post-independence, and on the other hand, the testimonies from Sao Tomeans
individuals from different social conditions and different degrees of political
responsibility, this article approaches some possible connections between poverty and
micro-violence in Sao Tome and Principe. It is offered an outline of research for the
difficulties of the eradication of poverty and, concomitantly, the diffusion of a growing
feeling of social disruption, processes in all contrary to the promises of independence
for this archipelago.
Frequently, the archipelago’s visitors make hasty opinions about the imaginary
effortlessness of governing two islands with less than one hundred and fifty thousand
citizens. However, contrary to this very common prejudice, the micro-insularity is
considered an obstacle to development, a notion shared by many Sao Tomeans. Could
micro-insularity equally be, under this outlook, an impoverishment-inducing factor?
Regarding the development, there is some truth in this diagnosis, which the Sao
Tomeans also use to justify their current difficulties. Throughout the 70s and 80s, the
MLSTP – Movimento de Libertação de São Tomé e Príncipe (Movement for the
Liberation of Sao Tome and Principe) endorsed a development founded on an
expansion of cacao cultures, at the expenses of an intensified production rate, and on an
incipient industrialization, which was intended to avoid importations and economic
dependency. At the time, the Sao Tomeans leaders justified the rising daily difficulties,
quite the opposite of the promises made during the independence, with an economic
disarticulation resulting from the gradual abandonment of economic infrastructures
inflicted by the last batch of colonists, which affected the cacao plantations too.
Simultaneously, both the inefficiency and cost of the industrial endeavors launched after
the independence and the erosion of labor and social relationships in nationalized farms
had been rather neglected
