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Sao Tome and Principe: An island nation for sale?

 

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A film by Marion Mayer-Hohdahl

 

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T E X T:

 

Our oceans are inhabited by some 30,000 species of fish. There are no precise figures, but one thing is for sure: fish stocks are shrinking. 20 years ago, nets could only reach a depth of 500 meters. Today it is possible to fish at 2,000 meters.

 

0:46

Here in Sao Tome they fish using traditional methods. Six men share a boat and go out daily. Their catch is often only enough to feed their families. Little is left over to be sold.

 

1:05

For the fishermen from the small island nation of Sao Tome and Principe, situated 240 kilometers off Africa’s west coast, life is getting harder. And it is European and Asian mega-trawlers that are to blame, as they legally and illegally ransack the fishing grounds.

 

1:27

Diosalvo Monte is in his pirogue from 5 in the morning until noontime. On a good day, he can return home with 30 to 40 fish.

 

1:38

Interview

Diosalvo Monte

Fisherman

 

When I was young, we had more.

 

1:44

This also has to do with Europe’s fishermen.

 

1:49

Interview

João Gomes Pessoa Lima

General Director – Ministry of Fisheries

 

I cannot say that we are very happy with the agreement we signed with the European Union. Here, the main activity is fishing. Approximately 80 to 85 percent of the animal protein consumed by the population stems from fish. That means 24 to 26 kilograms of fish per inhabitant. You can see it’s one of the highest ratios in Africa. Small-scale fishing is very important.

 

2:39

30 percent of the 206,000 inhabitants live off fishing.

 

2:48

Interview

Pascal Alfonso

Fisherman

(he speaks in English)

We had enough fish around our islands, but so many big ships plunder our fishing grounds. They often come at night. We do not have the power to control that. This is the problem.

 

3:11

The fisheries agreements between the EU and African countries benefit the oversized European fleet. For Sao Tome and Principe, the deal means hard cash, but the local markets are being destroyed. And no one has control over the mega-trawlers.

 

3:31

The government is thinking about whether it should demand more when the current agreement ends in 2018, or not conclude a new deal at all. Countries considered hazardous by environmentalists, such as China and Russia, have offered more money. Twenty-eight EU ships are currently allowed to fish Sao Tome’s coast. Many of them can catch 200 tons of fish a day. To match that, a pirogue fisherman would have to spend more than a year at sea. 

 

4:09

The second-smallest country in Africa is peaceful and democratic, but also very poor. One contributing factor is the large number of children. Almost half of the population is under the age of 15. And to have 11 children with four women – as Pascal does – is not unusual.

 

4:35

Luckily the sea still provides enough for families. Famine is not a concern here, due to the fertile land from the humid equatorial climate.

 

4:46

Kinship is important for the islanders. On the weekend, families get together. Here the youngest sits together with her half-brother, who has a family of his own.

 

5:03

So far, the mini Equatorial nation has been spared mass tourism. When the Portuguese discovered Sao Tome and Principe in the 15^th century, the islands were uninhabited.

 

5:23

The colonial masters earned their money from African slaves, later with coffee and cacao. The Portuguese rule ended with the 1974 military coup in Lisbon. A year later, the Portuguese left the islands.

 

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5:56

Today, the new masters come from China, after Sao Tome broke off its relations with Taiwan. Large shopping centers and a number of banks have set up shop. Oil has been discovered off the coast, but it has yet to be extracted. The oil reserves are too deep and the quality not sufficient.

 

6:20

Interview

José Cassandra

Regional President of Principe

 

(in Portugese)

We have a commitment to the environment. We do not want oil exploration and production to disturb this. All the oil exploration is concentrated in the north of the country. We do not want the oil production to damage our environment. We do not want to create a problem when we talk about oil exploration and production, and at the same time we want to create high quality tourism. We need to create a balance between the two. We will do everything to protect the environment.

 

7:09

But as of late many foreign investors have sought out the government leaders of the respective islands, like the Americans here. Without foreign investment the island nation could not survive, but investors of another kind have discovered other opportunities on these far-flung islands.

 

7:37

Interview

José Cassandra

 

(in Portugese)

Headquarters for big companies do their financial transaction for the big multinationals. We could gain a lot from this. This business has to be conducted with utmost transparency. It has to be clearly defined with the central and commercial banks.

 

8:16

Investors are attracted by opportunities such as these unique roças (“rossas”), which date back to the time of the plantation owners. Upon gaining independence, the country initially wanted to establish a socialist system with help from the Soviet Union, Cuba and East Germany. The colonial buildings have been derelict ever since.

 

8:42

Interview

Stephan Welk

Sao Tome government adviser

(in German)

I am an investor myself, but I mostly advise other investors. I am a special adviser to the Foreign Ministry and Sao Tome is a special island. It is peaceful, beautiful and actually a bit unknown or forgotten. The people are wonderful. It is an oasis of peacefulness. I think that is what Europe and the world needs. Sao Tome is different. Sao Tome is not really Africa. I always say Africa “light.” The potential is there – stunning landscapes, forgotten places, like this old colonial house here, which could be turned into a nice resort. All of this makes it so thrilling to be here in Sao Tome.

 

9:46

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9:53

Interview

Julio da Silva

Government official – Economy Ministry

 

(in English)

Sao Tome needs investments. Sao Tome is a poor country and when investors come they can bring us jobs and bring us money – to make Sao Tome grow. It is very important for us.

 

10:07

Frequent flights from Europe to Sao Tome have only recently been provided. To visit the small neighboring island of Principe, one has to fly another 30 minutes, even though they are almost next to each other. There has been no ferry in living memory.

 

10:35

The island is only 18 kilometers long, but it boasts the finest roças of the two. Belo Monte opened its doors in 2014. Having been developed by a wealthy Dutch entrepreneur.

 

10:53

Interview

Jacques Le Roux

Manager – Belo Monte

 

(in English)

They are looking at your background and your business plan. The prime minister wants stability. I think a lot of the new investors can really supply that. We also have a shareholder in this plantation that is a local. It is not that we are taking it away from them. We have signed a lifetime lease, but we still have to follow rules and regulations. If we put one foot wrong and not look after the properties or after the island – we can be kicked out.

 

11:18

The world-famous Praia Banana rose to prominence after it was used in an advertisement for Bacardi Rum. It has lost none of its beauty since the development of the Belo Monte hotel.

 

11:37

The former residents of the roça were rehoused in a nearby village. Many of them have found employment at the resort.

 

11:49

Interview

Jacques Le Roux

Manager – Belo Monte

 

(in English)

They are all set in their ways and it is a bit underdeveloped. If you take the Caribbean and take it back 10 years ago, that’s what it is all about. It is undeveloped. The people are set in their own ways. They are still discovering things. It is beautiful and untouched. We use 20 % of the island, the other 80% is still untouched.

 

12:16

Principe may seem like an investor’s paradise. But not all investments have been as successful as the Belo Monte Hotel.

 

12:26

Interview (off and on)

Julio da Silva

 

(in English)

In 1975 the state took control of all the farms. You know one thing, cacao was a problem for people in Sao Tome, but now cacao has become again our option and our future. The problem was that the farmers in the beginning were managers but with lack of experience. When the Portuguese were leaving the country, they did not leave people to manage, they did not leave anybody who could help us to manage and that’s why.

 

13:06

This coffee plantation, where the Portuguese royal family once stayed, is supposed to become another hotel complex. But plans are only in the early stages of development

 

13:18

Santo Antonio is the capital of Principe, with some 6,000 inhabitants. Almost everything has to be imported – food, household goods, fuel. Here, life still has a leisurely pace. Mold has spread on the facades of the colonial houses, but the city is now being woken from its slumber.

 

13:47

There is a cultural center, but people prefer to gather at street corners to pass time. Here the expression “leve-leve”, meaning ‘easy easy’, is king – everything moves slowly, but steadily.

 

14:09

The first tourist shop has opened, but it currently has few customers.

 

14:17

Interview

Domestenes Cravid

Artist

 

(in Portugese)

The goal is to bring art to the island. A year ago, we had a festival and an art fair. That had a good impact.

 

14:40

Although the beaches are the standout jewel of these islands, they also possess lush rain forests. Francisco da Graça Alamô has been working in the Obo National Park for 20 years and knows his plants – including those that the monkeys seek out for water.

 

15:00

Sao Tome is thankfully not of interest to the international wood mafia. The forests are too small and rise more than 2,000 meters up the slopes of a volcano.

 

15:15

Interview

Francisco da Graça Alamô

National Park Warden

(in French)

 

There are not a lot of countries that know of us. For the future, I hope that the pictures that people take here will help make the National Park and botanical garden better-known. The people who live here, it’s very tranquil, and I think it would be good for many tourists to come.

 

15:40

The islands may be rich in nature, but much of the population lives in poverty. Most are subsistence farmers. The large coffee and cacao plantations are no longer used commercially. And importing food produced in Europe is to some extent cheaper than local production. Sao Tome is hoping that eco-tourism an help alleviate poverty on the island.

 

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16:42

Both islands are still largely untouched. On Sao Tome, which is over three times larger than its sister island Principe, the roads do not always lend themselves to comfort.

 

17:08

The luxury resorts are waiting for visitors, but they are in greater need of investors. Tourism is supposed to become an important branch of the economy. The goal of all the political parties is to create the infrastructure to facilitate this, and it is here that Europeans have a role to play.

 

17:33

Stephan Welk is a German, EU-accredited government advisor knows the world of finance well.

 

17:46

Interview (from 18:00 in off)

Stephan Welk

Sao Tome government adviser

(in German)

The investment is relatively low when compared to well-established places and for the investor, it is an uncomplicated, easy game. Besides, there are subsidies. We are talking with many investors – international investors. The port is being expanded, the airport is supposed to be expanded. Strategically, Sao Tome has a wonderful location, west of Africa. I think when the first big investor strikes, the island will experience a revolution.

 

18:31

Sao Tome, dried fish is the cheapest food product. They are dried so that they last longer in the tropical humidity.

 

18:46

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18:52

Some fishermen have formed a co-operative tourism business. They guide visitors through the mangrove forests or show them the wildlife. Tourists must book ahead, otherwise the fisherman go out to sea to earn a living. In two hours of guiding they can earn as much as in two days fishing.

 

19:23

Italian Claudio Corallo is skeptical about the island undergoing a revolution. He lived through one of a different kind in Congo. He had to give up his coffee plantations there because of the civil war. In Sao Tome, he decided to produce his own chocolate. He controls everything, from the cacao tree to the final product.

 

19:49

Interview

Claudio Corallo

Chocolate producer

(in French)

It’s a kind of cacao that produces little, but of very high quality. To protect all this flavor, we have to take off the whole skin and stem. You can see it well here.

 

20:05

On the neighboring island of Principe, the beans are removed from the fruit. After about two weeks of fermentation, they are dried and sent here for further processing – as is Claudio’s coffee. The older varieties of cacao have a stronger aroma and a richer flavour. Claudio produces chocolate for boutique markets in Europe.

 

20:33

Flemming Laugesen

Importer

(in German)

I am an importer of Claudio’s in Prague and am here on a trip to visit the Nova Mocca plantations. Claudio’s chocolate is very special because for Claudio it actually is not fundamentally about the chocolate. It is about the product, the cacao bean, the cacao fruit and bean – that’s what it’s about and that is a completely different entry point, which maybe no other producers in the world are looking for or using.

 

21:27

For Claudio, the basis of it all is cacao, which the botanist Carl von Linné once called the food of the gods. The 65-year-old Florentine believes that chocolate should not taste like vanilla or milk. The first cacao that came to Principe was grown at the start of the 19^th century under orders from the Portuguese king. He had anticipated the end of the colonial era in Brazil. He had the best varieties planted here and the Italian chocolatier benefits from it today.

 

22:09

Interview

Claudio Corallo

Chocolate producer

(in French)

The secret is the quality of the work at every moment from the planting to the harvest. Every move is executed with extreme attention. That is the secret.

 

22:24

The flourishing cultivation of cacao is still modest when compared to the times of Portuguese rule, but the old roças are in demand. One hour away from the capital Sao Tome, a television chef has transformed a plantation house from 1890 into a small hotel and restaurant.

 

22:49

His dishes made using local produce are internationally renowned.

 

 

 

23:08

Interview

João Carlos Silva

Cook and Businessman

(in French)

Sao Tome and Principe are two small islands on the Equator, but with an ambiance, an atmosphere, the conservation of history, heritage, culture, the environment. But I’m telling you, people don’t know about it. People have to know. You can do good work by helping show Sao Tome and Principe, for the people – for instance those who work here.

 

23:42

A Portuguese national opened the first diving school in Sao Tome nine years ago. Before that, he had come here every year for 20 years and had fallen in love with the islands. The archipelago consists of a series of extinct volcanoes that rise out of the Atlantic. Most of them are uninhabited.

 

24:03

Dream beaches, warm water and sunken ships are inviting for divers, but for fishermen there are no more big fish: they are a thing of the past.

 

Leave free with music

 

24:53

Interview

João Santos

Diving teacher

 

(in English)

Tourists will come slowly, but they will come. Everything in this country is spectacular to experience and of course make some business out of.

 

25:06

The money generated from the islands’ tourism trade has not yet made its way into the hands of the inhabitants. Foreign NGOs are on the ground to protect the islands’ rare natural diversity.

 

25:27

Interview

Hipólito Lima

Activist

 

(in Portugese)

I feel good. I used to partake in the destruction but now I am protecting the turtles.

 

25:37

The indigenous population prizes turtles not just for their meat and decorative shells, but also for their eggs. The Portuguese organization Tato is trying to prevent turtle poaching through education. Every night, guards patrol along the 15-kilometre-long beaches, where five of the seven species of sea turtles lay their eggs. They measure and tag the animals during the breeding season from September to April.

 

26:21

The helpers take the eggs to protected breeding grounds which are also guarded. Although thousands of the small turtles are released, only one or two manage to reach adulthood. It is this kind of natural spectacle that make these islands a paradise yet to be discovered.

 

26:50

 

A film by Marion Mayer-Hohdahl

 

Camera: Christopher Mayer-Hohdahl

 

Editing: Zorica Vilotic