São Vicente, Cape Verde

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For other uses, see São Vicente (disambiguation)

São Vicente

Elevation:	2,379 ft (725 m)
Coordinates:	16°51′0″N, 24°58′0″W
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.

Monte Verde as seen from Mindelo

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.

1 Climate
2 Administrative division
3 Communities
4 Geographical features
5 Tributaries
6 History
7 Population
8 Other
9 Education
10 Language
11 Persons
12 Transportation
13 External links

[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, 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.

Postais de São Vicente 1914

[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] 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

View of Monte Cara from Mindelo

[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

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 dos Passaros \| Ilhéu do Rabo de Junco \| Razo \| Ilhéu de Sal-Rei \| Ilhéu Secos (Ilhéu de Cima \| Ilhéu Grande)

Municipalities of Cape Verde

Municipalities

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

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