São Tomé and Principe - What a Steal!

Whoa. So, Turkmenistan was great! Who expected that?! Ellen liked how there were covers of English language songs - like when DJ Begga covered Sean Paul's Get Busy. Even the video is an homage to Sean Paul. Here are links to both videos for reasons of comparison. Ellen is now totally in love with all the skinny boys in Turkmenistan.

Begmyrat Annamyradow's (aka DJ Begga)   Şekero

Sean Paul's   Get Busy

OK, let's head back to the Gulf of Guinea and visit São Tomé and Principe!

Gotta admit, this is another nation we weren't aware of, but it seems to be a pretty great place to hang out and holy crap is this radio station good!

you have to squint to see it

Uninhabited until the Portuguese showed up around the 1470's, São Tomé and Principe was soon settled by Portuguese who were "undesirable" back home (read: Jewish folks.) They found out that sugar grew pretty well and began importing slaves to work the plantations. Within 60 years, they were Africa's largest sugar exporters - outta those tiny little islands! Who'd have thought? From just about 600 sq. miles of land! That's half the size of Rhode Island! And, only about 8% of that land is arable!

The equator crosses the São Tomé and Principe on Ilheu das Rolas

Sugar production proved easier in the New World though, and the competition hurt São Tomé and Principe to the point that they ended up transitioning their economy to become a slave trade transit point. That went pretty well for awhile, and by the time that the slaving industry was slowing down, they found out that cocoa grew pretty well there. By the early 1900's, they'd become the world's largest producer. Slavery had been abolished by then, but nasty labor practices continued well into the 20th century, culminating in riots in the mid-50's where hundreds were killed by the Portuguese.

mmm... palm trees!

An independence movement began fomenting around this time as well. And, by the mid-1970's São Tomé  and Principe achieved it. Politics haven't been all that smooth, a trend we're starting to see. Democratic reforms weren't instituted until the late 1980's. There's been plenty of leadership wrangling and two failed coup attempts. Their economy is still pretty dependent on cocoa, with little diversification, but recent oil explorations are promising. And, they're concentrating on developing their very promising - but fledgling - tourist industry.

holy shit! that stamp has dinos on it! we're in love!

Well, with a population comparable to Boise, Idaho, it looks like we're going to have to listen to a signal-boosted Afro-centric Portuguese station. But! This is a really, really good one! 


Enjoy your time in São Tomé and Principe - don't get too toasty there on the equator! And, we'll see y'all on Monday!

RTP

Listen Here

.