# @afpphoto on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DbDW_OdDOT1
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/68092240-afpphoto-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/1d06a70fcb.jpg
- **Posted:** 2026-07-21T11:00:56.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** AFP Photo (@afpphoto) — https://gondola.cc/afpphoto

## Caption

Women sand miners toil stripped Cape Verde beach⁣
⁣
On a rocky Cape Verde beach, Maria and Vania fill their buckets with black sand the moment that waves recede, transporting it on their heads to a stockpile where it will be sold illegally.⁣
The women struggle to keep their footing against the rough ocean while balancing the loads, which weigh dozens of kilograms (pounds).⁣
The beach is far from the typical picture postcard image of the west African archipelago and Vania Tavares makes the sign of the cross before stepping into its dangerous waves.⁣
The women, known as "sand thieves", have performed this gruelling task almost daily for more than 15 years in order to survive in one of the island nations' poorest regions.⁣
With solemn expressions, the pair plus four other neighbouring women move in a silent, hours-long dance during low tide at Charco Beach near the town Ribeira da Barca, located on the main island of Santiago.⁣
Maria Eleonore Monteiro's slender frame sways under the weight of the bucket as she climbs towards dry land to empty it beside a dozen large piles, which will be sold to contractors or resellers.⁣
Buyers pay around $140 for a load of sea sand, often gathered over weeks, which is still cheaper than what is legally extracted from quarries.⁣
⁣
Far from the idyllic white or black sand beaches found on some Cape Verdean islands, Ribeira da Barca attracts no tourists, much like the majority of Santiago Island's beach areas.⁣
For decades these sites have served as artisanal open-pit mines for harvesting sand sold at rock-bottom prices, leaving behind a desolate landscape of stones and craters.⁣
The actual beach at Charco has mostly vanished, forcing the women to extract the remaining sand from the water, even though many of them cannot swim.⁣
Sand mining is illegal in Cape Verde under laws passed between 1997 and 2017, punishable by fines or imprisonment.⁣
Yet the practice persists, with authorities sometimes turning a blind eye when it's a matter of survival.⁣
As the only natural resource in the impoverished archipelago, sand fuelled urban expansion in the 1980s and 1990s.⁣
⁣
📷 patrick.meinhardt⁣
#AFPPhoto

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