From the nationalization to the agrarian reform of the roças of São Tomé and Príncipe

Abstract

Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in the plantations (roças) of São Tomé and Príncipe (Africa), this article examines the nationalization of these areas and its effects on their current territorial configuration and on the inhabitants of the roças. The study focuses on two historical processes that took place in the archipelago: the nationalization of the roças in 1975 and the agrarian reform of 1991, both under the mediation of the São Tomé State. With the end of Portuguese colonization and the independence of the country, the roças became the property of the São Tomé State. The government later redistributed lands for agricultural use — but not for private ownership — to former contract workers and servants. Historically, the term roça in this archipelago has referred to large estates, sugar mills, agricultural enterprises, or plantation economies, but currently it is configured and comes closer to the idea of ​​communities and territories located in the interior and coastal regions of the two islands.