Cacheu

Cacheu, town located in northwestern Guinea-Bissau. It lies along the south bank of the Cacheu River, near its mouth. Cacheu was made an official Portuguese captaincy in 1588, and it gained economic importance as a centre for the slave trade in the 17th and 18th centuries. Its importance declined in the early 19th century with the decline of the western African slave trade and the rising importance of Bolama, the capital of Portuguese Guinea (now Guinea-Bissau) until 1942. It is a small port town and provides a market for coconuts, palm oil, and rice produced in the surrounding coastal lowlands. Subsistence crops of millet, corn (maize), and sorghum are also grown in the area, and some of the land is used for grazing cattle, sheep, and goats. Phosphate deposits were discovered near Cacheu in the late 1970s. Pop. (2004 est.) 14,000.