Armindo Espírito Santo
História de São Tomé e Príncipe: da descoberta a meados do século XIX
Abstract:
In História de São Tomé e Príncipe: da descoberta a meados do século XIX, the author explains how the Portuguese navigators arrived on the islands of São Tomé and Príncipe in the third quarter of the fifteenth century and transformed them into a social context for their development, but in which human and institutional relations were complex and even unbearable for the most disadvantaged, particularly on the island of São Tomé. Conflicts of all kinds worsened, particularly after the transition from a residential to a plantation society, with the intensification of the slave trade and the production and export of sugar. The long distance of the islands from the central power, located in Lisbon, constituted an ingredient that favoured the fomentation of conflicts in which the disrespect for the established rules was permanent and maintained during the period of domination of the native elite since the 17th century, marked around the main families that disputed access to power and control of wealth. The author shows that, despite its harshness, the colonial slave model had dynamics of social mobility that allowed some enslaved people to become free and others to become powerful in economic and political terms, even during the 16th century, becoming dominant until the mid-19th century.
Quotation:
Espírito Santo, A. (2021). História de São Tomé e Príncipe: da descoberta a meados do século XIX. Lisboa: Edições Colibri.
Working Paper 180/2021: O Elemento Angolar de São Tomé: Uma discussão da sua origem
Abstract:
São Tomé and Príncipe is a small archipelago in the Gulf of Guinea formed by two main islands, namely: the island of São Tomé, which is the larger of the two, and the island of Príncipe. Its total area is 997 km2 (Cf. BM, BdP) and is approximately 300 km from the west coast of the African continent. The archipelago was colonized by Portugal between 1485 and 1974 and became independent on July 12, 1975, after a seven-month transition period. The territory was populated with exiles, small Jews, many African slaves and some volunteers from Europe. The slave labor regime introduced since the beginning of the settlement was very violent for the African labor in such a way that some found in the escapes to the forests close to the farms a way to escape the mistreatment of the Europeans and live in freedom and subsistence goods and some schemes to compose their survival, namely assaults and attacks on farms to obtain food and women. This population that lived and reproduced in the bush for centuries, unlike an original population, which some believe to have existed, gave rise to the so-called “Angolas” and has been the subject of debates among academics as to its origin. This article discusses this and seeks to clarify the origin of the “Angolar” ethnic group on the island of São Tomé. O Elemento Angolar de São Tomé: Uma discussão da sua origem is divided into three parts: the first part (point 2) discusses the narrative of the shipwreck, the second part (point 3) establishes a relationship between fugitive slaves and “Black Gentiles” and the last point explains the origin of the designation “Angolas ” for that population group in the south of the island of São Tomé.
Quotation:
Santo, Armindo Espírito (2021). “O elemento angolar de São Tomé: uma discussão da sua origem”. Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão – CEsA/ CSG – Documentos de Trabalho nº 180/2021.
