, a dyer's lichen.
From 1500 to around 1620,
the island of Santiago played an important role in the transatlantic
slave trade as a transshipment and supply station. Many slaves were also
brought to Lisbon to work as domestic slaves or in agriculture on the
Algarve. Ribeira Grande (now Cidade Velha) became the most important
West African port at that time. It and the entire island became the
target of pirate attacks early on. In 1537, French pirates plundered the
island of Santiago, and in 1552 and 1565, the English privateer John
Hawkins did the same. Further raids on the Cape Verde Islands were
carried out by Francis Drake in 1585 and by Flemish pirates in 1598 and
1655. Numerous slaves were abducted and the livestock slaughtered. In
1712, the raid by the Frenchman Jacques Cassard put an end to economic
development and led to the desolation of Ribeira. At the same time,
there were repeated droughts. From the middle of the 18th century,
American traders also bought slaves on Cape Verde and recruited sailors
for whaling. Polygamy, which was widespread for a long time, was mainly
due to the lack of men, which was exacerbated by emigration.
Because of the complete impoverishment of the island of Santo Antão as a
result of its administration by a private company, the conversion of
agriculture to viticulture and the bishop's attempt to build a cathedral
using only workers, the inhabitants of the island were released from all
obligations and slavery was banned in 1780 - 98 years before the
complete abolition of slavery in Portugal.
Subsequently, the salt
trade under English control, which allowed the large natural port of
Mindelo on São Vicente to flourish until 1850, revived the otherwise
ailing economy. From 1850 onwards, English coal trading companies made
it the fourth largest coal port to supply the rapidly growing steam
shipping industry. When the coal trade declined from the 1880s onwards,
nine transatlantic submarine cables converging on São Vicente replaced
part of the importance of the archipelago. In 1903/04 there was a
drought disaster. As a result, shipping traffic shifted to Dakar and Las
Palmas de Gran Canaria.
During the Estado Novo under António de
Oliveira Salazar, Cape Verde gained notoriety through the Tarrafal
concentration camp (Campo do Tarrafal) on the island of Santiago. In the
1940s, many inhabitants of the island, which was partially cut off from
supplies due to the war, starved to death. The hunger crisis lasted
until 1948.
Within Portugal, left-wing intellectuals from the
then Portuguese overseas province of Cape Verde, especially Amílcar
Cabral and his half-brother Luís Cabral, helped shape the joint movement
against the authoritarian regime of the so-called Estado Novo and its
colonial war. On April 25, 1974, the Carnation Revolution finally
brought down the dictatorship under President Marcelo Caetano.
As
in all Portuguese overseas territories, the formation of a mixed
transitional administration was agreed under the chairmanship of a High
Commissioner of the new left-wing Portuguese military government
(Revolutionary Council), which was to prepare free elections to a
constituent assembly and the granting of independence to Cape Verde.
The Partido Africano da Independência da Guiné e Cabo Verde (PAIGC,
Portuguese for "African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape
Verde") had earned a high level of trust in its resistance to the
dictatorship and dominated these elections. It won all seats in the
constituent assembly and, as its name suggests, now aimed to unite the
Cape Verde Islands with Guinea-Bissau, the former Portuguese overseas
province of Guinea on the African mainland.
On July 5, 1975,
independence was proclaimed and the left-wing national liberation
movement PAIGC became the sole governing party. Aristides Pereira became
the first president of the joint state. The Marxist-influenced PAIGC
immediately used the election victory to expand its positions of power
and to establish a new, now left-wing, one-party dictatorship. One of
the first measures was the establishment of a Marxist unified union,
which was immediately followed by the ban on all free and independent
unions.
During the years of the Marxist dictatorship, however,
the contradictions and tensions within the ruling movement of the PAIGC,
whose management bodies were heavily influenced by personalities from
the Cape Verde Islands, also grew. Over the years, there was increasing
resistance to this from officials on the African mainland of
Guinea-Bissau. The insurmountable differences between the Creole
inhabitants of the Cape Verde Islands and the predominantly black party
leaders of the mainland (Guinea-Bissau) finally led to a coup in the
government capital Bissau in 1981, the main aim of which was to end the
dominance of the Cape Verdean leadership cadres within the party, and
was also clearly driven by racist resentment against the Creole
population.
During the bloody coup, Nino Vieira, a native of the
mainland, was proclaimed president by his supporters. The joint party
subsequently disbanded and efforts to unite the two states were
abandoned. While the Marxist movement in Guinea-Bissau kept its name, in
Cape Verde it changed its name to Partido Africano da Independência de
Cabo Verde (PAICV).
In the rigged sham elections of 1985, the
PAICV received the usual 94.5% of all votes, but more and more voices
were raised calling for the democratization of the Cape Verde Republic.
The one-party state came to an end with a constitutional amendment
in 1990 that introduced a multi-party system. In the same year, the
opposition founded the Movement for Democracy (Movimento para a
Democracia, MpD). This became the strongest force in the first
democratic free elections in 1991 with an overwhelming absolute majority
(78%). António M. Monteiro became president of the "second republic" and
in the following decade pursued a neoliberal, market-oriented policy and
decentralization into districts. Constitutional changes in 1993
strengthened the position of the prime minister and limited the
president to representative functions as in some Western European
democracies.
In the 2001 National Assembly elections, the PAICV
returned to government with a social democratic profile. In the 2001
presidential election, Pedro Verona Rodrigues Pires (* April 29, 1934)
was elected as the new president.
In the parliamentary elections
in January 2006, the PAICV was able to extend its lead to a solid
absolute majority (41 out of 72 seats), and in the 2006 presidential
election, Pedro Pires was confirmed in office in a direct election until
2011.
In the parliamentary elections on February 6, 2011, Prime
Minister José Maria Neves of the PAICV won the absolute majority in
parliament for the third time in a row with just over 50% of the total
votes cast.
The culture of Cape Verde is of African and European origin. There are various Cape Verdean musical styles, of which Morna is the most famous and is based on the poems of Eugénio Tavares, who is considered the father of an independent Cape Verdean literature. Cesária Évora was probably the most famous Cape Verdean singer. Mayra Andrade (* 1985), born in Cuba to Cape Verdean parents, also achieved international fame. Mindelo is considered by many to be the cultural capital of Cape Verde.
The literature of Cape Verde is one of the richest in Africa.
Poets: Sergio Frusoni, Eugénio Tavares, B. Léza, João Cleofas Martins,
Ovídio Martins, Jorge Barbosa, Corsino Fortes, João Vário, Oswaldo
Osório, Arménio Vieira, Vadinho Velhinho, José Luís Tavares and others.
Writers: Baltasar Lopes da Silva, Manuel Lopes, Luís Romano de Madeira
Melo, Germano Almeida, Orlanda Amarílis, Jorge Vera Cruz Barbosa, Pedro
Cardoso, Mário José Domingues Daniel Filipe, Mário Alberto Fonseca de
Almeida, Corsino António Fortes, Arnaldo Carlos de Vasconcelos França,
António Aurélio Gonçalves, Aguinaldo Brit o Fonseca, Ovídio de Sousa
Martins, Osvaldo Osório, Dulce Almada Duarte, Manuel Veiga, Fatima
Bettencourt, Maria Helena Spencer, Adelaide Maria das Neuvers, Maria
Margarieda Mascarenhas, Haydeia Avelino Pires, Dina Salústio, Maria
Isabel Barreno, Leopoldina Barrento, Odina Ferreina.
In 2009, the
Cape Verdean poet Arménio Vieira received the Prémio Camões, the most
important literary award in the Portuguese-speaking world.
The
most famous mythical creatures are Ti Lobo and Chibim (Uncle Wolf and
Uncle Goat), Ti Pedro, Ti Ganga and Capotona.
Painters: Manuel Figueira, Luísa Queirós, Tchalé Figueira, Bela Duarte, Kiki Lima
Due to its small domestic market and its limited economic situation,
Cape Verde has not been able to develop a distinctive film culture.
However, documentaries and feature films, especially Portuguese cinema,
have been and continue to be produced here.
The two most famous
feature films shot in Cape Verde are probably the internationally
award-winning football film Fintar o Destino (1998) and the film Nha
Fala – My Voice (2002), which has also received multiple awards.
Music Composers: Manuel de Novas, Vasco Martins, Jorge Fernandes
Monteiro (Jotamont), Francisco Xavier da Cruz (B.Leza), Epifânia Évora
(Tututa Évora), Nha Ana Procópio (oral music traditions), Nha Nasia Gomi
(oral music traditions), Tibau Tavares Performers: Cesária Évora, Maria
Alice, Kim Alves, Mayra Andrade, Terezinha jo, Adriano Gonçalves (Bana),
Maria de Barros, Rufino Almeida (Bau), Bius, Teofilo Chantre, Gracindo
Évora (Grace Évora), Francelina Almeida (Fantcha), Hermina, Ildo Lobo,
Mario Lucio, Maria de Lurdes (Lura), Gérard Mendes (Boy Gé Mendes), Luís
Morais, Orlando Monteiro Barreto (Orlando Pantera), Aristides Paris
(Tito Paris), Celina Pereira, Mariana Ramos, Gil Semedo, Daniel Silva,
Sara Tavares, Manuel Lopes Andrade (Tcheka), Nancy Vieira, Paulino
Vieira, José Carlos Brito (Voghina), Tibau Tavares, Gabriela Mendes,
Elida Almeida, Neuza.
Bands: Bulimundo, Cordas do Sol, Ferro Gaita,
Finaçon, Livity, Simentera, Splash, Os Tubarões.
The national sport in Cape Verde is football. It is represented
internationally by the Cape Verde national football team. The team
qualified for the Africa Cup of Nations for the first time in 2012. In
the 2013 competition, it achieved its greatest success to date by
reaching the quarter-finals after remaining undefeated in the group
stage. The best placement in the FIFA world rankings was then achieved
in February 2014 with 27th place.
Special Olympics Cape Verde was
founded in 2018 and has taken part in Special Olympics World Games
several times. The association has taken part in the Special Olympics
World Summer Games 2023 in Berlin. The delegation will be looked after
by Hof before the games as part of the Host Town Program.
The
first African Beach Games took place in Cape Verde in 2019.
The
men's national handball team took part in the final round of the World
Cup in 2021 and 2023.
Cape Verde has been represented at the
Summer Olympics since Atlanta 1996. In Paris 2024, boxer David de Pina
won the country's first Olympic medal with bronze in the flyweight
category.
Media TV channels: RTC, RTP África (Portuguese) TV4
Afrique (French) Radio stations: Radiotelevisão Caboverdiana, Praia FM
Radio France International magazines: A Semana (Praia, 1991–), Expresso
das Ilhas, Journal O Cidadão (São Vicente), Jornal Horizonte (Praia,
1988–), Terra Nova (S. Vicente, 1 975–), Artiletra (S. Vicente, 1991–),
A Nação (Praia, 2007–), Jornal Já – semanário gratuita (Praia, 2010–) In
2021, 69.8 percent of Cape Verde residents used the Internet.
The Cape Verde Islands were uninhabited before they were discovered
and settled by the Portuguese. A new Creole culture was formed from the
mixing of the cultures of European settlers and African slaves.
A
study on the genetics of the Cape Verde population from 2010 found that
the European share of genes was 43 percent and the African share was 57.
Cape Verde had 593,000 inhabitants in 2022. The annual population growth was + 0.9%. A surplus of births contributed to the population growth (birth rate: 16.7 per 1000 inhabitants vs. death rate: 5.7 per 1000 inhabitants). The number of births per woman in 2022 was statistically 1.9, that of the West and Central Africa region was 4.9. The median age of the population in 2021 was 26.5 years. In 2023, 25.7 percent of the population was under 15 years old, while the proportion of people over 64 was 5.7 percent of the population.
The history of Cape Verde is marked by repeated waves of immigration
from Portugal and Madeira, strong economic influence from the English
and mass emigration in response to repeated famines. After 1970,
however, there was a strong population growth again. In 1995, the
archipelago had 337,000 inhabitants. By 2010, the population had grown
by about 53%. In addition to the approximately 516,000 inhabitants in
2010, there were an estimated 700,000 Cape Verdeans living in the
diaspora. Due to the country's poverty, there are hardly any immigrants,
but a number of Nigerians (mostly traders) have settled in Praia in
recent years.
A good half of the population is concentrated on
the main island of Santiago. According to the 2000 census, the female to
male ratio is 51.9% to 48.1%. Due to famine and the resulting
emigration, the generation born in the 1940s and 1950s is almost
completely absent. Around a third of the population is younger than 15
years old. The average age in 2000 was 17.4 years, and population growth
was 2.4% per year.
The average household has 4.6 members, 54% of
the adult population describe themselves as single, 24% live in a
partnership without being married, and 16% are married. Three percent
are separated or divorced. This can be attributed to the fact that
Portuguese law did not allow marriage between slaves or between slaves
and free people. This gave rise to a variety of forms of informal
coexistence in Creole societies that have survived to this day.
The prospect of a better life draws young rural populations to the
cities or near the main roads.
The official language of Cape Verde is Portuguese; the national
language is Cape Verdean Creole (Krioulo), which has various variants.
The greatest differences are between the Creole of Santiago and that of
Santo Antão - they can go as far as being mutually incomprehensible.
There are great similarities between the Creole of Santiago and that of
Guinea-Bissau. A process of decreolization can be observed, particularly
among the younger generation, through increased education and the use of
Portuguese-language media.
The government is striving to make
Krioulo the official language, which is difficult due to the variety of
dialects. The ALUPEC regulations have been agreed upon as the officially
recognized spelling. Krioulo is spoken in primary school, and Portuguese
is learned in secondary school. French and English are learned by parts
of the younger population in secondary school.
The majority of Cape Verdeans are Roman Catholic (about 85%). Other Christian denominations are also represented in Cape Verde, notably the Protestant Church of the Nazarene, Seventh-day Adventists, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons), Jehovah's Witnesses, Pentecostals and Adventists. There are small minorities of Muslims and Baha'is. The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God also has followers in Cape Verde. Freedom of religion is guaranteed by the constitution and respected by the government. Relations between the different faiths are good.
Primary education is compulsory for children aged 6 to 14 and free
for 6 to 12-year-olds. Textbooks are available for 90% of
schoolchildren. 83% of teachers have completed teacher training. Many
students and some teachers speak Creole at home and do not have a
perfect command of Portuguese. Expenditure on school materials, books
and meals is inadequate; There is a high repetition rate for some
levels.
In addition to the primary schools, there are secondary
schools in Praia, Mindelo and others that lead to university entrance
qualifications. In 2006, the Universidade de Cabo Verde was founded with
the integration of several technical colleges and is developing rapidly.
There is also the private Universidade Jean Piaget, a branch of the
Instituto Jean Piaget in Portugal.
The literacy rate in 2019 was
86.8% of the population. The average length of schooling for those over
25 is 6.3 years. The expected length of schooling for the new generation
of students is twice as high at 12.7 years.
The country's health expenditure in 2021 amounted to 6.9% of gross
domestic product. In 2018, there were 7.9 doctors per 10,000 inhabitants
practicing in Cape Verde. The mortality rate for children under 5 was
12.3 per 1,000 live births in 2022. The life expectancy of Cape Verdeans
from birth was 74.7 years in 2022 (women: 79, men: 70.3) and is one of
the highest in Africa.
The WHO certified Cape Verde as
malaria-free on January 12, 2024.
Cape Verde is a pluralist parliamentary republic. The head of state
is the president, who is directly elected for five years and can be
re-elected once. The 2011 presidential election was won by Jorge Carlos
Fonseca of the MPD. He was confirmed in office in 2016 with 74%.
In October 2021, José Maria Neves won the presidential election in the
first round on October 17. He won 51.8% of the vote, an absolute
majority necessary to be elected in the first round. Since November 9,
2021, he has been the official and incumbent President of the Republic
of Cape Verde.
The government is headed by the Prime Minister,
who is appointed by the President but must first be nominated by
Parliament and is responsible to it. Parliament consists of one chamber,
the National Assembly, with 72 MPs elected every five years in
multi-member constituencies. From 2001 to 2016, the PAICV held the
majority in the National Assembly, and since the parliamentary elections
in Cape Verde in 2016, the MPD has held an absolute majority in
parliament. Ulisses Correia e Silva became Prime Minister. He was
confirmed in office in the parliamentary elections on April 18, 2021.
The history of women's suffrage goes back to the colonial era. Until 1961, when everyone received Portuguese citizenship and was entitled to vote in local elections, all locals (men and women) were excluded from the right to vote. Under Portuguese administration, women voted for the first time on April 15, 1975. When the country became independent in 1975, universal active and passive voting rights were introduced at the national level on July 5, 1975. In July 1989, universal active and passive voting rights were also extended to the local level. The first woman to be elected to the national parliament, Carmen Pereira, took place in July 1975.
Cape Verde's foreign policy is open, cooperative and pragmatic and is
shaped by relations with West African states and the Community of
Portuguese-speaking countries, especially the African states with
Portuguese as an official language. Especially since the Cotonou
Agreement in 2000, Cape Verde has been moving ever closer to the EU.
The most important political ally is the USA, otherwise the closest
economic, cultural, institutional, social and many other ties exist with
Portugal.
The strategically important location of the Cape Verde
Islands in the Atlantic, where important sea routes intersect, has
recently experienced a renaissance. The reason for this is the
international efforts to combat international drug trafficking and
organized crime, and the international desire for controlled trade
routes.
In 2020, Cape Verde spent just under 0.6 percent of its economic output, or 11.4 million US dollars, on its armed forces. The country's military budget is therefore one of the smallest in the world.
In 2018, Cape Verde was divided into the following 22 municipalities
or districts (concelhos). In 2005, five new districts were created
through the division of previous districts: Ribeira Grande de Santiago
(separation from Praia district), São Lourenço dos Órgãos (separation
from Santa Cruz district), São Salvador do Mundo (separation from Santa
Catarina district), Santa Catarina do Fogo (separation from São Filipe
district) and Tarrafal de São Nicolau (separation from the São Nicolau
district).
Boa Vista
Brava
Mayo
Mosteiros
Sao Filipe
Santa Catarina do Fogo
Sal
Tarrafal
Santa Catarina
Santa
Cruz
Praia
Sao Domingos
Sao Miguel
Sao Salvador do Mundo
São Lourenço dos Órgãos
Ribeira Grande de Santiago
Ribeira Grande
Paul
Porto Novo
Ribeira Brava
Tarrafal de São Nicolau
Sao
Vicente
Cape Verde has no significant mineral resources and suffers from the
extremely dry Sahel climate. Only four islands have some water for
irrigated agriculture (e.g. for sugar cane and asparagus) when the
annual rains do not fail. Dry farming has largely ceased since 1968 and
agricultural production is not sufficient for self-sufficiency, so that
more than 90 percent of food must be imported. Rural exodus is
particularly pronounced on Santo Antão, where small farmers grow sugar
cane on terraced mountain slopes. Coffee (in the area around the town of
Mosteiros) and wine are grown on a small scale on the volcanic soil of
Fogo. Grogo (Grogue) is an artisanal sugar cane aguardente. Bananas were
grown on an area of 250 hectares in 2020 and 5,553 tons of bananas
were harvested.
The abundance of fish is also limited and cannot
be fully exploited with the simple artisanal techniques of local
fishermen. For this reason, most of the catch has to be left to foreign
fleets. Fish, lobsters, bananas, textiles and some semi-finished goods
(shoes, leather goods) are exported. Tourism is developing slowly and
contributes around ten percent to the gross national product, with the
island of Sal being the most visited and more than half of the total bed
occupancy being achieved by beach tourists. Sailors and windsurfers like
to use the islands, which are conveniently located in the trade winds.
The opportunities for mountain tourism and historical-cultural tourism
are being developed much more slowly.
The Cape Verdean escudo
(CVE) was pegged to the Portuguese escudo in 1998 and to the euro in
1999. Since its founding in 1975, the National Bank of Cape Verde has
pursued an uncompromising policy of monetary stability in order to
encourage emigrants to invest their savings in Cape Verde.
The
União Nacional dos Trabalhadores de Cabo Verde – Central Sindical
(UNTC-CS) under its general secretary Júlio Ascenção Silva campaigns for
“decent work” and a social minimum wage. In 1992, the union agreed to
cooperate with Luxembourg’s OGBL.
In 2008, Cape Verde became the
second African country after Botswana to be upgraded from a less
developed country to a middle-income country.
Around two thirds
of Cape Verdean families receive benefits from family members in exile;
remittances to Cape Verde account for a good fifth of the gross domestic
product.
In order to reduce dependence on expensive oil, the
construction of four wind farms on the islands of Santiago, São Vicente,
Sal and Boa Vista with a total output of 28 MW was decided at the end of
July 2010. Since 2011, there have also been two 2.5 and 5 MW solar parks
that can cover a large part of the country's electricity needs during
the middle of the day.
The gross domestic product (GDP) for 2017
is estimated at 1.7 billion US dollars. In purchasing power parity, the
GDP is 4 billion US dollars, or 6,900 US dollars per inhabitant. Real
growth was 4.0%. The country is one of the most indebted in the world.
The state is financed mainly by import duties and indirect taxes. A
15% value added tax was introduced in 2004. The government is trying to
lay the foundation for a more successful development policy by promoting
foreign direct investment.
The state budget in 2015 included
expenditures of the equivalent of 490 million US dollars. This was
offset by revenues of the equivalent of 374 million US dollars. This
results in a budget deficit of 7.1% of the gross domestic product. In
2005, the national debt was approximately 0.9 billion US dollars or
approximately 90% of GDP, and by 2015 it had risen to approximately 1.6
billion US dollars or approximately 116.2% of GDP.
The share of
government spending (in % of GDP) in the following areas was:
Health:
4.4 (2013)
Education: 5.0 (2011)
Military: 0.51 (2011)
All islands have a road system based on the paths laid out by slaves.
Most towns are accessible via small tracks. Main roads are usually paved
with cobblestones. Important routes on all islands are gradually being
paved. Some islands now have paved roads, e.g. Fogo from S. Filipe to
the entrance to the caldera of Pico de Fogo, on Santiago the route from
Praia to Tarrafal in the north of the island, on S. Nicolau the Ribeira
Brava-Tarrafal route, and others. On Santo Antão, a paved bypass with
two tunnels was opened to traffic in the southeast of the island in
2009, making the arduous crossing between Porto Novo and Ribeira Grande
over a 1460 m high pass superfluous. Praia has the "Circular da Praia",
a motorway-like ring road around the entire town with a connection to
the airport. On Sal there is a two-lane asphalted country road from the
airport to Santa Maria at the southern end of the island.
The
entire road network covered around 1350 km in 2013, of which 932 km are
asphalted.
The cities of Praia and Mindelo each have a city bus network that
serves all parts of the city. With a few exceptions, there is no bus
service in the rural areas. Passenger transport on all islands is
provided by so-called aluguers (= shared taxis, from the Portuguese
"aluguel" = "rent" or "alugar" = "rent") with up to 20 seats, which have
a very low fare. They usually leave from fixed locations in the cities
and towns when they are full. If they are hired privately as a taxi, the
fare is ten times the amount of the shared taxi price. Normal taxis are
also available in the larger cities and towns.
There are no
railways in the country. There is no longer any sign of a trolley
railway on the island of Sal that was used to transport salt from the
salt pans to the pier in Santa Maria.
TACV Cabo Verde Airlines previously regularly connected all of the islands with the exception of Santo Antão and Brava, whose airfields have been closed. From August 2017, these domestic connections will be taken over by the Spanish airline Binter CV, which is based in the Canaries. The international airports in terms of size/traffic volume are: Amílcar Cabral International Airport on Sal (near Espargos), Aeroporto Internacional Nelson Mandela on Santiago (near Praia), Boavista "Aristides Pereira" Airport (near Rabil) and Cesária Évora (8 km south of Mindelo near São Pedro), named after the most famous singer in the Cape Verde Islands who died in 2011. The international airports include: Connections to Dakar (Senegal), Fortaleza (Brazil), the Canary Islands and Azores, Europe (Portugal, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, etc.) and the United States (Boston). Numerous other destinations are served seasonally.
Ferries usually only run irregularly, depending on the volume of freight. Only the islands of São Vicente and Santo Antão or Fogo and Brava are connected by regular daily ferry services, as they no longer have airports. A fast ferry now runs on the São Vicente - Santo Antão route and also to other islands.