São Vicente (

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

for " Saint Vincent") is one of the

Barlavento Islands The Barlavento Islands ( Portuguese: ''Ilhas de Barlavento'', literally, the ''Windward Islands'') is the northern group of the Cape Verde archipelago.Cape Verde archipelago in the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe ...

, off the West African coast. It is located between the islands of Santo Antão and Santa Luzia, with the Canal de São Vicente separating it from Santo Antão.

Geography

The island is roughly

rectangular In Euclidean plane geometry, a rectangle is a quadrilateral with four right angles. It can also be defined as: an equiangular quadrilateral, since equiangular means that all of its angles are equal (360°/4 = 90°); or a parallelogram containin ...

in shape with an area of .2010 Census Summary
/ref> From east to west it measures and from north to south .Cabo Verde, Statistical Yearbook 2015
Instituto Nacional de Estatística The island, of

volcanic A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plates a ...

origin, is fairly flat. The last volcanic activity is considered to have taken place in the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed in ...

. Although very

eroded Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as water flow or wind) that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust, and then transports it to another location where it is deposited. Erosion is disti ...

, some craters still remain, for instance Viana. Its highest point is

Monte Verde Monte Verde is an archaeological site in the Llanquihue Province in southern Chile, located near Puerto Montt, Southern Chile, which has been dated to as early as 18,500 cal BP (16,500 BC). Previously, the widely accepted date for early occu ...

, located in the eastern part with an altitude of .Inventário dos recursos turísticos do município de S. Vicente
Direcção Geral do Turismo Other mountains include Madeiral (680 m), Caixa (535 m) and Monte Cara (490 m). 92.6% of the island population lives in the urban area of

Mindelo Mindelo is a port cityCabo Verde, Statistical Yearbook ...

, on the

Porto Grande Bay Porto Grande Bay ( pt, Baía do Porto Grande), also Mindelo Bay, is a bay on the north coast of the island of São Vicente, Cape Verde. The main city of São Vicente, Mindelo, is situated at the bay. The Porto Grande Bay is a natural harbour. It ...

, a caldera that is breached by the ocean. A small islet, Ilhéu dos Pássaros, is less than one nautical mile off the coast of Porto Grande Bay. There are a few intermittent streams, including Ribeira do Calhau and Ribeira de Julião.

Climate

São Vicente has a

hot desert climate The desert climate or arid climate (in the Köppen climate classification ''BWh'' and ''BWk''), is a dry climate sub-type in which there is a severe excess of evaporation over precipitation. The typically bald, rocky, or sandy surfaces in desert ...

(

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (born 1951), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author and ...

''BWh''). The average annual temperature in Mindelo is . The island is very dry with only annual precipitation in Mindelo. Only the higher area of Monte Verde receives more precipitation.

History

São Vicente was discovered by the Portuguese discoverer Diogo Afonso on 22 January 1462 ( Saint Vincent's Day). Due to its lack of water, the island was initially used only as a cattle pasture. When the Municipality of Santo Antão was established in 1732, the island of São Vicente was part of it. At that time, it did not have permanent inhabitants. In 1793 the area of

was settled.Génese e desenvolvimento da cidade do Mindelo: a preservação de uma identidade
Fred Yanick Fonseca Delgado, 2016 It was only in 1838, when a

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when ...

depot was established at Porto Grande Bay to supply ships on

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...

routes, that the population started to grow rapidly. From the beginning of the 20th century the port of Mindelo lost its importance for transatlantic navigation. Causes for this were the shift from coal to oil as fuel for ships, the rise of competing ports like Dakar and the Canary Islands and the lack of investment in port infrastructure.

Municipality

Administratively, the island of São Vicente is covered by one municipality, ''

Concelho Concelho () is the Portuguese-language term for municipality, referring to the territorial subdivision in local government. In comparison, the word ''município'' () refers to the organs of State. This differentiation is still in use in Portugal ...

de São Vicente''. This municipality consists of one ''

freguesia ''Freguesia'' (), usually translated as "parish" or "civil parish", is the third-level administrative subdivision of Portugal, as defined by the 1976 Constitution. It is also the designation for local government jurisdictions in the former Por ...

'' (civil parish), ''Nossa Senhora da Luz'', which also covers the whole island. The municipal seat is the city of

Mindelo Mindelo is a port cityCabo Verde, Statistical Yearbook ...

. The ''freguesia'' is subdivided into the following settlements: * Baía das Gatas * Lameirão *

Mindelo Mindelo is a port cityCabo Verde, Statistical Yearbook ...

(city) * Monte Verde * Norte da Baía * Ribeira da Vinha * Ribeira de Calhau * Ribeira Julião * Salamansa * São Pedro

Politics

Since 2004, the Movement for Democracy (MpD) is the ruling party of the municipality. The results of the latest elections, in 2016:Official results local elections 2016
''Boletim Oficial I Série, Número 53'', 23 September 2016

Presidents

* Henrique Teixeira de Sousa, in the 1960s * Onésimo Silveira, in the late-1990s and the early 2000s * Isaura Gomes 2004–2005 and 2008–2011 *Augusto Neves (since 2011)

Population

In the 1830s, São Vicente had an estimated population of 356. The population of São Vicente in the 2010 census was 76,140, making it the second most populous island of Cape Verde after

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whos ...

. The annual population growth is 1.3%. 92.6% of the population live in urban areas, which is the highest proportion of all islands (average for Cape Verde: 61.8%). Life expectancy is 76 years, higher than some other parts of the world. The birth rate is 2.7% and infant mortality rate is 18 per 1000 live births (for comparison 103 in DR Congo, 55 in India, 27 in Turkey, 23 in Brazil, 16 in Russia, 4 in Finland). The majority of the population is young; 49% of the population is under the age of 25, and 7.4% of the population is over the age of 65. The island has 19,923 households, of which there are an average of 3.8 persons per household, lower than Cape Verde's level of 4.2 persons per household. In 2010 15.1% of the households owned an automobile (Cape Verde: 12.7%).

Economy

The economy of the island was always based almost exclusively on

commerce Commerce is the large-scale organized system of activities, functions, procedures and institutions directly and indirectly related to the exchange (buying and selling) of goods and services among two or more parties within local, regional, nation ...

and services. Due to lack of rain,

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people t ...

is at a subsistence level. Fishing has some relevance, but conditions prevent it from being more important, not only for the catch— lobster—but also for the associated industries: conserves, drying and salting of fish, and naval construction. Porto Grande is the main port of Cape Verde, through which passes much of the country's imports. It has a terminal of containers, silos, and refrigeration units that make handling load overflow possible. There is also a modern seawater desalination plant, which provides water for public consumption and for naval shipyards. In the industrial sector, the island presents an abundance of manpower, even though unskilled, resulting from the exodus of inhabitants of other islands to São Vicente. About 27% of the employed population is unskilled. Highly qualified employees—company executives, public administrators, and managers and directors—make up less than 2% of employees. It is distinguished, however, by a bigger participation of women in decision-making positions than the national average. According to the 2010 census, the island of São Vicente has the largest unemployment rate of the country—14.8%—while the national average is 10.7%. Unemployment affects women more than men. The industrial park of the island—the Industrial Zone of the Lazareto—concentrates diverse types of manufacturing, essentially due to foreign investment, in the activities of footwear, confections, and fish processing. The National Center of Workmanship of Mindelo supports local craftsmen in the production and commercialization of ceramic parts, articles made of coconut rinds, and necklaces of shells and rocks. Many sports are practised in São Vicente, and many have spread to the remaining islands. The island is suitable for

windsurfing Windsurfing is a wind propelled water sport that is a combination of sailing and surfing. It is also referred to as "sailboarding" and "boardsailing", and emerged in the late 1960s from the aerospace and surf culture of California. Windsurfing ga ...

; the beach of São Pedro is considered one of the best for windsurfing, as shown by the many world-class champions of the sport.

Cycling Cycling, also, when on a two-wheeled bicycle, called bicycling or biking, is the use of cycles for transport, recreation, exercise or sport. People engaged in cycling are referred to as "cyclists", "bicyclists", or "bikers". Apart from t ...

, walking trails and

horseback riding Equestrianism (from Latin , , , 'horseman', 'horse'), commonly known as horse riding (Commonwealth English) or horseback riding (American English), includes the disciplines of riding, driving, and vaulting. This broad description includes the ...

are ways to explore the island. São Vicente has an excellent 18-hole

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping ...

course. For these reasons,

tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tours. The World Tourism Organization defines tourism mor ...

has excellent growth potential on São Vicente and in the rest of the Cape Verde archipelago. Travel between the diverse localities of the island is provided by a system of public transportation operated by five private companies: Transcor.SA, Morabeza Transport, Transport Joy, Friendship, Sotral and Automindelo. However, especially for places farthest from the city of the Mindelo, namely Baía das Gatas, Calhau, and São Pedro, van and bus leasing are the usual forms of transportation.

Education

The literacy rate is 85%, and 98.9% among Cape Verdean youth. 54% of the island's population (those aged between 1 and 12 years old) receive education. Here are the schools and classrooms in São Vicente: *Preschool – 25 daycares, the majority with a particular character, about 2,600 attendees between the ages of 1 and 6 *Primary Schools (1st year to 6th year) – 11,000 students in 225 classrooms with 379 teachers. *Secondary Education (7th year to 12th year) – 8,000 students in 146 classrooms with 384 professors

Educational institutions

The island has 35 primary schools, many of which are in Mindelo, there are other schools in Calhau, Salamansa and São Pedro. There are five state schools, attended by 8,350 pupils during the 2004–05 school season: *Liceu Ludjero Lima, with 2,384 students *Escola Industrial E Comercial Do Mindelo, with 2,245 students * Escola Secundária Jorge Barbosa, with 1,593 students *Escola Secundária José Augusto Pinto, with 1,385 students *Escola Salesiana, with 743 students

Private schools

*Académica do Mindelo – unrelated to the football (soccer) club, today partly related *Wille *Centro Técnico Do Mindelo *Cooperativa Ensino Técnico Do Mindelo *Cruzeiro

Post-secondary education

University of Cape Verde The University of Cape Verde ( pt, Universidade de Cabo Verde, abbreviated "Uni-CVV") is the only public university of Cape Verde. The main campus is in Palmarejo, Praia, but there are also institutes in Mindelo, Assomada and São Jorge dos Ór ...

, Faculty of Engineering and Maritime Sciences and School of Business and Governance *

University of Mindelo University of Mindelo ( pt, Universidade do Mindelo) is an institute of higher education in the city of Mindelo, island of São Vicente, Cape Verde , national_anthem = () , official_languages = Portuguese , national_langua ...

– Cape Verde's third university *Instituto Superior de Ciências Económicas Empresariais *Instituto Superior de Educação igh Educational Institute(campus), part of the University of Cape Verde *

Jean Piaget University of Cape Verde The Jean Piaget University of Cape Verde ( pt, Universidade Jean Piaget de Cabo Verde) is a private university in Cape Verde. The university is named after the famous Swiss child psychologist and philosopher Jean Piaget. The university was establi ...

(campus) *Mindelo Escolas Internacional de Artes (Mindelo International School of Arts) *Universidade Lusófona

Other institutions and observatories

Other academic and research institutions include the INDP Instituto Nacional de Desenvolvimento das Pescas and with it the Cape Verde Ocean Observatory CVOO. It also has the CVAO, th
Cape Verde Atmospheric Observatory
associated with the University of York (UK), IFT Liepzig (Germany), Max Planck, Jena (Germany) and the Cape Verdean meteorological institute (INMG).

Language

Other than

, which is the primary language,

Cape Verdean Creole Cape Verdean Creole is a Portuguese-based creole language spoken on the islands of Cape Verde. It is also called or by its native speakers. It is the native creole language of virtually all Cape Verdeans and is used as a second language by t ...

is spoken by the majority of the population. The São Vicente variant is known as ''Crioulo de São Vicente'' (in Portuguese) or ''Kriol d Sonsent'' (in Creole).
Orthographic guidelines for writing São Vicentean Kriol

Literature *''A Poética de Sérgio Frusoni – Uma Leitura Antropológica'' (Mesquitela Lima: Lisboa – 1992: Poeme im Kreol von São Vicente mit portugiesischer Übersetzung) *''Left-dislocation and topicalization in capeverdean creole''. (Braga, Maria Luiza: Ph. D. Dissertation,

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

– 1982; Crioulo of São Vicente) *''Textos Crioulos Cabo-Verdianos'' – Sergio Frusoni (In 'Miscelânea luso-africana' 1975, herausgegeben von Marius F. Valkhoff)

Notable people

* Carlos Alhinho, football player and coach * Alexandre Alhinho, football player and coach * Leonel Almeida, singer * Bana, singer * Bau, musician * B. Leza, singer and composer *

Valter Borges Valter Gazalanas Borges (born 9 November 1988) is a Cape Verdean international association football, footballer who plays professionally as a midfielder. Career Borges began his career for Batuque FC, Batuque in the Cape Verde, before spending two ...

, footballer * Bela Duarte, artist * Dulce Almada Duarte (b. 1933), linguist *

Cesária Évora Cesária Évora GCIH (; 27 August 194117 December 2011), more commonly known as Cize, was a Cape Verdean singer-songwriter. She received a Grammy Award in 2004 for her album ''Voz d'Amor''. Nicknamed the "Barefoot Diva" for performing without ...

, singer * Fantcha, singer * Sérgio Ferreira (1946–2006), writer *

Corsino Fortes Corsino António Fortes (14 February 1933 – 24 July 2015) was a Cape Verdean writer, poet and diplomat. He served as the first Ambassador of Cape Verde to Portugal from 1975 until 1981 following his country's independence. Biography Forte ...

(1933–2015), writer * Sergio Frusoni, poet * João Cleofas Martins, photographer and humorist * Vasco Martins, composer *

Georgina Mello Georgina Maria Augusta Benrós de Mello (born December 1, 1953) is a Cape Verdean economist and former director-general of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries from 2014 to 2020. Biography Education Georgina Benrós de Mello was born in ...

, general director of CPLP nations * Luís de Montalvor (1891–1947), better known as Luís da Silva Ramos, Portuguese poet * Yolanda Morazzo (b. 1926), poet and fictionalist * Tito Paris (b. 1968) * Erin Pinheiro, footballer *

Rambé Ramilton Jorge Santos do Rosário (born 4 October 1989), known as Rambé, is a Cape Verdean professional footballer who plays for Académica do Mindelo as a striker. Club career Rambé was born in São Vicente. He started out in his native co ...

, footballer * Onésimo Silveira, poet, diplomat and a political activist * Ovídio de Sousa Martins, poet * Adriano Spencer, footballer * Fredson (Fredson Tavares), footballer * Carlos Veiga (b. October 21, 1949), former

Prime Minister of Cape Verde This article lists the prime ministers of Cape Verde, an island country in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of West Africa, since the establishment of the office of prime minister in 1975. Pedro Pires was the first person to hold the office, ta ...

* Lela Violão (Manuel Tomás da Cruz), singer and composer *Fredson Gomes, taekwondo athlete

Transportation

The island is served by the international Cesária Évora Airport near São Pedro, in the southwestern part of the island. The port of Mindelo, Porto Grande, is the busiest port of Cape Verde, with ferry services to the islands of Santo Antão, São Nicolau,

and Sal. There is one first class national road on the island: from the airport to Mindelo. Furthermore, there are two second class and five third class national roads. Mindelo has a network of buses that connects the majority of the suburbs with the city center. Most of the lines are operated by Transcor SV SA.

Culture

When the port was thriving in the late 19th century, in the early 20th century, it was the mainstream of culture in Cape Verde alongside Santiago. Several works, books and poems in the mid 20th century were related to the rise of nationalism and the independence struggle for the country, notably the review '' Claridade''. It is the birthplace of coladeira music. Also a variant of morna is popular.

Sports

The island has its own football league named the

São Vicente Island League SAO or Sao may refer to: Places * Sao civilisation, in Middle Africa from 6th century BC to 16th century AD * Sao, a town in Boussé Department, Burkina Faso * Saco Transportation Center (station code SAO), a train station in Saco, Maine, U.S. ...

. There are also competitions for basketball, volleyball, futsal and athletics. There is a golf course about south of Mindelo.

Twin towns and sister cities

The municipality of São Vicente is twinned with the following municipalities in Portugal:Geminações de Cidades e Vilas
/ref> * Angra do Heroísmo *

Coimbra Coimbra (, also , , or ) is a city and a municipality in Portugal. The population of the municipality at the 2011 census was 143,397, in an area of . The fourth-largest urban area in Portugal after Lisbon, Porto, and Braga, it is the largest cit ...

* Felgueiras *

Mafra Mafra is a Czech media group that publishes printed and internet media, headquartered in Prague, Czech Republic. It is a subsidiary of Agrofert holding conglomerate owned by trust of Andrej Babiš, the former Prime Minister of the Czech Repu ...

* Oeiras * Portalegre *

Portimão Portimão () is a city and a municipality in the district of Faro, in the Algarve region of southern Portugal. The population in 2011 was 55,614, in an area of 182.06 km2. It was formerly known as Vila Nova de Portimão (). In 1924, it was ...

Porto Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropol ...

* Santa Cruz *

Vagos Vagos () is a town and a municipality in Aveiro District, belonging to Centro Region of Portugal. The district capital, Aveiro, is its nearest large city. Its population in 2011 was 22,851 in an area of 164.92 km2, and it had 17,204 eligible ...

Vila Nova de Famalicão Vila Nova de Famalicão () is a Portuguese town with a population of approximately 133,048 inhabitants () in an area of 201,59 km2, subdivided into 49 parishes (Administrative Division of 11 Unions of Parishes and 23 Parish Councils,). Insert ...

References

External links

S. Vicente, Quel País
at multiculturas.com
150 old vintage pictures
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sao Vicente Islands of Cape Verde Municipalities of Cape Verde