‘Poverty…, of course we have it…’ Notes for the analysis of an institutional

Based on testimonies by Cape Verdean individuals with different social condition and institutional responsibility on one hand and, on the other hand, on the consideration of the historical burden and the policies adopted after the independence, this article is focused on the creation of a social conscience about poverty and the manifestations of micro-violence through the action of institutions and NGOs committed in the eradication of poverty and prevention of behaviors potentially generating and perpetuating micro-violence and social exclusion. The political environment and the perception of an involvement of Cape Verdeans in a common destiny are deemed crucial to the achievement of these purposes.

The Harsh Fight against Poverty in Sao Tome and Principe

post-independence, and on the other hand, the testimonies from Sao Tomeans individuals from different social conditions and different degrees of political responsibility, this article approaches some possible connections between poverty and micro-violence in Sao Tome and Principe. It is offered an outline of research for the difficulties of the eradication of poverty and, concomitantly, the diffusion of a growing feeling of social disruption, processes in all contrary to the promises of independence for this archipelago. Frequently, the archipelago’s visitors make hasty opinions about the imaginary effortlessness of governing two islands with less than one hundred and fifty thousand citizens. However, contrary to this very common prejudice, the micro-insularity is considered an obstacle to development, a notion shared by many Sao Tomeans. Could micro-insularity equally be, under this outlook, an impoverishment-inducing factor? Regarding the development, there is some truth in this diagnosis, which the Sao Tomeans also use to justify their current difficulties. Throughout the 70s and 80s, the MLSTP – Movimento de Libertação de São Tomé e Príncipe (Movement for the Liberation of Sao Tome and Principe) endorsed a development founded on an expansion of cacao cultures, at the expenses of an intensified production rate, and on an incipient industrialization, which was intended to avoid importations and economic dependency. At the time, the Sao Tomeans leaders justified the rising daily difficulties, quite the opposite of the promises made during the independence, with an economic disarticulation resulting from the gradual abandonment of economic infrastructures inflicted by the last batch of colonists, which affected the cacao plantations too. Simultaneously, both the inefficiency and cost of the industrial endeavors launched after the independence and the erosion of labor and social relationships in nationalized farms had been rather neglected.

(Intermittent) Poverty and Peace in Guinea-Bissau

The research on the correlations between poverty and conflicts in Guinea-Bissau has allowed to put in evidence not only the direct implications of the effective war of 1998/1999 over the living conditions of the country’s population, as well as the effects the conflicts - either effective or eminent – have over life in general, individual investments of different kinds and on reliance on the state and institutions. Although the fundamentally qualitative investigation highlighted the diversity of individual and family situations, it allowed identifying a denominator seen as common in most of the collected accounts : war and, in the case study of Guinea-Bissau, the perpetuation of an insecure environment, constitute causes for the increase in poverty and concur simultaneously to its reproduction through time.