São Vicente, Cape Verde
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- For other uses, see São Vicente (disambiguation)
| São Vicente | |
|---|---|
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| Elevation: | 2,379 ft (725 m) |
| Coordinates: | |
| Location: | Cape Verde Islands |
| Range: | |
| Type: | Stratovolcano |
São Vicente (Portuguese for "Saint Vincent"), also Sanvicente or Sanvcênt in Capeverdean Crioulo, is one of the Barlavento islands of the Cape Verde. It is separated by the São Vicente Channel in the northwest separating the island of Santo Antão. The airport is in the southwest. It is located between the islands of Santo Antão and São Nicolau.
The island has a population of around 70,000 concentrated in its main town of Mindelo, long a British refuelling port. It is the second most populous island of Cape Verde. As the island is generally arid, its main industries are now fishing and tourism, along with its military base. It is known for the Baia das Gatas Music Festival and for its cricket team. It also has a small airport and a desalinisation plant.
The island is roughly rectangular in shape with a surface area of ca. 227 sq.km. From east to west it measures 24 km and from north to south no more than 16 km. The terrain includes mountains in the west, the southwest, the south, the east-central and the north. The area is flat in the northcentral, the central part, the eastern part south of Calhau and the northern part in the Baia das Gatas area. The urban area of Mindelo is in the northern part. Much of the island are deforested.
Although volcanic in origin, the island is quite flat. Its highest point is Monte Verde (Portuguese for green mountain) located in the northeast-central part with an altitude of 774 metres. Although a great amount of erosion has taken place, some craters still remain -- in particular near the bay of Mindelo. The other mountain include Monte Cara. Other mountaintops includes Topona.
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[edit] Climate
The climate is mainly tropical and dry with the temperature around 24ºC all year round. The ocean water temperature every year is around 12°C and 25°C. The two seasons in November and July are mainly dry and windy while August and October is the "rainy season".
- ISO 31662: CV-SV
[edit] Administrative division
São Vicente municipally includes the island of Santa Luzia (uninhabited) to the southeast. The only parish is called Nossa Senhora da Luz. The "Dia do Município" or "Municipality Day" is on January 22. Barlavento
[edit] Communities
- Baia das Gatas, E
- Calhau, E
- Lazareto, W
- Madeiral, S
- Mâto Inglés, E cen.
- Mindelo, N
- Salamansa, N
- Seixal, ESE
- São Pedro, SW
- Topim, ESE
[edit] Geographical features
In clockwise order:
- Ponta de Doca, in the northern part of the island
- Ponta Marigou, north, the northernmost point on the island
- Ponta da Fregata, in the northeastern part of the island
- Praia Grande (meaning large beach), northeast
- Ponta do Calhau, located in the east
- Ponta da Vianna, located in the east
- Ponta de Saragaça, located in the east southeast
- Ponta da Várzea, located in the southeast
- Ponta do Matadouro, located in the south southeast
- Ponta da Calheta Grande, located in the east southeast
- Ponta do Sul, located in the south
- Ponta Araujo, in the south-southwestern part of the island
- Ponta da Ribeira da Caixa, in the southwestern part of the island
[edit] Tributaries
In Clockwise order:
- Ribeira Julião
[edit] History
Discovered on Saint Vincent's Day (January 22) in 1462, due the water lack, the island was, relegated to the humble condition of simple field of pasture of the cattle of some proprietors of the neighboring island of Santo Antão, the island remained practically uninhabited until the middle of the 19th century. It was only in 1838, when a coal deposit was established in Porto Grande to supply ships on Atlantic routes, that the population started to grow rapidly. Due to the lack of rain and consequent lack of natural resources, the economy of São Vicente is based mainly on commerce and services.
[edit] Population
The population of São Vicente in the 2000 census was 67,163 of which 4,174 are rural. The annual population growth is around 2.7% (higher than the state (national) level of 2.4%). 94% of the population live in urban areas, higher than the Cape Verde's level of 54% and is the highest in all of Cape Verde. Its life expectancy are 62 for males and 65 for females, higher than other parts of Africa. The birth and mortality rate are high.
The majority of the population are young and 66% of the population are under the age of 30, 8.6% of the population are over the age of 60. The island has 16,000 families, of which there are 4 persons per household, lower than Cape Verde's level of 5 persons per household. 56% of the families live in houses, the other 30% live in poorly-built houses.
About only 11% of the families own automobiles, that's 7.4% of Cape Verde's level.
[edit] Other
São Vicente has churches, a post office, a few banks, shops (not as many as Praia) a hospital named Baptista de Sousa and squares (praças)
[edit] Economy
The economy of the island always was based almost exclusively on the commerce and the services. Due to rain lack, agriculture is of subsistence. It fishes it has some relevance, but it presents conditions to be an activity of bigger importance, not only for the captures - namely of lobster -, but also for the derived industries: conserves, drying and salting of fish and naval construction.
Porto Grande is the main port of Cape Verde, for where they pass great part of the importations of the country. It is endowed with a terminal of containers and installations with cold and silos that make possible the activity of load overflow. It also exists a central modern of desalination of the water of the sea for public consumption and naval shipyards.
In the industrial sector, the island presents abundance of man power, even though little qualified, resulted of the exodus of inhabitants of other islands for São Vicente. About 27% of the employed population it exerts professions without great qualification. Highly qualified employees - namely the superior pictures of companies and the public administration and the ones that exert functions of management and direction - do not arrive 2% of the exerted professions. It is distinguished, however, a bigger participation of the women in the decision places when it is compared with the national average.
According to 2000 census, São Vicente is the island that presents the biggest tax of unemployment of the country - 23% - while the national average if is for 17%. The unemployment affect more the women who the men. The industrial park of the island - Industrial Zone of the Lazareto concentrates diverse units manufacter, essentially of foreign investment, in the activities of footwear, confections and fished transformation of.
In recent years, the National Center of workmanship of the Mindelo has come to support the local craftsmen, namely in the production and commercialization of ceramics parts, done articles of coconut rinds and necklaces of shells and rocks.
They are Vicente has a great tradition to the level of the sport, seen to have been daqui that many modalities if had spread for the remaining islands. Windsurf, for example, counts here on excellent conditions. The beach of São Pedro is considered one of the best ones for the practical one of windsurf, as they have evidenced many world-wide champions of the modality. The cycling, the strolls the foot and the horse are good forms to know the island. The English mark in the island still today is recognizable in the golf. São Vicente makes use of an excellent field of golf with 18 holes. For these reasons, the tourism presents excellent perspectives of growth in the island of São Vicente, as in the remaining portion of the archipelago of Cape Verde. The linkings between the diverse localities of the island are assured by a system of public transports where they operate five private companies: Transcor.SA, Morabeza Transport, Transport Joy, Friendship, Sotral and Automindelo. However, especially for the localities most distant of the city of the Mindelo, namely Baía das Gatas, Calhau, São Pedro, are usual the resource to the system of lease of van and bus
[edit] Education
54% of the island's population receive education. Here are schools, and classrooms in São Vicente:
- Preschool 25 daycares, the majority with a particular character, about 2,600 attend 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
- Post-Secondary Education - has a proportion of individual post-secondary schools (1.7, against 1.1% of Cape Verde's level) including ISEMAS and ISCEE.
[edit] Language
Other than Portuguese which is the primary language, Capeverdean Crioulo is mainly spoken for the majority of the population. The São Vicente variant is known as Kriol or the Crioulo of São Vicente which refers to all of the islands of Barlavento.
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 - 1982; Crioulo of São Vicente)
- Textos Crioulos Cabo-Verdianos - Sergio Frusoni (In 'Miscelânea luso-africana' 1975, herausgegeben von Marius F. Valkhoff)
[edit] Persons
- Germano Almeida, a Capeverdean author [1]
- Bana?
- Bau
- Bela Duarte, a Capeverdean artist
- Cesária Évora, a Capeverdean artist
- Corsino Fortes (1933), a Capeverdean writer
- Sergio Frusoni, A Capeverdean poet ([2])
- Manuel Lopes (1907-2005), writer, founder of Claridade
- João Cleofas Martins, a Capeverdean photographer and a humorist
- Ovídio de Sousa Martins, a Capeverdean poet
- Vasco Martins, a Capeverdean composer [3]
- Luís Ramos Morais, a Capeverdean artist
- Yolanda Morazzo (b. 1926), a Capeverdean poetess and a fictionalist
- Manuel de Novas, a Capeverdean artist
- Persons from the Mindelo Band
- Mornista de São Vicente, [4]
- Tito Paris (b. 1968)
- Onésimo Silveira, poet, diplomat and a political activist
- Antoninho Travadinha, a Capeverdean violinist
- Carlos Veiga (b. October 21, 1949), a former Prime Minister of Cape Verde
[edit] Transportation
The island is connected with three major roads:
- Mindelo - São Pedro
- Mindelo - Calhau
- Mindelo - Baia das Gatas
The secondary routes include:
- From Mindelo - Calhau
- road to Madeira
- From Mindelo - Baia das Gatas
- road to Monde Verde
- road to Salamansa
[edit] External links
- Maps and guides - Lucete Fortes
- A walk in Mindelo with Jørgen Carling
- Map 1:50_000, City of Mindelo and the island of São Vicente
- Municipality of São Vicente
- Information on Mindelo and Cape Verde (French - 2400 photos)
- ReiseberichtePhotos (in Portuguese)
- Photos of São Vicente
- Photos of Mindelo
- More Photos of São Vicente
- [http://www.multiculturas.com/vb-saovicente.htm
- Manuel Lopes
- caboverde.com - map and information in Italian
| Islands of Cape Verde |  |
|---|---|
| Island Groups | |
| Barlavento | Sotavento | |
| Islands | |
|
Boa Vista | Brava | Fogo | Maio | Sal | Santa Luzia | Santiago | Santo Antão | São Nicolau | São Vicente |
|
| Islets | |
| Branco | Ilhéu Laja Branca | Ilhéu dos Passaros | Ilhéu Rabo de Junco | Razo | Ilhéu de Sal-Rei | Ilhéu Secos (Ilhéu de Cima | Ilhéu Grande) |
| Municipalities of Cape Verde |
| Municipalities
Boa Vista | Brava | Maio | Mosteiros | Paul | Porto Novo | Praia | Ribeira Grande | Sal | Santa Catarina | Santa Cruz | São Domingos | São Filipe | São Miguel | São Nicolau | São Vicente | Tarrafal |
| New municipalities (as of 2005)
Ribeira Grande de Santiago | Santa Catarina do Fogo | São Lourenço dos Órgãos | São Salvador do Mundo | Tarrafal de São Nicolau |
