“Vizinhu ta trocadu pratu ku kada casa”… Cuidar para evitar a fome em Brianda, Ilha de Santiago de Cabo Verde

Abstract

Taking the ethnographic field as a starting point – the interior of the island of Santiago in the Republic of Cabo Verde – and basing on participant observation and the collection of testimonies from the local inhabitants of Brianda, this article contributes to interpreting the strategies activated to reduce the risk of food insecurity (FI) that surrounds them. Selecting as a unit of analysis a common family typology in the Cape Verde archipelago, that of single-parent and matrifocal families headed by women, it analyses the structural relationships between gender and poverty (feminisation of poverty), the role of social strategies such as reciprocity, horizontal mutual aid, family circles, and extended neighbourhoods, and the impact of exogenous factors.