I am a Black American (retired USAF and retired federal employee). I lived and worked in São Tomé and Príncipe for three years (2012-2015) as a Foreign Service Officer at the Voice of America (VOA) shortwave station. (At night you might see all of those red lights from the antenna towers). I lived in one of the three houses on the facility. I have many friends there. I was one of two Americans there. Before the years mentioned above, I visited Sao Tome many times on teaching excursions teaching electronics. Before I went in to teach electronics, we (the government) sent in English teachers to teach my students English to an 8th grade level. Then I would come in to teach electronics as the Sao Tomeans would be hired to maintain the transmitters, the power plant, vehicles, and othe functions required to maintain the facility. São Tomé and Príncipe has a complex history that includes colonialism, slavery, and struggle for independence. When I say complex I mean complex. You may have already learned that STP is largely dependent on agriculture and fisheries. The industrial sector in the country is still underdeveloped, with only a few small-scale industries such as food processing and textile manufacturing. The STP government has identified energy, infrastructure and tourism as key areas for development and has initiated several projects in these sectors but it is slow going. The lack of skilled labor, inadequate infrastructure, and the high cost of doing business in the country are major challenges that need to be addressed to stimulate industrial growth. I am retired from the federal government (2017) and would live there if there was a good banking, hospital, and postal infrastructure. Getting access to by cash assets from the United States would be very difficult at present. When I worked there, the Voice of America facility was autonomous and we had our own power plant, cashier (for Americans only), motor pool, supply warehouse, and water treatment (reverse osmosis), and high-speed Internet which I implement (I am an IT Specialist). If Sao Tome had a brown out or a Black out, Voice of America would still be "lit up." We were not connected to the STP power grid. The facility has five powerful generators. Only one or two ran at a time. The others were back ups. I was responsible for the maintenance of the entire facility. It was a sad day when I left. I was making a difference as the first Black American supervisor there in all of the facility's history. Senior management in Washington DC was not sending Black supervisors and managers there. (That in itself is an interesting story I could speak at length on). However, I fell in love with the country and the people. About a year after I retired, I returned for a visit for two weeks. I plan on returning this year. Many of the people there call me "Ronaldo." 🙂 There is a hidden gem in Sao Tomean waters, The Gulf of Guinea. The oil exploration and production near Sao Tome is managed jointly by the government of Sao Tome and Principe and foreign oil companies through a Joint Development Zone (JDZ). The JDZ is a maritime area of approximately 34,000 square kilometers located in the Gulf of Guinea, offshore of Sao Tome and Principe and Nigeria. The JDZ was established in 2001 as a partnership between Sao Tome and Nigeria to share the resources of the region. I hope for Sao Tome is not swindled out of this tremendous wealth potential. Oil revenus could build decent schools, hospitals, roads, power generation, and build up the required infractures to "connect" Sao Tome and Principe with the rest of the world. There are no "colleges or universities" there. Sao Tomeans who are able must travel to Portugal, Russia, Brazil, etc to get a college education. There is something called the Joint Development Zone (JDZ). Oil exploration and production near Sao Tome is managed jointly by the government of Sao Tome and Principe with Nigeria. This partnership was established in 2001 to share this valuable resource. I suspect that China, The United States, and some European countries are working silently in the background to funnel away oil revenue. I would love to see more Black Americans; especially those who are business and technically savvy visit Sao Tome. The Sao Tomean people are a great people and they deserve better. Their children deserve the best. BTW, there is a strong Seventh Day Adventist and Jehovah's Witness presence there. VISITING SAO TOME Sao Tome is very safe. I recommend converting your dollars or Euros into Dobras, if possible. The grocery store - Supermacado - does not accept credit cards, but Dobras only (when I was there). The two best hotels there (when I was there) are the Pestana and The Omali Lodge. They accept credit cards and you can exchange Dollars and Euros for Dobras. I also recommend that you get mosquito medications prior to visiting and start taking them two week prior to arrival so the medication is in your system. I highly recommend Docycycline 100mg. A small antibiotic pill you take once per day and there are no side effects. It is a very effective malaria prevention medication. I took them for the three years I was there and never got sick from malaria. In fact, I never got sick from anything. I appreciate you and your channel.
I am Zimbabwean and visited Angola multiple times and my friends all wished Jose Dos Santos parents had never migrated to Angola because of all the corruption and stealing he did to make Angolas poor. I had friends who are petrochemical engineers working offshore. I did not know STP also has an oil industry but it makes sense because of the Gulf of Guinea. The question is where is the money from oil royalties going when you see this level of poverty. Story of Africa, leaders giving away natural resources at dirt cheap prices and along the way getting a few dollars paid underhand and stashed abroad.
@@RonsWorld5 All crooks with no idea of nation building. The funny thing is when you don't develop your country these Westerners will never respect you. So Dos Santos patents migrated from Sao Tome for a better life, he becomes President and he impoverishes Angola His daughter was in charge of Sonangol which is the national oil company and along the way billions were stolen. Hands over telecoms and banking industry. One of my friends dad was a general over there im Angola. Heard a lot of stories too sad to repeat. These elites would send choppers and mow.down fellow poor black people digging for diamonds to personize diamond fields. Movie type stuff.
my first comments happened before watching this video. After watching the video I was shocked! I was raised in Lisbon and I know deeply about the history of Saotome and Príncipe, but after watching this video I came to the conclusion that the people of Saotome and Príncipe, like all African people, do not know the half of the truth about what happened in the past . We have to change that, we all deserve to know the truth! Especially because this island was one of the first places where the Portuguese started sending slaves, before they started taking slaves to the other side of the Atlantic. We're going to have to find a way to bring this whole story to our community as quickly as possible.
@@umaguriaveraz2834 it was one of the Portuguese's points, but the 8 or 9 islands of Cape Verde were the main base. Things happened there that no one has the courage to tell us about, in Portuguese schools. Big business took place on the Cape Verde Islands, because hybrid slaves were bred there. The slaves who knew how to do many things, the slaves who were specialized in doing useful things and the price was very high. Singing, dancing and cooking are the hallmarks of Cape Verdeans.
Always blame the Whtes. Very tiresome. Who brought roads and vehicles there in the first place? How about giving Whtes some credit for once instead of blming us for everything bad. Africans sold their own people into slavery by the way.
Im from São Tomé and Principe and i feel sad of the state of our Islands , the country has so much potential to be a top touristic island in Africa, but the Portuguese left the islands in this state and our governors didn’t do nothing to improve the place . This is one of the most peaceful people on the continent, very laid back and chill I hope things change very soon
@Angry Britches it not a good idea.. the people are fake they come to our island smiling in our faces and dont like us.. we are told to be extra nice to them because of their money, they want to break rules and you must bend for them or else... some come and set up shop instead of taking their rycist a$$ back to their country.. the bring their rycism too and on an on .. i dont work in their sphere because they would know about me , so i try steer clear from them. just cold stare when they run into me and try smiling.
Thanks for giving us a brief history of this African county that i didn’t even know about as an African. It’s interesting as to learn that they share the same history as African Americans who don’t know where they hail from in Africa. You could say the same thing for the Creoles in Freetown Sierra Leone. .
Bro there are many african island countries with the same history of slavery like carribeans or African americans : Cape Verde , São Tome , Seychelles , Mauritius are some of the examples
This has been my best GBTA video esp after having seen the video by Benayah Israel how the ancestors came to be on this island. Everything is tying up and making one huge sense. Thank you GB for all this, truly appreciated. Much love to the Sao Tomes ❤
@Tsitsi...Benayah Israel has done extensive research on the history of Blacks in Spain, Portugal, Sao Tome and Phillipe Islands, Angola , etc. It is a real eye opener. The dots begin to connect and the truth is revealed. In history class we were told that we were slaves and then made to watch Jungle Jim movies and that was it. However it goes way way way. Pull up some of the Jungle Jim movies on the internet. You will see why Black people were ashamed of who they were. However it goes way way way beyond that!!! The King Kong movies were a hit at The Congo!!! A real joke. We as Black people are much better than that. Now the gun violence has been placed in our laps which is another slap in the face. We must continue to dig out our history and see what has been hidden and stolen from us. But first we must love ourselves and each other!!!
@@kijihigh6826 very true, once awakened you feel the awakening is not moving fast enough😱. But we trust in The Almighty that the dry bones WILL come together no matter what!! What was written will come to pass!
This was so wrong. It breaks my heart. The Portuguese need to be held accountable just like all the others including g the US, Britain, Germany, Arabia, Spain they were all confederate in doing these heinous acts.
Believe it or not, The Netherlands today a day, still trying, and on the mission to colonize little country. like tha Antilles, my home country Bonaire, is suffering this on this right moment.👁👁😅 These people are pervers😯😯
I appreciate this, because I am always looking for more insights into Sao Tome. This is a key place where the Portuguese exiled many of our ancestors as a result of the Inquisition.
@beatriceachaleke what happened to the children who the Portuguese enslaved and brought to the island? Were they forced to work on sugar plantations? Is there still a trace of the Judaism or Hebrew practices on the island?
Brother, appreciate what you are doing by traveling to various countries throughout our ancestral home! So much potential for the diaspora to collaborate with Africans and invest and be a moving force for exponential change! But, I agree with your statement that we first must re-connect to having a relationship to God to understand our purpose, renew the convenant and live a holy, moral and righteous life!
This was very eye opening, thank you for sharing. In recent years, I've been learning about how our people got to Sao Tome and Principe through history books and video lessons. Same playbook by WS every time. Anyway, wanted to chime in that if you plan to go to Portugal, I'm sure you know about Naky of African Lisbon Tours. He will help you with discussing the history of the slave trades that took place there.
.i am a Ghanaian. Thank u so much for this channel.All Africans are brothers and sisters.we were devided by colonists.i would love to vist Soa Tome one day with my hubby
There is a horrific story of the first 2000 Jewish children, who were sent to the island of Sao Tome and then dumped there, mercilessly in the middle of the jungle. Ask the inhabitants of Santome e Principe about it, it was horrible! Someone must know this story, because it was the beginning of the history of Sao tome and principe.
We Israelites exiled in Jamaica are direct kin of São Tomé Israelites & so called Israelites “African” Diaspora scattered & forced to become “New Christians”
I'm from Guinea Bissau, another of the 5 Portuguese colonies in Africa. I can confirm that the Portuguese, who fled from the Portuguese inquisition, even before Atlantic slavery, hid in Guinea Bissau and later it was them who guided the Portugal in the context of Atlantic slavery.They were the ones who broke with the relationships of the many ethnic groups in Guinea Bissau. When Portugal arrived there, the work was already done! Today we speak kriolo, because we already lived with the fugitive Portuguese, before Atlantic slavery, during Atlantic slavery, during colonization, until they were shot at by the troops of the great Amilcar Cabral. They opened the doors of Atlantic slavery, and they were white and mulattoes from Portugal.
Hey we were kind enough to bring Africans to that land because the Portuguese were the first to discover and inhabit the archipelago. We founded literally every town in São Tomé and Cabo Verde
Religion was used to abuse and take advantage of these humble people. Then killing 2000 for refusing to work for free was heartless. Sao Tome and Principe (Saint Thomas and Prince) seems nice with an island back drop. The exploitation seriously damaged the development of such small country. However, the natives should come together and encourage their government to develop the roads, and build better structures without using outsiders...
This man looks like a relative of Stevie Wonder. The whole time he was talking I keep thinking wow I see Stevie LOL. Their story sounds just like most African Americans and other diaspora. The scattered ones are being revealed. All praise and glory to the Most High GOD.🙏
Portugal is the largest investor in São Tomé and Príncipe, investing MILLIONS of euros in the economy of São Tomé and Príncipe. São Tomé and Príncipe maintains an embassy in Lisbon, a consulate in Porto and one in Coimbra. Thousands of tourists from Cape Verde visit São Tomé and Príncipe, helping the local economy, In recent years, Poland and Germany have been increasing commercial ties with São Tomé and Príncipe, buying more and more cocoa and other products from São Tomé and Príncipe. India also has very good relations with São Tomé and Príncipe, investing thousands of euros annually in the agricultural sector. The United States has had relations with São Tomé and Príncipe since 1975, and has offered millions of dollars in financial aid packages to São Tomé and Príncipe. The financial aid packages were designed to develop the country's infrastructure and improve its fiscal, tax and customs administration. In addition, in recent years, some US Coast Guard ships have visited São Tomé and Príncipe, providing medical and military training to soldiers from São Tomé and Príncipe. In 2002, the US had plans to establish a small military base on the island of São Tomé. São Tomé and Príncipe accepted the construction of the base, but the plan was canceled due to US political and financial issues.
Military base is nothing to be sad about. Island har a military base and when the military left there was a colapse in form of high anemployment and alchocol addict…
Man thank you so much for visiting my homeland. It was such a shock to realise the extent of poverty still lingering on these islands. It feels like people already gave up on common prosperity. Really really sad.
You might as well have been walking around GRENADA in the CARIBBEAN, it looks exactly the same, and I mean EXACTLY!!! The buildings the roads, the produce(fruit), the tropical nature, the plants, and PLANTATIONS, everything except it's not so poor, and there has been a lot of investment from somewhere into the Island over time. Catholicism, though has lost it's grip there on religion. Now there's all manner of different sects of Christianity rampant there. I am confident that they too are descended from the Jews from Portugal and Spain. They even look like the Sao Tomeans!
So happy that we are finally seeing Soa Tome. This place is vital in the history of black folks. This place is the closest to Africa that many blacks in the USA have ever been. The Black Europeans were taken from Spain and Portugal to this island, forced into Christianity and enslaved, and then shipped to various countries for slavery. These were the original black Jews from the house of David. Their ancestors were taken into captivity by the Romans after 70 AD when the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed. Many of the blacks were taken into Europe, and became citizens. Later the new regime inquisitioned them out of Europe and sent them to Sao Tome. The rest is history.
Forgot to mention that it was Portugal who enslaved these people. They are totally responsible for slavery along with the Arabs. Spain was responsible also. However all I can say is that it was in God's Hand.
@tlfa....they became black Europeans because they lived there for so long. Then became The same in America....they are black Americans, not black Africans. Drop the African title then the confusion ends. Blacks are Portuguese, Spaniards, Europeans, Irish, Germans, ETC. When you do this the prejudice subsides. Africa is a continent and so is Europe. Therefore you must begin to identify the various groups. Black Jews, Black Portuguese, etc. If you wish to identify Black folks with Africa then they are Angolese, Congolese, Igbo ( wandering Jews), South Africans, ETC. They must have a specific identity. NO MORE AFRICAN AMERICAN!!! This title makes no sense. It was established with an agenda.
Wow, Goblack, thanks for this video. I didn't know much about Sao Tome... it's bad... what wytee has done to my people💔 too painful.. we need to work harder to educate our people re who they are!! Education is liberation✊
Roman Empire melted into modern Europe and its extension that’s US, UK, NZ, Aussie. Daniel’s vision says it is the iron feet so Roman Empire remains to end of days until the Messiah himself comes to destroy them along with all the wicked kingdoms of mankind. We can’t fight evil with evil so let’s sincerely repent and return to Jehovah. It’s too late because the Messiah will be back any day now. Jeremiah 30:7 says all ethnic Israelites will be saved. I don’t know how it will go since so many are Catholic and all religions will force people to take the 666. I personally tried to tell people to leave all churches, read the Bible themselves and obey it because the colonizers and their unrepentant offsprings are satanic not Christianity which is also an African religion. The two witnesses are already here from the tribes of Judah, black skin, woolly hair, so this means their is no time left. The antichrist is also here coming out of the melted pot of Roman Empire, he’ll make a blood bath of every single Christians who refused to worship him so the whole world will worship him says the scriptures. But Yah promised to protect all ethnic Israelites says the scriptures. Please let’s all urgently repent.
Not only the Catholic church. All of the greatest colonial empires in the last few centuries (Portugal, Spain, United Kingdom and France) can trace their origins back to the Romans.
That China Apple thing, here in the Philippines we call it " MAKOPA " ....Kopa is Cup/Chalice/Goblet in Filipino language & the fruit is called MAKOPA because it looks like a Cup/Chalice/Goblet.
Shalom breda, prior to São Tomé, we got exile on the island of JAH rock aka Jamaica and YES bro we are the “Real Jews”…pay attention to agents in comment thread spreading folly
@♜þinned by goblack2africa Go black ought to sue you. You will remain broke for the rest of your life because you continue to try and steal from God's children ...
It's time for Africa to take over these places if the inhabitants agrees. Come on guys, we can do better than that and let's start joing up. Recruit for short periods to work in the home land. would be a start. Get the finances and the labour laws right then we are ready to go. It's time for African politicans to do more useful work and less politics. Support our people who are scattered across the globe. Stronger together people. Work hard, strive for quality and pay a good wage. Our people will spend and boost the economy by buying their goods and services. Presenter keep up the good work. This is a great way for us to open up and connct with our abandon forgotten people from across the world. It all looking beautiful.
I first learn about this Island by Benyah Israel, my heart breaks for my people, from Jamaica and we went through similar situation, but were able to do better, because of migration and education. Maybe we a bit more expose to knowledge first through the Rastarian, Marcus Garvey and now the great awaken that is taken place worldwide that we are the people of the book. One day one we will get our reward.
Remember that Portugal exiled Israelite children aged 3 to 10 yrs of age to work the sugar cane fields. No parents. No direction except the overseers. They survived and so will we
That's a beautiful place with beautiful people along with low crime; if Africans could come together they could fix that island up and it would be a hot spot for tourism.
Africa have a lots of conditions like that to fix…and tourism is not the solution. The best os to develop own industri of different kind so they can be selfsufficient.
On a broader scale, this remnant is a blessing. It’s too late to hide this. Their (Portugal’s) history supports that these are the people. The fact that they were a colony of Portugal probably saved them from the “Scramble for Africa” in a de facto manner, via the Belgian Conference in 1894 1895. I’m really just now looking into all of these treaties, conferences, and bulletins that they put out over history. The only time they even partially tell the truth is when they are talking to one another in these back door treaties and meetings. They only granted them independence in 1975. “The Big Switch”, was probably presumed accomplished and undeniable by then.
Sao tome people are descendant of what was known as the benin kingdom in Nigeria 🇳🇬. Also got angolian 🇦🇴 mix and some got portoguese 🇵🇹 in them.(equatorial guinea/congo maybe) They still hold some vocabulary spoken in the south south part of Nigeria (edo state) which is edo/esan etc...
Sorry you could not find anything, I have some information on the people. Many of the older heads were connected to those on Cabo Verde and Angola. The Portuguese destroyed a major part of the historical records of the people. M any dont know who they are or who their fore fathers were. But if you had visited the cemetery you would find Jewish Graves or head stones. I have a book on the children of Sao Tome. The 200 To 2000 children were taken from their parents who refused to accept Christian catholic. over their Hebrew faith and Torah teachings. Many were of the house of David in portugal before the inquisition started. The book From Babylon to Timbuktu has some information .
The origin of the story of the mass kidnapping of the Jewish children from Lisbon to STP is true. The premise you might read that it was done because the Jews refused to pay a tax or even convert is not. The Jews in Portugal had all been forcibly converted by the time of the mass kidnapping to STP. And most were poor so there was NO OPTION to pay the tax. It was all an excuse to enslave Jews and when the Portuguese ran out of them they did it to many other innocent people and in fact as the creator of the video shows it exists thru today. Portugal owes STP huge reparations but the UN, the EU nor Portugal will do the right thing.
Goblack2Africa, thank you for visiting Sao Tome (Saint-Thomas), a place of so much history for Africans people worldwide. During the transatlantic slave trade, the Catholic Church collected a huge tax (Baptem tax) for every enslaved African shipped to South and North America. Every enslaved African had to be baptized and the Catholic Church picked up a tax for every single individual. Unfortunately, it's also true that some Africans rulers and Kings picked up taxes or bribes for enslaved Africans shipped from their shores. But Africans that went deep inside Western Africa to capture or kidnap other Africans were ruthless warlords, many of them arabo-africans, with armies of well-armed mercenaries. When Europeans decided to occupy and colonize Africa in the mid-1800s like criminals going back to the scenes of their crimes to erase history, huge portions of Central Africa (from west to east) were controlled by Arabs-Africans warlords and slaves traders like Tippu Tip ibn Muhammad, Sefu Bin Hamad, Rumaliza Muhamad or Ngongo Lutete (an African warlord). Some of these slaves-merchants warlords were named governors by Europeans invaders, but they ended up in rebellions against Europeans when they found out the truth about Europ colonisation and domination agendas.
Wow that's amazing the people went through to survive amd now still struggling to get by there needs to be some people come to invest amd make some type of manufacturing plant or some company to hire citizens of Sao tome to be able to make a living small factories to give jobs and make the island self sufficient
They gained independence in 1975, since then the roads should have been rebuilt several times, instead the former colonial power is blamed for the current problems. You don't blame the Africans who sold slaves but only those who bought them. Give me a break. Colonization as bad as it seems to be is the only thing that made africa develop from the stone age. I asked a friend of mine from Nigeria: 'how the indipendence is going?' He:'Bad, I wish the English would come back and rule for the next 100 years'. His South African friend seemed to agree with him, so I reminded him about the segregation back when the country was under colonial rule and he said: 'Well, despite that I would have a job there and be with my people'. Not everybody has the same opinion once they see the bigger picture.
Always one speaking like this. What does "independence" mean when you start off with nothing and still are affected by the former as if once "independence" happens the colonizing entity just bows out peacefully and does not mess with the former in any kind of way. Get out of here.
You have no clue. The Portuguese deliberately sabotaged the sewer and water infrastructure on their way out. They are devils , period. Only a brainwashed African would consider being subjugated alright as long as they had a job. There is no price for freedom.
Yes, you slave driver, I am sure you would have to continue slaver, and your Nigerian is just an House slave, who loves massa so much that he forgets the wickedness they did to our people, but don’t worry the role will reverse soon, then I will see you welcome it.
I also hate when people make anachronistic remarks like "going to live in the colonisers' country". Newsflash: your country isn't a colony anymore! 😂 And we all descend from "colonisers". That's not a "prerogative" of Europeans. Throughout history, the Portuguese were conquered by Romans, Visigoths, Suebi, Moors... and you don't hear us blaming them for our woes today. Many people (like me) also descend from Jews and Muslims, Brazilian indians and sub-Saharan Africans... And we're not any worse off for that. We live like any white Portuguese person would (within our social hierarchy, which is the one thing I would change). Institutional racism was thankfully never a thing in the Portuguese empire.
Portugal , after slavery made Sao Tome n Principe 2 great islands. The Africans wanted PORTUGAL out, so we left. The African politicians in the 2 islands ARE LIVING LARGE n you Africanos r blaming the Portuguese...... BLAME THE AFRICANOS POLITICIANS.
