São Tomé e Príncipe
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.
Voices, Languages, Discourses: Interpreting the present and the memory of Nation in Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau and São Tomé and Príncipe
Abstract:
Voices, Languages, Discourses: Interpreting the Present and the Memory of Nation in Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau and São Tomé and Príncipe brings together a selection of interviews with writers and filmmakers from Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau and São Tomé and Príncipe in order to examine representations and images of national identity in these countries’ postcolonial narratives. It continues and completes the exploration of the postcolonial imaginary and identity of Portuguese-speaking Africa presented in the previous interview volume Speaking the Postcolonial Nation: Interviews with Writers from Angola and Mozambique (2014). Memory, history, migration and diaspora are central notions in the recreation and reconceptualisation of the nation and its identities in Cape Verdean, Guinean and São Tomense literary and film culture. By bringing together different generations of writers and filmmakers, with a wide variety of perspectives on the historical, social and cultural changes that occurred in their countries, this book makes a valuable contribution to current debates on post-colonialism, nation and identity in these former Portuguese colonies.
Quotation:
Leite, A., M., Falconi, J., Krakowska, K., Kahn, S., Secco, C. (2020). Voices, Languages, Discourses: Interpreting the Present and the Memory of Nation in Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau and São Tomé and Príncipe. Oxford, United Kingdom: Peter Lang Verlag. Retrieved Oct 6, 2022, from https://www.peterlang.com/document/1055586
Brief Paper 5/1998: A Questão da Origem dos Angolares de São Tomé
Abstract:
We intend to make a dispassionate and impartial interpretation, free of any nationalist charge, of this chapter in the history of São Tomé. There are at least three different hypotheses about the origin of the Angolares. The oldest and most widespread says that the Angolares are descendants of the survivors of a slave ship from Angola that sank off the southern coast of the island in the mid-sixteenth century. The second hypothesis states that the Angolares were already present when the Portuguese arrived, since they are descendants of a Bantu people with great maritime skills who came to São Tomé with their own canoes. According to the third hypothesis, the Angolares are neither descendants of castaways, nor are they an indigenous population of the island; rather, they must be descendants of Cimarrones, runaway slaves from the first sugar cane plantations after the 16th century. Before dealing consecutively with the three hypotheses, we would like to present some data about the Angolares. Paper presented at the 1998 CESA Seminar: A Problemática do Desenvolvimento – Historicidade e Contributos Actuais numa Óptica Transdiciplinar (The Problem of Development – History and Current Contributions from a Transdisciplinary Perspective), Conference on A Questão da Origem dos Angolares em São Tomé (The Question of the Origin of the Angolares in São Tomé), 19 May 1998.
Quotation:
Seibert, Gerhard. 1998. “A questão da origem dos Angolares de São Tomé”. Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestão – CEsA Brief papers nº 5-1998.
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.
