Jorge Barbosa was born in the city of Praia, on the island of Santiago, Portuguese Cape Verde archipelago (then a territory of Portugal).

He published his first work titled Arquipélago (Archipelago) in 1935 which opened its doors to modern Cape Verdean literature and later demonstrated a complete change in rhetoric and thematic poetry in Cape Verde, it formed one of the elements that led to the creation of the Claridade review a year after the publication of the book.

His third book was a notebook titled Caderno de um Ilhéu published in 1955 which later won the Camilo Pessanha Award.

One of his poems "Tchapeu di padja" would be made into a song by Simentera in the album Cabo Verde em serenada (2000).

A book titled Uma Introdução à Poesia de Jorge Barbosa by Gabriel Mariano was related to his poems.