History

The Portuguese navigator Diogo Gomes is credited with the discovery of the Cape Verde islands around 1460 CE. Settlement of Santiago Island began rapidly, and by 1462 CE Portuguese colonists had established Ribeira Grande as the first permanent European settlement in the tropics of sub-Saharan Africa. The site was chosen for its natural harbour on the south coast of Santiago, fed by the Ribeira Grande valley, which provided fresh water and agricultural land in an otherwise arid landscape.

For the following century, Ribeira Grande was the most strategically important city in the Portuguese Atlantic empire. Every major Portuguese voyage of exploration and trade passed through its harbour. The city grew wealthy on the slave trade: enslaved people from the West African coast (present-day Guinea-Bissau, Senegal, and Guinea) were brought to Ribeira Grande, held, baptised, and processed for transport across the Atlantic to Brazil and the Caribbean. The Pelourinho, the stone pillory post at the centre of the main square, was where enslaved people were disciplined and where the social order of colonial bondage was enacted daily in public.

In 1585 CE, the English privateer Francis Drake sacked Ribeira Grande with a fleet of 23 ships, burning much of the city. Despite reconstruction, the city never fully recovered. As the slave trade expanded during the 17th century, its logistics centres shifted south to Sao Tome and later Luanda, reducing Ribeira Grande to a secondary port. By the mid-18th century it had been largely abandoned, the capital of Cape Verde having moved to Praia. Its ruins were preserved by the very abandonment that ended its commercial life.