Africa-Press – Cape verde. On August 24, 1842, the first Cape Verdean Official Bulletin was published, published by the National Press, from the island of Boa Vista, where the Governor lived at the time. The National Press republishes the historic issue of what is the first and oldest Cape Verdean periodical, at the same time announcing its departure to the security print shop, in 2023.
The first Official Bulletin was published on the island of Boa Vista, where the Governor of the colony of Cape Verde went to live at the time, on 24 August 1842. Despite the capital being in Praia, the governors moved between the islands and took with them all the paraphernalia of the National Press, as the current chairman of the Board of Directors, Raimundo Ramos Lopes, recalls.
“After settling in Boa Vista, there was a yellow fever pandemic and the governor moved to Brava, which at the time was free of the disease and the climate was similar to the metropolis”, explains Lopes, in an interview with A NAÇÃO.
After the colonial government gave instructions for administrators to move to the capital, albeit without success, the National Press was transferred to Praia, where it remains today, constituting one of the oldest public institutions in the country.
“It has been 180 years since the National Press of Cape Verde (INCV), a company whose path is intertwined with the history of Cape Verde”, says Raimundo Lopes, according to which, with the emergence of the Official Bulletin (BO), “ a lot” was resolved in the relations between Cape Verde and its colonial metropolis, as well as internally, between the citizens and the colonial State.
“Before the BO, all that was official information was released in the form of public notices, but as they were released, a lot of information was lost. From the moment the first bulletin was published, with compiled information, access became faster and in better conditions”, he maintains.
In addition to official documentation, for many years the BO was also an important and unique space for cultural dissemination and beyond, with the publication of reports, poems and other journalistic or literary pieces. For several researchers – for example, the Portuguese Alfredo Margarito – the emergence of the BO marks the beginning of a new era in Cape Verde, modern and focused on knowledge, from which publications such as newspapers, magazines and books would later emerge. Furthermore, Cape Verde and India (then Portuguese) were the first Portuguese colonies to have a press, through the Official Gazette.
Attempt to extinguish
The publication of official information, however, was not always consensual. The INCV’s PCA says that there was a period of great turmoil, with voices against it and that there was even a decree for the extinction of the newspaper.
“Right at the first moment there were some stops and voices that defended its extinction. There were periods of intermittence, governors who were against its publication. There was often some withholding of information, since all official information had to go through that newspaper”, says our interviewee.
The decree for the extinction of the official newspaper, as he says, only had no effect because, at the same time, a new governor overturned that decision, thus saving the BO.
The Official Bulletin, which is now digital and distributed free of charge, continues to be printed in some issues, only for some institutions and for archival purposes.
For now, there is no access data to the INCV website, as it is an old portal, which will soon be replaced by a new website, with a new visual identity.
“We are designing a more robust, more modern, cleaner platform that will allow us to have all this data. But I am convinced that it can be the most read newspaper in the country”, says Raimundo Lopes.
striking numbers
To mark the 180th anniversary of the BO, on the 24th of August, the INCV is preparing a day of reflection, to take place at the Government Palace, where representatives of the Portuguese Mint and the European Union will be present.
On this day, the company’s new portal and its new logo will be presented, which marks a new era in the digitalization of the company.
Among other activities, the public will have access to an exhibition entitled “180 years of the INCV – history, culture and the people of the islands”.
“The exhibition will be divided into three periods: colonial period, post-independence period of Cape Verde and a more current one. Among other important information, some of the most important bulletins in the history of the INCV will be on display, such as, for example, the Bulletin that abolished slavery in Cape Verde”, said the same source.
Given the particularity of the company’s history, the idea is, by the end of the year, to take the exhibition to the islands of Boa Vista and Brava, where the BO begins.
Also on the 24th, in the afternoon, in the banquet hall of the National Assembly, the presentation and delivery of a trophy will take place for the work that won the Arnaldo França Prize, awarded by the INCV and the Casa da Moeda. This year the winner was the writer José Carvalho.
INCV announces a promising future with Gráfica de Segurança
From the first quarter of 2023 Cape Verde can see its customized security documents in the country, announced the PCA of the National Press of Cape Verde, Raimundo Lopes.
“Today we have a public limited company, a consolidated company, with positive, stable net results, which is currently projecting itself towards a great future”, he said, adding that, in addition to the BO, which is the company’s core business, the traditional graphics will be maintained, in a more reduced form and bet on the security graphics.
The latter, he says, is, at the moment, the company’s biggest project, budgeted at more than 400 million escudos, of which 250 thousand escudos are supported by the INCV and 202 thousand escudos financed by the European Union, through the GESTDOC project.
“In a first phase, which we think will be in the first quarter of 2023, we will proceed with the personalization of the Cape Verdean Passport, the National Identification Card, Residence Card, among others”, guaranteed the president of the INCV.
At the moment, Imprensa Nacional is under construction to receive the new factory, an investment that will cost, in terms of physical structure alone, 250 thousand escudos.
“We were also awarded, through the European Union’s Gest DOC project, with 202 million escudos, for the filling of all safety equipment”, he explained.
national sovereignty
With this step, Cape Verde will no longer customize security documents at Casa da Moeda, in Portugal.
For Raimundo Lopes, this is even a question of national sovereignty.
Thus, in addition to safety documents, the company plans to start producing, “this year or early next year”, the electronic driving license and Documento Único Automóvel, all in digital form.
“All this will represent a significant improvement in obtaining these documents. National citizens will be able to access their documents faster, more expeditiously”, he stressed.
Provide services to the African coast
Another bet that is in the 2022/24 strategic plan is, according to the same source, which is already producing security documents, to take advantage of the geostrategic position, internationalize and start providing this service on the West Coast of Africa.
“We are working on it. First we are going to start with in-house customization, but we are already in contact with partners”, she indicated.
INCV has a partnership with Casa da Moeda, from Portugal, in this new project, which will ensure the technical part of the implementation of the new factory and training of the company’s staff.
“This means that we will have the know-how of an institution that is a reference at the European level, responsible for producing the documents of the European Union”, he concluded.
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