SAO TOME AND PRINCIPE, HISTORY OF

history of the islands from their discovery by the Portuguese in the 15th century to the present. So Tom and Prncipe were uninhabited when they were discovered, probably in 1470, by Portuguese navigators sailing around Africa. In the 1480s, the Portuguese sent out settlers (many of them Jewish New Christians expelled from Portugal by the Inquisition) and imported African slaves to grow sugar. During the 16th century, So Tom became for a brief time the world's largest producer of sugar, but the rise of Brazilian competition and the poor quality of So Tom's badly dried product led to the decline of its sugar. This decline was accentuated by insecurity, as slaves escaped to the mountains and raided the plantations. Amador, the king of the fugitive slaves who nearly overran the whole island of So Tom, is regarded by many as a national hero. Foreign pirates were another hazard, and the Dutch briefly captured So Tom in 1641, only to be expelled three years later. After the collapse of the sugar economy, the colony served as a bulking-up point for the Portuguese slave trade to Brazil; the cargoes of small slave ships were transferred to larger vessels for the Atlantic voyage, and provisions and water were obtained. The slave-worked plantations producing foodstuffs for the slave ships were mainly located on Prncipe, and the capital was moved to the port of Santo Antnio on Prncipe in 1753. In 177778 the Portuguese ceded the islands of Bioko and Annobn, on either side of So Tom and Prncipe, to the Spaniards, who wished to develop their own African slave trade. With the suppression of the Brazilian slave trade and the introduction of coffee cultivation in the 19th century, the economic centre of gravity swung back to So Tom, and in 1852 So Tom city once again became the capital. Cocoa replaced coffee as the main cash crop in the 1890s, and during the first two decades of the 20th century the colony was in some years the world's largest producer of cocoa. This led to the maximum expansion of plantations on the islands. Although slavery was legally abolished in 1875, Angolan slaves continued to make up the bulk of the labour force until the early 1910s. They were then replaced by forced or indentured labourers from other Portuguese colonies. Cocoa production fell after World War I, and the islands progressively became a stagnant backwater, notorious for the brutality and corruption that reigned on the plantations belonging to absentee planters and corporations. Attempts to force the local Forros to work on the plantations led to the Batep Massacre in 1953, seen as the beginning of the nationalist movement. The Committee for the Liberation of So Tom and Prncipe was set up in exile in 1960, changing its name to the Movement for the Liberation of So Tom and Prncipe (MLSTP) in 1972. However, it was never able to mount a guerrilla challenge to the Portuguese on the islands. The Portuguese government that overthrew the Salazarist dictatorship in 1974 agreed to hand over power to the MLSTP in 1975, and many of the whites and wealthier Creoles then fled to Portugal, fearing a communist government. Independence was granted on July 12, 1975. The MLSTP at first followed eastern European models of political and economic organization. Economic decline and popular dissatisfaction, however, led to a process of liberalization from 1985, culminating in the establishment of multiparty democracy in 1990. William Gervase Clarence-Smith Additional reading Gervase Clarence-Smith, The Third Portuguese Empire, 18251975: A Study in Economic Imperialism (1985), provides the Portuguese colonial context for the 19th and 20th centuries. James Duffy, A Question of Slavery (1967), includes a detailed study of the labour system in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Carlos Esprito Santo, Contribuio para a histria de S. Tom e Prncipe (1979), is a short work by a local historian. William Gervase Clarence-Smith The economy Decades of colonial stagnation were followed by economic disruption after independence in 1975. Under the tutelage of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, So Tom and Prncipe has gradually restored a functioning economy by devaluing its currency, restricting the budget deficit, privatizing formerly nationalized companies, attracting foreign investment, and removing price subsidies and controls. About four-fifths of the total land area of the two islands belongs to the state and is divided into 15 large plantation enterprises, several of which have been leased out to foreign management companies. High levels of unemployment coexist with a critical labour shortage on the plantations, where wages and working conditions are poor. So Tom is endowed with excellent conditions for tropical agriculture. The growing season is long, the volcanic soils are fertile, and there is no lack of water. There are some fine timber stands remaining, but the physical problems of removal in mountainous terrain and the pressing need for effective conservation limit long-term prospects. The small size of the country prevents the significant growth of extensive livestock raising, but conditions for poultry raising are quite favourable. There are numerous sites for small hydroelectric schemes but no large rivers for major installations. The country has no known minerals aside from some lime deposits exploited for local use. Fishing resources are limited by the narrow continental shelf. Manufacturing is hampered by the small size of the internal market, the limited energy resources, and the lack of skilled labour. Tourism is perhaps the best hope for economic diversification, but the long rainy season is a considerable obstacle to overcome. The economy remains chronically dependent on plantation agriculture and especially on cocoa. About 40 percent of the total land area is under cultivation, with cacao trees covering a little less than two-thirds of the state-owned plantation acreage; coconut palms cover most of the remainder. Large areas of plantation land have been poorly maintained since independence, being harvested from time to time but not otherwise tended. The country has never been self-sufficient in staple foodstuffs, and a combination of official price-fixing for urban consumers and foreign gifts of food have undermined the production of food crops for the local market. The nonagricultural sectors contribute little to the economy. The country is self-sufficient in fish, and trawlers from the European Communities pay small license fees for the right to fish in the country's national waters. The deep-sea tuna resources of the Gulf of Guinea and shellfish in coastal waters represent the best hopes for fishery exports. Manufacturing accounts for about 10 percent of the gross domestic product and consists mainly of small processing factories producing foodstuffs, beverages, soap products, and sawn wood for the internal market. Tourism is largely limited to the dry season and chiefly attracts people living in neighbouring parts of Africa. So Tom and Prncipe is reputed to be one of the highest recipients of foreign aid per capita in the world, but this has not prevented large budgetary and balance-of-payments deficits. There is only one bank active in the country, the state-owned National Bank of So Tom and Prncipe, which controls foreign exchange dealings and acts as the central bank. The black market in foreign exchange has shrunk as the national currency, the dobra, has progressively been devalued. Cocoa accounts for almost all foreign exchange earnings. China takes cocoa under counter-trade barter agreements, but most of it is exported to Germany and The Netherlands. Portugal is the main source of imports, and Angola supplies petroleum products at concessionary rates. Transportation assumes particular importance in this isolated microstate. There are no natural or artificial harbours, and large ships must anchor far out at sea and be unloaded by barge. Shipping links between the islands and with the outside world are erratic, and there are long delays in unloading cargo. The international airport near So Tom city has been expanded and modernized, and in 1986 a national airline, Equatorial Airlines of So Tom and Prncipe, was established as a joint venture between the government and foreign interests. It links the two main islands and flies to adjacent African countries. The telephone system and the road network are both fairly good by African standards. The land Two volcanic plugs, Joo Dias Pai (father) and Joo Dias Filho (son), in the mist In the south and west of both islands, high volcanic mountains fall precipitously to the sea, although neither island has witnessed any volcanic activity in recent centuries. The mountains descend gradually to small plains in the northeast. So Tom Peak, the highest point on the main island, rises to 6,640 feet (2,024 metres) above sea level, while Prncipe Peak on the smaller island reaches 3,110 feet (948 metres). These mountainous areas are deeply dissected by the effects of stream erosion, and spectacular isolated volcanic plugs stand out as landmarks. Swift and rocky streams rush down to the coast in every direction. The climate is basically maritime and tropical, but because of the rough topography there is a wide range of microclimates. The prevailing moist southwesterly winds are intercepted by the mountains, so that annual rainfall exceeds 275 inches (7,000 millimetres) in the southwest of So Tom island, while the far northeast of the island receives less than 30 inches. The dry season lasts from June to September in the northeast but is scarcely discernible in the wetter regions. In the coastal areas the mean annual temperature is high, about 81 F (27 C), and the average relative humidity is also high, about 80 percent. Average temperatures decline sharply with elevation, and night temperatures fall below 50 F (10 C) at about 2,300 feet. Above 3,300 feet fine misty rain falls almost continuously, and the nights are cold, although frost and snow are unknown. The original vegetation of the islands was luxuriant tropical rain forest, with a gradual transition from lowland forest to mist forest. A little less than half the islands' area, mainly in the south and west, is still covered with rain forest. Much of this is secondary growth on abandoned plantation land. The flora and fauna include many rare and endemic species, reflecting the isolation and environmental diversity of the islands. Many of these plants, birds, reptiles, and small mammals are threatened by pressure on the remaining rain forest. The population is concentrated in the drier and flatter areas of both islands. While a third of the population lives in So Tom city and its outskirts, only about 5 percent of the population inhabits the island of Prncipe. Villages are clustered along the roads and are often grouped around a church. Houses made of wooden planks and raised above the ground are typical of the local building methods although there are also many concrete structures in the Portuguese colonial style. Many people still live in barracklike accommodations on the plantations. The people The population consists mainly of Forros, descendants of immigrant Europeans and African slaves. They speak a creolized form of Portuguese; standard Portuguese is the official language and is understood by a majority of islanders. Cape Verdeans form the largest group of foreigners, perhaps amounting to about 10 percent of the total population; many have adopted So Tomense nationality. Portuguese, Angolans, and Mozambicans make up most of the rest of the foreign community. Like the Cape Verdeans, they are relatively well integrated with the other islanders, owing to a shared Portuguese cultural background. The Angolares, descended from slaves who survived a shipwreck in the 16th century, remained apart in the isolated southern zone of So Tom island until the late 19th century, speaking a Bantu language. They have since spread throughout the country and have become largely assimilated. Almost the entire population belongs to the Roman Catholic church, although there are a few small Protestant congregations. Traditional African religions are also practiced. Population growth is rapid, owing to both a relatively high birth ratethough it is below average for central Africaand a low death rate. Nearly half the population is less than 15 years of age, assuring continued rapid growth into the future. Life expectancy is relatively high for an African country, at 63 years for men and 67 years for women.