Background Notes: Sao Tome and Principe
PA/PC
Source: Office of Public Communication, Bureau of Public
Affairs
Date: Aug 28, 19918/28/91
Category: Country Data
Region: Subsaharan Africa
Country: Sao Tome and Principe
Subject: Military Affairs, Cultural Exchange, Travel,
History, International Organizations,
Trade/Economics
[TEXT]
Official Name: Democratic Republic of Sao Tome and Principe
PROFILE
Geography
Area: 963 sq. km. (372 sq. mi.); one-third the size of Rhode Island.
Cities: Capital--Sao Tome. Other cities--Trindade, Santana, Porto
Alegre, Santo Antonio. Terrain: Two small, volcanic islands.
Climate: Tropical, with wet and dry seasons.
People
Nationality: Noun and adjective--Sao Tomean(s). Population (1991):
123,500. Annual growth rate: 1.8%. Ethnic groups: Mixed African,
Portuguese-African. Religion: Christian 80%. Language:
Portuguese. Education: Years compulsory--to secondary level.
Literacy--about 51%. Health: Infant mortality rate (1990)--
62/1,000. Life expectancy--65 yrs. Work force (1990, 35,000):
Agriculture--70%. Industry, commerce, services--13%.
Government--12%.
Government
Type: Republic. Independence: July 12, 1975. Constitution:
November 5, 1975; revised September 1990, following a national
referendum.
Branches: Executive--president and prime minister. Legislative--
National Assembly. Judicial--Supreme Tribunal.
Administrative subdivisions: 7 counties, 6 on Sao Tome, 1 on
Principe.
Political parties: Movement for the Liberation of Sao Tome and
Principe/Social Democratic Party (MLSTP/PSD); Democratic
Convergence Party/Group of Reflection (PCD/GR); Christian
Democratic Front (PDC); Democratic Coalition (CODO).
Suffrage: Universal adult.
Central government budget (1990): $9.2 million. Current deficit--
$807,000.
National holiday: July 12.
Flag: Green, yellow, and green horizontal bands, two black stars in
the yellow band, red triangle on the staff side.
Economy
GDP (1990): $53 million. Annual growth rate: 3.8%. Per capita
income (1990): $434. Annual inflation rate: 40%, 1990;
36%, 1989; 40%, 1988; 25%, 1987.
Natural resources: Agricultural products, fish.
Agriculture (25% of GDP): Products--cocoa, copra, palm kernels,
bananas. Cultivated land--35,741 hectares.
Industry (10% of GNP): Types--light construction, shirts, soap, beer,
fisheries, shrimp processing.
Trade (1990 est.): Exports--$2.4 million: cocoa, copra, palm
kernels, coffee. Major markets--Netherlands, Germany, China.
Imports--$4.5 million: foodstuffs, petroleum products. Major
suppliers--Portugal, Netherlands, Angola (fuel), Japan.
Official exchange rate (July 1991): 192.0 dobras=US$1.
Membership in International Organizations
UN, Organization of African Unity (OAU), European Community
(associate member under the Lome Convention), Economic
Community of Central African States (CEEAC).
PEOPLE
Of Sao Tome and Principe's total population, about 116,500
live on Sao Tome and 7,000 on Principe. All are descended from
groups that have migrated to the islands since 1485. Six groups are
identifiable:
-- Mestico, or mixed-blood, descendants of African slaves
brought to the islands during the early years of settlement from
Benin, Gabon, Congo, and Angola (these people also are known as
filhos da terra or "sons of the land");
-- Angolares, reputedly descendants of Angolan slaves who
survived a 1540 shipwreck and now earn their livelihood fishing;
-- Forros, descendants of freed slaves;
-- Servicais, contract laborers from Angola, Mozambique, and
Cape Verde, living temporarily on the islands;
-- Tongas, children of servicais born on the islands; and
-- Europeans, primarily Portuguese.
In the 1970s, there were two significant population
movements--an exodus of most of the 4,000 Portuguese residents
and an influx of several hundred Sao Tomean refugees from Angola.
The islanders have been absorbed largely into a common
Portuguese-African culture. Almost all belong to the Roman
Catholic, Evangelical Protestant, or Seventh-day Adventist
Churches, which retain close ties with churches in Portugal.
HISTORY
These uninhibited islands were first discovered by Portuguese
navigators between 1469 and 1472. The first successful settlement
of Sao Tome was established in 1493 by Avaro Caminha, who
received the land as a grant from the Portuguese crown. Principe
was settled in 1500 under a similar arrangement. By the mid-
1500s, with the help of slave labor, the Portuguese settlers had
turned the islands into Africa's foremost exporter of sugar. Sao
Tome and Principe were taken over and administered by the
Portuguese crown in 1522 and 1573, respectively.
Sugar cultivation declined over the next 100 years, and by the
mid-1600s, Sao Tome was little more than a port of call for
bunkering ships. In the early 1800s, two new cash crops, coffee and
cocoa, were introduced. The rich volcanic soils proved well suited
to them, and extensive plantations (rocas), owned by Portuguese
companies or absentee landlords, soon occupied most of the good
farmland. By 1908, Sao Tome had become the world's largest
producer of cocoa, still the country's most important crop.
The rocas system, which gave the plantation managers a high
degree of authority, led to abuses against the African farm workers.
Although Portugal officially abolished slavery in 1876, the practice
of forced paid labor continued. In the early 1900s, an international
press controversy arose over charges that Angolan contract workers
were being subjected to forced labor and unsatisfactory working
conditions. Sporadic labor unrest and dissatisfaction continued well
into the 20th century, culminating in an outbreak of riots in 1953 in
which several hundred African laborers were killed. This "Batepa
Massacre" remains a major event in the colonial history of the
islands, and its anniversary is officially observed by the
government.
By the late 1950s, when other emerging nations across the
African Continent were demanding independence, a small group of
Sao Tomeans had formed the Movement for the Liberation of Sao
Tome and Principe (MLSTP), which eventually established its base in
nearby Gabon. Picking up momentum in the 1960s, events moved
quickly after the overthrow of the Caetano dictatorship in Portugal
in April 1974. The new Portuguese regime was committed to the
dissolution of its overseas colonies. In 1974, Portuguese
representatives met with the MLSTP in Algiers and worked out an
agreement for the transfer of sovereignty. After a period of
transition, Sao Tome and Principe achieved independence on July 12,
1975, choosing as its first president the MLSTP Secretary General
Manuel Pinto da Costa.
Da Costa was re-elected unopposed in 1985 to a third 5-year
term. He declined to run in Sao Tome's first multi-party
presidential election, held in March 1991, and was succeeded on
April 3, 1991, by Miguel Trovoada, an MLSTP founder who had been
exiled after challenging Da Costa's leadership of the party.
GOVERNMENT
Under the new constitution passed by the National Assembly
in April 1990, which was approved in an August public referendum
and promulgated in September, Sao Tome and Principe held multi-
party elections for the first time since independence. Shortly after
the constitution took effect, the Popular Assembly formally
legalized opposition parties and permitted independent candidates
to participate in the January 1991 legislative elections. The
Popular Assembly is the supreme organ of the state and the highest
legislative body. It is elected for a 4-year period and meets
semiannually.
The president of the republic is elected to a 5-year term by
universal suffrage and secret ballot. Under the revised
constitution, the president is now elected by direct vote and is
limited to two terms.
Justice is administered at the highest level by the Supreme
Tribunal, formerly responsible to the Popular Assembly. The
judiciary is now independent under the new constitution.
Principal Government Officials
President--Miguel Trovoada
Prime Minister--Daniel Lima Dos Santos Daio
Minister Foreign Affairs--Alda Bandeira Tavares Vaz Da Conceicao
Ambassador to the United States and the United Nations--Joaquim
Rafael Branco
The Sao Tome and Principe Mission to the United States, which
also is the Sao Tomean Embassy to the United Nations, is located at
801 Second Avenue, Suite 1504, NY, NY 10017 (tel. 212-697-4211)
POLITICAL CONDITIONS
The MLSTP was the sole political party and predominant force
in Sao Tomean politics from independence until 1991.
A new constitution, as announced in 1989 by President Da Costa,
was adopted by the Popular Assembly in April 1990 approved in an
August nationwide referendum, and promulgated in September of
that year.
In preparation for the elections, opposition parties were
legalized, and independent candidates were authorized to seek
seats. Several oppositoin candidates, including Miguel Trovoada,
who became the country's new president, returned to Sao Tome and
Principe from exile to participate. In January 1991, Sao Tome
became the second Lusophone African country (only weeks after
Cape Verde) to hold multi-party legislative elections; 2 months
later, it completed the transition by electing a new president.
ECONOMY
Since the 1800s, the Sao Tome and Principe economy has been
based on plantation agriculture. At the time of independence,
Portuguese-owned plantations occupied 90% of the cultivated land.
After independence, control of these plantations passed to various
state-owned agricultural enterprises. The dominant crop on Sao
Tome is cocoa, representing about 90% of exports. Other export
crops include copra, palm kernels, and coffee. Domestic food-crop
production is inadequate to meet local consumption, and the country
imports some of its food. Efforts have been made by the
government in recent years to expand food production, and several
projects have been undertaken, largely financed by foreign donors.
Other than agriculture, the main economic activities are
fishing and a small industrial sector engaged in processing local
agricultural products and producing a few basic consumer goods.
The scenic islands have potential for tourism, and the government
is attempting to improve its rudimentary tourist industry
infrastructure. The government sector accounts for about 20% of
both employment and gross domestic product. Since independence,
the country has had a centrally directed economy with most means
of production owned and controlled by the state. The new
constitution guarantees a "mixed economy," with privately owned
cooperatives combined with publicly owned property and means of
production.
In recent years, the economy of Sao Tome has encountered
major difficulties: economic growth has stagnated, and cocoa
exports have dropped in both value and volume, leaving large
balance-of-payments deficits. The situation stems from a
combination of external and internal factors, including the
significantly lower world price for cocoa and production
inefficiencies on the plantations.
In response to its economic downturn, the government
announced its intention to carry out far-reaching economic reforms.
In 1987, the government implemented an International Monetary
Fund structural adjustment program, to which the new government
continues to adhere. It has invited greater private participation in
management of parastatals, as well as in the agricultural,
commercial, banking, and tourism sectors, and is increasing efforts
to attract foreign investment to Sao Tome and Principe.
The Sao Tomean Government has traditionally obtained foreign
assistance from various donors. The UN Development Program, the
World Bank, the European Community, and the African Development
Bank finance projects on the islands. Both communist and Western
governments have provided bilateral technical assistance in the
past.
Portugal remains one of Sao Tome's major trading partners,
particularly as a source of imports. Food, manufactured articles,
and machinery and transportation equipment are imported from the
European Economic Community. The Netherlands and Germany
represent the largest markets for the country's exports.
FOREIGN RELATIONS
Until independence, Sao Tome and Principe had few ties abroad
except those that passed through Portugal. Following independence,
the new government sought to expand its diplomatic relationships.
A common language, tradition, and colonial experience have led to
close collaboration between Sao Tome and other ex-Portuguese
colonies in Africa, particularly Angola. Sao Tomean relations with
other countries in the region, such as the Congo and Gabon, also are
good.
Sao Tome and Principe has diplomatic relations with Western
countries, including the US, Portugal, France, and Germany, and with
communist countries, such as the Soviet Union and Cuba. The latter
have been active in providing technical advisers in Sao Tome,
especially Cuba, which has advisers in the Ministries of Education
and Planning.
While the Sao Tomean Government has maintained a foreign
policy based on nonalignment and cooperation with any country
willing to assist in its economic development, it has recently begun
to emphasize ties to the United States and Western Europe.
US-SAO TOMEAN RELATIONS
The United States was among the first to accredit an
ambassador to Sao Tome and Principe. The US Ambassador, based in
Gabon, is accredited to Sao Tome on a non-resident basis. The
Ambassador and embassy staff make regular visits to the islands.
The first Sao Tomean Ambassador to the United States, resident in
New York City, was accredited in 1985. In 1986, Sao Tomean
President da Costa visited the United States and met with Vice
President Bush.
The United States has funded projects aimed at training
managers on cocoa plantations and has contributed food
commodities through the UN World Food Program. In addition, the
United States has a program to develop and support farmers'
cooperatives. A small Peace Corps program in health education was
inaugurated in October 1990. The United States, through the Human
Rights Fund, provided communications equipment and an election
expert to help organize Sao Tome and Principe's 1991 multi-party
legislative and presidential elections.
Principal US Officials
Ambassador--Keith L. Wauchope
Deputy Chief of Mission--Stephen G. Brundage
Political Officer--Alexander Andrews
Economic/Commercial Officer--Matthew Rooney
Consular Officer--Melissa Kehoe
Public Affairs Officer--Jan Hartman
The US Embassy in Gabon is located on the Boulevard de la Mer,
B.P. 4000, Libreville, Gabon (tel: 241-762-003; fax: 241-745-507).
TRAVEL NOTES
Customs: Obtain visas in advance from a Sao Tomean Embassy.
A vaccination certificate against yellow fever is required of all
visitors except those arriving from a non-infected area and who
stay for less than 2 weeks. Health requirements change; check
latest information.
Climate and clothing: Lightweight, washable clothing is
recommended year round. At higher altitudes in the interior,
evenings can be cool enough for sweaters.
Health: Tapwater is not potable; boil drinking water. Avoid
raw vegetables and undercooked meats. Take malaria pills starting
3 weeks before arrival. The islands have adequate hospital
facilities for common ailments.
Telecommunications: Telephone and telegraph link the islands
with Europe and, more recently, with the African mainland at Gabon,
although in the latter case connections are often difficult. A radio
network also connects the Sao Tomean government with its
representative in Libreville. Sao Tome is four standard time zones
ahead of eastern standard time.
Transportation: Regular air service from Libreville is limited
to four weekly flights by Equatorial Airlines. Charter aircraft also
are available. The Angolan national airline, TAAG, has two flights
weekly from Luanda. Taxi service is available. The Portuguese
national airline, TAP, has one flight monthly from Lisbon. There are
two flights a week from Sao Tome to Principe, but most
transportation between the islands is by boat.
National holidays: Businesses may be closed on the following
official holidays Martyrs' Day, February 4; Independence/National
Day, July 12; Armed Forces Day, First week in September (varies);
Farmers' Day, September 30.
For information on economic trends, commercial development,
production, trade regulations, and tariff rates, contact the
International Trade Administration, US Department of Commerce,
Washington, DC, 20230 or any Commerce Department district office.
Published by the United States Department of State -- Bureau of
Public Affairs -- Office of Public Communication -- Washington,
DC --Series Editor: Peter Knecht--Department of State Publication
Background Notes Series. This material is in the public domain and
may be reprinted without permission; citation of this source is
appreciated. For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, US
Government Printing Office, Washington, DC 20402.(###)