The Politics of Two Small Island African Countries

Henry Srebrnik, [Summerside, PEI] Journal Pioneer

Portugal’s overseas empire lasted almost six centuries, and was spread throughout a vast number of territories across the globe.

How did this happen? Little Portugal was first off the mark in imperial expansion. Even before Columbus set off across the Atlantic in 1492, Portuguese sailors had rounded the coasts of Africa.

So there are a number of important former Portuguese colonies in Africa: Angola, Guinea-Bissau, and Mozambique.

As well, there are two Portuguese-speaking island republics off the west coast of Africa, the archipelagos of Cape Verde, and Sao Tomé e Príncipe. They were originally “stepping stones” for Portuguese exploration of the continent and for trans-Atlantic trade.

The model of the plantation economy dependent on slave labour, later developed on a large scale in the Americas, was first created there.

Cape Verde (officially the Republic of Cabo Verde) consists of 10 major islands in the Atlantic Ocean, 460 kilometres off the coast of Senegal. Its 4,033 square kilometres are home to 512,096 people.

Acquired by the Portuguese between 1455 and 1461, the uninhabited islands, while resource poor, were strategically positioned.

Proximity to the African coast made slave-trading the largest commercial activity, peaking in the first half of the 17th century, when Africans were transported to Portugal’s western hemisphere colony Brazil.

The islands were settled by a mixture of former prisoners, Iberian Jews fleeing the Inquisition, Black African traders who adapted to Portuguese culture, and freed slaves. The result was a unique Afro-Portuguese Crioulo (creole) culture.

In addition to building transportation facilities, prior to independence Portugal established the islands as an educational center for its African colonies, with a seminary and secondary school. Because of this, Cape Verdeans had a fairly high educational level and prominent roles in the Portuguese colonial administration.

Further south, the Democratic Republic of Sao Tomé and Príncipe consists of two main islands. Sao Tomé lies 289 kilometres from Gabon, while Príncipe is located about 257 kilometres from Equatorial Guinea. The country’s population of 187,356 occupies just 1,001 square kilometres.

The islands were uninhabited before the arrival of the Portuguese around 1470. Sao Tomé’s topography lent itself to the development of large plantations, so slave labour was brought in from the African mainland.

By the mid-16th century Portuguese settlers had turned the islands into Africa’s foremost exporter of sugar, but in the early 19th century, two new cash crops, coffee and cocoa, were introduced. Cocoa remains the main agricultural crop today.

Both of these microstates suffered prolonged periods of non-democratic misrule after independence in 1975. Cape Verde moved to multiparty democracy in the 1990s following a lengthy period of one-party rule under the leftist African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC), later known as the African Party for the Independence of Cape Verde (PAICV). The process was orderly and without violence.

In 2001 and 2006, there were hotly-contested presidential and legislative elections in which the PAICV prevailed over the opposition Movement for Democracy. The PAICV presidential candidate, Pedro Verona Rodrigues Pires, won the office both years and served a decade as head of state.

In 2011 Pires was awarded the $5 million Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership by the Mo Ibrahim Foundation. It is given only to a democratically elected president who has stayed “within the limits set by the country’s constitution.”

However, while the PAICV also won the 2011 National Assembly election, Jorge Fonseca of the Movement for Democracy beat Manuel Sousa of the PAICV for the presidency.

In Sao Tomé e Príncipe, Manuel Pinto da Costa of the Movement for the Liberation of Sao Tomé e Príncipe (MLSTP) took power and instituted a quasi-Marxist regime. He ruled the islands from 1975 to 1991.

After the mid-1980s, though, the political climate began to shift, as protests rose over unemployment and high inflation. The legalization of opposition political parties led to multi-party elections and an effective opposition emerged in the country’s parliament. The 2010 National Assembly election saw the Independent Democratic Action (ADI) win the most seats.

Fradique de Menezes, supported by various parties, including the Force for Change Democratic Movement-Liberal Party (MDFM-PL), the Force for Change Democratic Movement-Democratic Convergence Party (MDFM-PCD), and the ADI, was the president of Sao Tomé e Príncipe from 2003 to 2011; he survived two attempted coups. In 2011, Manuel Pinto da Costa, running as an independent, returned to power, defeating the ADI candidate, Evaristo Carvalho.

The country had become increasingly dependent on the export of cocoa since its independence, but the discovery of potentially rich offshore oilfields in the Gulf of Guinea is likely to have a significant impact on the economy.