Under a 1930 act, the overwhelming majority of the African population were made wards of state and denied their civil rights, including the right to vote. Infrastructure between the nine inhabited islands remains poor, and farmers have difficulties getting their crops to market. Cape Verde’s financial system can be heavily reliant on remittances from the large numbers of Cape Verdeans, a majority, who reside outside the country. They also suffered repeated bouts of drought within the mid-1990s, making the country reliant on food imports.