Pristine beach at Sundy Praia
SCOTT RAMSAY
The aircraft banked through low tropical cloud and there it was: an emerald island in luminous, azure water. Oddly shaped volcanic peaks thrust from the forest canopy, forming an other-worldly skyline. Swooping lower over reefs, beaches, palm trees… our wheels squeaked on tarmac: we had landed in the ‘Galapagos of Africa’. The twin islands of São Tomé and Príncipe were discovered by the Portuguese in the 15th century and transformed into a network of roças (plantations), becoming the centre of the world’s cocoa production.
After independence in 1975, the islands suffered economic collapse and many roças fell into disrepair or were abandoned.