Isaura Gomes

Isaura Gomes (born February 22, 1944 in Santiago , Portuguese Cape Verde ) is a Cape Verdean politician (first PAIGC , later MPD ) and pharmacist. Today she is one of the most famous pharmacists in the country. Politically committed to Cape Verdean independence from her youth and was active in the PAIGC. From 2004 to 2011 Gomes was mayor of the island of São Vicente .

Life

Isaura Gomes was born on February 22, 1944, as one of six children on the island of Santiago in what was then the Portuguese colony of Cape Verde. Her mother, Maria da Luz Tavares Gomes, worked as a market woman, her father, João Lopes Gomes, allegedly a coffee smuggler, immigrated to Venezuela in 1947 without the family.

Youth and education

Gomes attended the Liceu Gil Eanes , the first secondary school in the Cape Verde Islands, and graduated as the best student in 1963. However, she did not receive a scholarship to study because a son of Portuguese parents with lower grades had been given preference. In order to still support her family, she initially gave private lessons after graduating from school until the only dentist in the archipelago, Anibal Lopes da Silva, helped her to a grant from the Agência Geral do Ultramar . She studied pharmacy at the University of Coimbra from 1964 and graduated with top marks, so that she received additional financial support from the state. After her licenciatura , she completed a specialization in clinical analysis at the University of Porto . After a short professional activity, she returned to Cape Verde in 1970.

Political engagement in the PAIGC

Isaura Gomes' political activism goes back to her school days when she and other classmates protested in 1962 against the appointment of a continental Portuguese headmaster instead of a Cape Verdean headmaster. Numerous pupils were then sent off school, driven by the Portuguese secret police PIDE , which also operates on Cape Verde, but Isaura Gomes escaped. But Gome's family was also active underground against the colonial power, which repeatedly led to reprisals from the PIDE. During her studies she met numerous fellow students in Coimbra who were also active against the regime, which strengthened her desire to work for the independence of her home country. After her return to Cape Verde, she led the activities of the underground independence movement PAIGC.

After Cape Verde gained independence on July 5, 1975 in the course of the Portuguese Carnation Revolution , Gomes campaigned for a multi-party system in her party, but was unable to prevail with others. As the only female MP of the PAIGC , she campaigned primarily for women's rights on the archipelago from 1975 to 1981. In 1976 she and other Cape Verdean women founded the Organização das Mulheres do Cabo Verde , the organization of the women of Cape Verde. The organization was essential to enforce the laws for a liberalization of the abortion, among other things.

Frustrated by the structures and the direction of the party, Gomes left the PAIGC in 1981. In the 1980s, Gomes mainly campaigned for an improvement in the health system on Cape Verde, and trained numerous adults in pharmacy. In the meantime she was the country’s pharmaceutical director and taught all laboratory and pharmaceutical apprentices in the country. In the meantime, she studied in Brazil, but returned and started working in the hospital due to the death of her mother. Due to reprisals from the state and dissatisfaction with her work in the hospital, she opened the country's first private pharmacy, Farmácia Jovem , and the country's first private laboratory, Labo Jovem , in 1989 .

Party political engagement in the multi-party system

In addition to her pharmaceutical work, she retained her commitment to women's rights after the introduction of the multi-party system in Cape Verde in 1991. From 1997 to 2003 she headed the Cape Verde Businesswomen's Association ( Associação das Mulheres Empresárias de Cabo Verde) . In 2001 she headed the Association of Cape Verdean Women's Promotion Organizations ( Federação Caboverdiana das Associações de Promoção da Mulher ).

Only in 2000 did she get involved again in the party-political competition Cape Verdes when she ran as an independent candidate for the mayor's office ( prefeito or prefeita ) of the city of Mindelo or the entire municipality of São Vicente , but lost. In 2004 she reapplied as an Independent and won, becoming the country's first female mayor. After joining the Movimento para Democracia party in 2005 , she was re-elected in 2008 with the support of the party. In 2010 she became seriously ill and was unable to fully exercise her office. In 2011, she resigned from the office for health reasons.

Private

In 1970 Isaura Gomes married Daniel Henrique Cardoso, who was then the chief of staff of the Portuguese armed forces in Cape Verde. The couple had three children. The two separated in 1981.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Mayra Fernandes / LUSA: Autárquicas 2008: Isaura Gomes, única mulher presidente de Câmara. In: Sapo. May 12, 2008. Retrieved December 23, 2018 (Portuguese). 
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h} Terza Silva Lima-Neves: Gomes, Isaura . In: Emmanuel K. Akyeampong and Henry Louis Gates, Jr (Eds.): Dictionary of African Biography . tape 2 . Oxford Press, Oxford 2012, ISBN 978-0-19-538207-5 , pp. 485 f .