Sao Tome chooses: Big promises – little hope

It is the second smallest country in Africa: Sao Tome and Principe is the name of the island state that decides in a runoff election who will be president. Both candidates promise a lot to people – maybe too much.

Sao Tome and Principe is pretty much exactly on the equator. It is an island nation in the Atlantic off the coast of Central Africa. Around two weeks ago, the country held the first round of presidential elections. The former Minister of Infrastructure – Carlos Vila Nova – was in the lead in the first round with almost 40 percent of the vote. His closest pursuer is Guilherme Posser da Costa and was formerly Prime Minister – he got 21 percent of the vote. The third-placed, Delfim Neves, has complained of “massive electoral fraud”.

In fact, there was an election boycott in some areas, but apart from that, the election was “normal”, according to the election commission. So the two remaining candidates will decide on Sunday who will get the absolute majority of the 120,000 eligible voters – promises both have enough.

Promise only vaguely

The second-placed Posser da Costa advertises on the Internet primarily with his experience. After all, the Social Democrat was Prime Minister before – even if that was a good 20 years ago. He promises “harmony and progress” – that is his motto. And when it comes to election promises, the two candidates are not far from each other. His opponent, the favorite and former Minister of Infrastructure, Vila Nova, promises to become a president who can “guarantee the best for everyone” – that is his motto!

The election commercials of his conservative ADI party mainly show what Vila Nova was concerned with as a minister: infrastructure. Water treatment, construction activity, chic tourist resorts and sports fields, sports fields, sports fields. The central promise here: the state won’t leave me alone. However, this is not exactly the experience that the people of Sao Tome and Principe have had in recent years. On the contrary: the state cannot even maintain the infrastructure that has evolved over time.

Colonial state with a bloody history

Portuguese sailors reached Sao Tome around 1500. Hence the name: On December 21st – the day of Saint Thomas, in Portuguese “Sao Tome” – according to tradition, they set foot on the island, which was probably uninhabited at the time. In the following years Portugal established a colony with high-yield sugar cultivation and an attached slave trade. In the following centuries there were many bloody clashes – slave revolts, rebel groups, fighting in the inaccessible hinterland.

In the 19th century, sugar cultivation had become easier and cheaper in other parts of the world, but there were two new crops on the world market: Coffee and cocoa were in great demand and grew splendidly on Sao Tome and Principe. The “rocas” – these are magnificent colonial buildings – mansions, outbuildings, even hospitals, so real small towns were partly built with the plantations – by many thousands of people who had to work in slavery on the construction sites and in the fields, date from this time .

Decaying traces of former wealth

Historian Fernando d’Alva told AFP news agency that others have become rich with it, because the wealth here can only be guessed at. but that has disappeared. Their previous owners had tried very hard because they believed that their ‘rocas’ would stand the test of time – so they made them stable. “

Fernando d’Alva taught history at the University of Sao Tome. Since the outbreak of the corona pandemic, the island state’s Ministry of Health has been regulating how much and what lessons take place.

Tourism as a possible opportunity …

Sao Tome and Principe ranked 137th out of 189 states in the development index in 2019. The state is hardly up to its tasks in many areas. Thus the “rocas” that are so characteristic are in poor condition. “Roca” resident Willy lived most of his life on such a decaying plantation. Before the pandemic, he tried his hand at being a tourist guide. Back then, tourism was one of the island nation’s great hopes.

In numerous image films on the Internet, such as on the YouTube channel “Destination Africa”, the island is presented as a paradise: high-gloss hotel complexes – mainly for wealthy tourists – dream beaches, a bit of colonial chic and, above all, security. In fact, the island state does not have many of the problems of the other states in the Gulf of Guinea.

… which was destroyed by Corona

The Federal Foreign Office speaks of a low crime rate in contrast to warnings of piracy, armed robberies and hostage-taking on the Nigerian coast – only around 300 kilometers away. All of this is of no use to “roca” resident Willy, however, because the government has issued numerous travel restrictions since the first Covid cases in April 2020. Nevertheless, there were around 2500 cases among the approximately 215,000 inhabitants – the vaccination campaign has been running since March 2021. It will be a long time before tourism is possible again.

On the “rocas”, however, the situation was precarious even before the Corona crisis, reports Willy: “You can’t say that the state has ruined everything here – it was the people from here. The ones who took parts off the roof , the beams, the walls and they now say that it was the state. But we ourselves, for example, destroyed our old hospital. “

State gives up historical buildings

The houses of the residents are also threatened with decay – the entire complex – and the state certainly bears a share of the responsibility. After the country gained independence in 1975, a socialist government nationalized all “rocas”. At the same time, no government – neither socialists nor others – could guarantee the preservation. The state has given up more and more plantations in the last few decades, even though people still live there. Their houses are in decline and their only help is self-help.

A third of the more than 200,000 inhabitants live on well under two dollars a day – that is what the current figures from the World Food Program say. The remaining two-thirds don’t have much more than three dollars a day to live on. This is what the “roca” resident Sheila das Nevas Villanova describes: “It used to be easier to live here under better conditions than today. There is no work on the ‘roca’. In the fields there are bananas and other fruits people sometimes try to harvest some, but it is not easy. When people other than the owners bring fruit, the owners fight it. “

Doubts about promises

Sao Tome and Principe are now electing a new president in a runoff election. Whether the big promises – “harmony and progress” or “the best for all” will come true, there are legitimate doubts. There are simply many places on Sao Tome and Principe where the state has left people alone for a long time. After all: According to the US organization “Freedom House”, which regularly surveys the state of democracies worldwide, it should be a free election for president.

It remains to be seen whether there will be another election boycott. As in so many other countries, people are frustrated with their living conditions. Even the outgoing President Evaristo Carvalho stated in a speech to the United Nations: “Poverty is the greatest scourge of mankind. Eradicating it should be a top priority for all nations – and specifically for the United Nations.”

Politicians on Sao Tome have long since recognized the problem – alone: ​​Neither the central government, and certainly not the United Nations, were able to solve the problems of the people on the “rocas” and in the rest of the country. All you can do is wait and choose hope.