Habitat and Demographics
In Cape Verde the population of the various islands created different habitat conditions and even social organisation. Santiago’s habitat is spread across the mountains, and subjugated populations fled there from their masters to the most inaccessible points, and the points that were easiest to protect, particularly at the time of numerous attacks by pirates on Ribeira Grande, which spread chaos and panic. In Boa Vista and Maio, the financial organisation into ranches of chapels and “morgadios” (majorats), in the valleys and plateaus, and the tracts of the “forros” (freed slaves) and poor whites in the mountains and hills demonstrated the emergence of a community organisation that was very collective and certainly subsidiary to the high level of decentralisation de facto from central power. Although it could be observed in Fogo that the dominion of a dominant class was maintained, as is clear from the symbolically tall buildings where the master lived above and the servants below. This guaranteed the perpetuation of an essentially agricultural socio-economic system, although “families” of solidarity were formed, going beyond the racial separation.
While in S. Vicente, the island that was populated latest because it did not have water in its abundant pastures, almost all the population is concentrated in Mindelo, due to marine resources and coal, as well as the fishing settlements of Salamansa and S. Pedro. Only recently has the economic significance of tourism generated new population centres in Baía das Gatas and in Calhau.
With the known statistics, it is not easy to follow the evolution of population in Cape Verde, although we know that in the 16th Century there were between 13,000 and 15,000 inhabitants, concentrated in Santiago and in Fogo. Famines were fatal on various occasions in the archipelago, decimating thousands of people in cycles, as did endemic ailments, such as malaria, which drastically interrupted demographic growth.
At the end of the 18th Century the population of Cape Verde must have been around 50,000 inhabitants, and at the end of the 19th Century around 150,000, as a census revealed 140,000 inhabitants following the terrible (and final) famines of the 1940’s. When independence reached Cape Verde (1975) there was a population of around 285,000, which was growing vigorously due to two basic factors that came about in the last decades before independence: a food program to assist those in need, linked to public works, and the complete eradication of endemic diseases. Cape Verde has currently reached half a million inhabitants (2008), and it is estimated that its diáspora is made up of an even greater number of Cape Verdeans. This means that the nation of Cape Verde is now made up of over a million people.
The population of Cape Verde is largely a result of the mixing of black African and European white settlers, and this multiculturalism is reflected in a population that is over 70% mixed race, while only 1% of white ethnicity remain, and a little over 25% is ethnically black.
In Cape Verde the population of the various islands created different habitat conditions and even social organisation. Santiago’s habitat is spread across the mountains, and subjugated populations fled there from their masters to the most inaccessible points, and the points that were easiest to protect, particularly at the time of numerous attacks by pirates on Ribeira Grande, which spread chaos and panic. In Boa Vista and Maio, the financial organisation into ranches of chapels and “morgadios” (majorats), in the valleys and plateaus, and the tracts of the “forros” (freed slaves) and poor whites in the mountains and hills demonstrated the emergence of a community organisation that was very collective and certainly subsidiary to the high level of decentralisation de facto from central power. Although it could be observed in Fogo that the dominion of a dominant class was maintained, as is clear from the symbolically tall buildings where the master lived above and the servants below. This guaranteed the perpetuation of an essentially agricultural socio-economic system, although “families” of solidarity were formed, going beyond the racial separation.
While in S. Vicente, the island that was populated latest because it did not have water in its abundant pastures, almost all the population is concentrated in Mindelo, due to marine resources and coal, as well as the fishing settlements of Salamansa and S. Pedro. Only recently has the economic significance of tourism generated new population centres in Baía das Gatas and in Calhau.
With the known statistics, it is not easy to follow the evolution of population in Cape Verde, although we know that in the 16th Century there were between 13,000 and 15,000 inhabitants, concentrated in Santiago and in Fogo. Famines were fatal on various occasions in the archipelago, decimating thousands of people in cycles, as did endemic ailments, such as malaria, which drastically interrupted demographic growth.
At the end of the 18th Century the population of Cape Verde must have been around 50,000 inhabitants, and at the end of the 19th Century around 150,000, as a census revealed 140,000 inhabitants following the terrible (and final) famines of the 1940’s. When independence reached Cape Verde (1975) there was a population of around 285,000, which was growing vigorously due to two basic factors that came about in the last decades before independence: a food program to assist those in need, linked to public works, and the complete eradication of endemic diseases. Cape Verde has currently reached half a million inhabitants (2008), and it is estimated that its diáspora is made up of an even greater number of Cape Verdeans. This means that the nation of Cape Verde is now made up of over a million people.
The population of Cape Verde is largely a result of the mixing of black African and European white settlers, and this multiculturalism is reflected in a population that is over 70% mixed race, while only 1% of white ethnicity remain, and a little over 25% is ethnically black.
