Youth and violence in urban Cape Verde: A perspective from the grassroots

An unexpected alarm about youth and gang related violence in Cape Verde increased during the last decades. Moreover, the International community has encouraged the government of Cape Verde to fight juvenile delinquency and urban violence. The government reacted with repressive and securitization policies towards the youth, contributing to the ineffectively of social inclusion programs. Moreover, as various accounts suggest, the Cape Verdean parties and the election dynamics manipulated the local community and youth organizations. Some studies underlined how this dynamics influenced youth and child participation.  A grassroots NGO born in 2010 in the capital city of Praia, led by António Mascarenhas Monteiro,  promoted a primary violence prevention intervention named Simenti. Currently, a group of young leaders (with a background of ex-offenders) collectively manage the NGO. This group founded the Pilorinhu a cultural center in a low-income neighborhood, situated in an occupied building previously unutilized and the Korrenti di Ativiztaz, a social movement inspired by the pan-African legacy of Amìlcar Cabral, a national hero of anticolonial struggle.