Africa
BaobabSao Tome and Principe
The chocolate islands
Oct 7th 2011, 16:32 by G.P. | SAO TOME
IN SEPTEMBER Pinto da Costa was sworn in as president of São Tomé and Príncipe. Mr da Costa pledged to boost tourism and diversify the economy of Africa’s second-smallest country after hopes of oil wealth have trickled away. With idyllic beaches, volcanic hills and plentiful cocoa, the new president may even be able make good his promise.
Straddling the equator, São Tomé and Príncipe lies 250km off the coast of Gabon. The prospects of oil raised hopes that São Tomé would be able to wean itself off its dependence on cocoa and lift itself out of poverty. The islands share a maritime oil development zone with Nigeria, and in 2005, with the help of Africa’s biggest crude exporter, the island marketed itself as the next big thing in frontier oil development. Little has come of this and mass oil production is a fading dream.
Across São Tomé dense cocoa plantations cling to the sides of monolithic pillars. A third of the archipelago is covered in the crop which makes up 80% of its exports. In the late 1990s, dips in production and prices left the island state heavily reliant on foreign aid and farmers on the poverty line. But since 2004 farmers have set up collectives, eliminating the middlemen who had been eating into their profits. With facilities to ferment the product and dry the cocoa to export they are benefitting from prices five times higher than those for cocoa seeds still in their treacly translucent liquid. São Tomé and Príncipe does not produce huge quantities of cocoa but what it does grow is organic and Fairtrade which goes down well with wealthy Western consumers.
Only independent since 1975, traces of the old country can still be seen in São Tomé's cobbled streets and decaying colonial buildings with arched windows, intricately carved wooden balconies and balustrades. The island is dotted with the remains of cocoa plantations, although most of them have surrendered to the rainforest. São Tomé’s culture is a blend of African and European influences. The capital’s streets buzz with yellow New York style taxis but drivers are often more concerned with sharing a joke and a drink with friends than fighting for customers. The residents live up to their catchphrase, léve léve—relax and take it easy.
Anxious to diversify away from cocoa, the islanders are branching out into eco-tourism. If you can brave the winding roads that coil around cliffs and precarious bridges over bulging rivers, an ecolodge in Porto Alegre, a village in the south, allows you to sleep metres from the sea and look for turtles laying their eggs at night. Outsiders have not given up on their hopes of oil. Pilots and crews of tycoons' private jets prop up local bars. Nigerians on the oil trail are buying properties without even visiting the country. A new flight route from Lagos will increase the traffic between the two countries.
Eliseu, our guide, is convinced life is about to change for Santomeans. "Why go to Portugal when you can come here where we have everything. It’s time for São Tomé!"
