São Tomé, São Tomé & Principe - (1 of 4)

(8 videos)
We went to São Tomé in 2023 but we did not see much since it was a short day and the factory for the one thing they are known for, chocolate, was closed. This time we made up for it and had a very long, full day.
2023: https://findpenguins.com/bruce-loves-to-travel/…

São Tomé is the capital of the island nation São Tomé and Príncipe in the Gulf of Guinea off Africa’s coast. It was founded by Portuguese explorers way back in 1493 (gaining independence in 1975) and over the years, it became a major producer of sugar, cocoa, and coffee and we saw many of the beautiful colonial buildings from these times. The culture here is a mix of African and Portuguese influences. When São Tomé and Príncipe gained independence from Portugal in 1975, the new government immediately nationalized the plantations and the unfortunately the Portuguese owners fled overnight, and a lack of technical expertise, investment, and infrastructure caused cocoa production to collapse.

We took a private tour for the day, hiring a driver to take us to a list of places we wanted to go on the Island. Our first stop was the “local bank” (see the video) to get local cash for guides and then a tour of the town. We stopped and saw 4 “yellow” churches of various denominations (photos). Then we made a quick stop once school let out to watch the school children all over town and pick-up our drivers son to bring him home before continuing the tour. After seeing some interesting street art, our next stop were statues of Dr Miguel Macnado (a famous humanitarian) and Francisco DeSilva (the first President and key member of the Democratic Convergence Party). At this point we had driven 6 blocks when we found the driver Sidney’s son running down the street. He missed his father! We insisted the boy join us for the day, and although he spoke no English, we hit it off and had a great time with him coming along. We made a few stops to taste local foods, coconuts and bbq corn, and an opportunity to taste Bilimbi (a cylindrical, light green fruit related to the starfruit).

Then made a stop to watch and understand the women washing clothes in the river to make a living.

São Tomé and Príncipe was the first country in Africa to cultivate cocoa, and became the world's largest producer by the early 20th century. The history of these plantations brought with it an incredible economic boom, unfortunately human suffering, and a shift to high-quality craft chocolate production. The Portuguese colonial brought cocoa tree seedlings to the island of Príncipe from Brazil in 1819. It seems the islands' volcanic soil, warm equatorial temperatures, and heavy rainfall offered the perfect conditions for the high quality cocoa variety to thrive. The islands had previously been global leaders in sugar production in the 16th century, followed by coffee in the late 1700s. By 1913, over 150 cocoa plantations covered roughly 75% of the land in São Tomé and Príncipe. These plantations featured their own internal railways, mansions for European elite owners, warehouses, churches, and grand hospitals.

Two significant stops were the “old” cocoa plantation and hospital built to support this large plantation and the current one still in operation. APCQAI stands for Associação dos Produtores de Cacau de Qualidade de Água Izé. (Association of Quality Cocoa Producers of Água Izé). We visited the agricultural plantation town of Roça Água Izé, founded in 1840, became one of the most successful cocoa and coffee plantations. In 2009 as an organic farming cooperative producing premium certified organic cocoa started up here. We were given a private tour of this small remaining cocoa operation (see video). We learned a lot about cocoa production and the process. The old plantation and the town built around it are very sad looking with broken down buildings and their residents living very poorly. There are no operations left there and you can see lots of overgrowth where the trains went and where there used to be hustling streets of people and activity.

Here are the general steps: Pense (think of current state and anything out of the ordinary), Idealize (plan steps out and prioritize timeline), Tente (try/test the results), Semei (invest resources in people and assets to sow/plant), Cuide (nurture/care for consistency and repeatability).

The last stop in this town was The Hospital of Roça Água-Izé, a symbol of the complex history. The hospital was built to treat the thousands of “indentured laborers” (brought from Angola, Mozambique, and Cape Verde) to work here. These workers faced horrific, slave-like conditions, were paid nominal wages, and were rarely allowed to return home The very large spread-out hospital in a modern building, considered state-of-the-art for its time to combat tropical diseases like malaria. Following independence in 1975, the plantation was nationalized and eventually began to fall apart but descendants of the plantation workers still live inside the converted rooms and surrounding grounds. The site has gained a second life through local artists who use the decaying structures as a backdrop and raw material for sculptures.

An interesting story from the early 1900s, is about English chocolate tycoon William Cadbury investigating the islands. After he discovered forced labor for a decade in Sao Tome, Cadbury and other major international chocolate makers launched a massive boycott of Santomean cocoa. This severely crippled the colonial plantation economy too. In 1901, Cadbury first heard of the slave labor. Since the Cadbury family were staunch Quakers with a reputation for progressive humanitarianism, and had over 45% of their cocoa supply from here, they decided to gather certain evidence while attempting to pressure the Portuguese government. Their research proved these workers were very much like poorly treated slaves. The Portuguese government had no real intention or capability to enforce labor laws. On March 19, 1909, William Cadbury officially announced a total corporate boycott on cocoa from São Tomé and Príncipe altering the geography of the global chocolate industry.Read more