Early Limits of Local Decolonization in São Tomé and Príncipe: From Colonial Abuses to Postcolonial Disappointment, 1945–1976

Abstract

The administration of Sao Tome's rural interior and of some coastal rural areas—home of at least one third of the archipelago's population—was mainly a two-man show in the early years after decolonization. While the crucial decisions about the future of the country's main economic activity and source of agricultural wealth (the cocoa plantations or rocas situated in these zones) were made at government level and in the president's office, and while these plantations formally had a strong degree of self-administration in the form of the Comissoes Administrativas Provisorias (Provisional Committees of Administration) later becoming the Comites de Accâo Politica (Committees of Political Action: both CAP), the control of everyday life lay in the hands of the labor inspectorate. Inspector-General Francisco Martins Xavier de Pina and his auxiliary, Americo Goncalves da Graca do Es pirito Santo, had an enormous task and held power over the lives of thousands of workers on the plantations. Both officials had been appointed during the transition phase before 12 July 1975, when Sâo Tome e Principe became an independent state.1 Struggling for a short time with the complicated bureaucratic heritage that had been left by the colonial admin istration, both officials rapidly established a routine of work. During 1976 the two officials were constantly active in visiting the different plantations, in hearing the complaints of laborers, plantation officials, and owners, and in processing information coming from the