Geography · c. 30 million years ago
Born from undersea volcanoes 30 million years ago.
Did you know that São Tomé and Príncipe rose from deep ocean water about 30 million years ago, during the Oligocene, as volcanoes along the Cameroon Line, the same chain that built Bioko, Annobón and Mount Cameroon?
Sources
Nature · c. 3.5 million years ago
Pico Cão Grande is a fossil volcano throat.
Did you know that Pico Cão Grande, the needle-shaped spire in São Tomé's southern rainforest, is a volcanic plug of phonolite magma that solidified inside a volcano's vent roughly three and a half million years ago?
Sources
Firsts · 21 December 1470
Named after the saint of its discovery day.
Did you know that São Tomé takes its name from the feast day on which Portuguese navigators João de Santarém and Pêro Escobar reached the uninhabited island, 21 December, the day of St Thomas the Apostle?
Sources
Firsts · 17 January 1472
Its discoverer crossed into the Southern Hemisphere.
Did you know that João de Santarém, who sighted São Tomé and then Annobón and Príncipe in 1471–1472, is credited as the first known European to reach the Southern Hemisphere?
Sources
Society · 1490s
Kidnapped Jewish children helped settle the island.
Did you know that, when Álvaro Caminha founded São Tomé's first lasting settlement in 1493, the Portuguese crown sent about 2,000 Jewish children aged eight and under, taken from their families, to populate the island?
Sources
Language · 1502
Príncipe was named after a sugar tax.
Did you know that Príncipe was first called Santo Antão, after St Anthony, and was renamed 'Prince's Island' in 1502 because the duties on its sugar crop were paid to the Prince of Portugal?
Sources
Science · 1515
A water mill launched the sugar boom.
Did you know that the arrival of a water-powered sugar mill in 1515 launched São Tomé's sugar boom, with one witness writing that the island's sugar canes were 'the biggest I have ever seen in my life'?
Sources
Heritage · 1522
Príncipe stayed private for 51 more years.
Did you know that São Tomé was a privately run donatary captaincy until the Portuguese crown took it over directly in 1522, while Príncipe stayed in private hands until 1573?
Sources
Society · 1546
Mixed-race islanders won equal rights in 1546.
Did you know that a 1546 decree gave property-owning, married free mulattoes on São Tomé civil equality with white settlers, so mixed-race and black citizens could hold public office on the island's councils?
Sources
Society · 1549
A woman planter helped two maroons win freedom.
Did you know that in 1549 the wealthy mulatto planter Ana de Chaves backed two runaways from the maroon camps who petitioned the king to be declared free-born, and their request was granted?
Sources
Records · mid-16th century
Africa's sugar leader of the 1500s.
Did you know that by the mid-16th century São Tomé and Príncipe had become Africa's foremost sugar exporter, before cheaper Brazilian sugar overtook the islands by about 1600?
Sources
Heritage · 1566
A 1566 fort is now the national museum.
Did you know that the Fort of São Sebastião, built by the Portuguese in 1566 to guard the harbour of the capital, now houses São Tomé and Príncipe's National Museum?
Sources
Economy · before 1580
São Tomé once supplied most of Brazil's imports.
Did you know that before 1580 São Tomé supplied about 75 percent of Brazil's imports, mostly enslaved Africans, making the small island a hub of the early Atlantic slave trade?
Sources
Heritage · 9 July 1595
A rebel king is now a national holiday.
Did you know that the slave rebel Rei Amador proclaimed himself king on 9 July 1595 and controlled much of São Tomé until his capture on 4 January 1596, a date now kept as a national holiday since 2005?
Sources
Economy · 1641
The Dutch destroyed over 70 sugar mills.
Did you know that the Dutch captured São Tomé in 1641 and razed more than 70 sugar mills during their seven-year occupation, speeding the collapse of the island's sugar economy?
Sources
Myth or fact · 31 October 1641
Peg-leg Jol died on São Tomé.
Did you know that Cornelis Jol, the Dutch admiral nicknamed Houtebeen and one of the earliest documented pirates with a wooden peg leg, died of malaria on São Tomé on 31 October 1641, soon after capturing it?
Sources
Heritage · 1706
French raiders razed Príncipe's town in 1706.
Did you know that French raiders destroyed Príncipe's town of Santo António and its new fortress in 1706, only eleven years after the Fortaleza de Santo António da Ponta da Mina was built?
Sources
Myth or fact · 19 June 1719
Príncipe ended pirate Howell Davis's career.
Did you know that Welsh pirate Howell Davis was ambushed and shot dead on Príncipe in 1719 while trying to trick its governor, and his successor Bartholomew Roberts became one of history's most successful pirates?
Sources
Geography · 1753
Tiny Príncipe was the capital for 99 years.
Did you know that for almost a century, from 1753 to 1852, the colony's capital was not São Tomé city but Santo António on the much smaller island of Príncipe?
Sources
Economy · c. 1800
Coffee arrived about two decades before cocoa.
Did you know that coffee, introduced to São Tomé and Príncipe around the turn of the nineteenth century, was the islands' first new cash crop since sugar, arriving roughly two decades before cocoa?
Sources
Firsts · 1819
Africa's cocoa story began on these islands.
Did you know that cocoa seedlings brought from Brazil to São Tomé and Príncipe in 1819 marked cocoa's arrival in Africa, with the first tree fully growing on Príncipe in 1824?
Sources
Nature · 1866
An island begonia grows four metres tall.
Did you know that the giant begonia Begonia baccata, described by Joseph Dalton Hooker in 1866, is found only on São Tomé and can grow up to four metres tall?
Sources
Society · 1875
Príncipe lost two-thirds of its people.
Did you know that by 1875, when slavery was formally abolished in the archipelago, Príncipe's population had fallen to just 1,946 people, a third of its 1771 total?
Sources
Records · 1889
The world's biggest sunbird lives only here.
Did you know that the São Tomé giant sunbird, described by Portuguese zoologist José Vicente Barbosa du Bocage in 1889, is the world's largest sunbird and the only member of its genus, Dreptes?
Sources
Society · 13 March 1897
A science magazine exposed slavery on São Tomé.
Did you know that Scientific American documented in words and pictures the continued use of slaves on São Tomé in its 13 March 1897 issue, more than twenty years after Portugal had abolished slavery?
Sources
Records · 1905
Once the world's number one cocoa producer.
Did you know that from 1905 to 1911 São Tomé and Príncipe exported more cocoa than any other place on Earth, earning the nickname 'the Chocolate Islands' and supplying Cadbury, Fry's and Rowntree's?
Sources
Society · 1888–1908
67,000 contract workers fed the cocoa boom.
Did you know that around 67,000 Africans, mostly from Angola, Mozambique and Cape Verde, were shipped to São Tomé and Príncipe's cocoa plantations between 1888 and 1908 as low-paid contract workers?
Sources
Economy · 9 March 1909
Cadbury boycotted São Tomé cocoa in 1909.
Did you know that Cadbury, after years of resisting campaigners like journalist Henry Nevinson, boycotted São Tomé cocoa from 9 March 1909, and the German chocolate maker Stollwerck joined in?
Sources
Economy · 1911
Ghana overtook the Chocolate Islands in 1911.
Did you know that São Tomé and Príncipe lost its crown as the world's leading cocoa producer in 1911 to the British Gold Coast, today's Ghana, which still ranks among the giants of cocoa?
Sources
Science · 1911–1914
Príncipe wiped out the tsetse fly by 1914.
Did you know that a Portuguese medical campaign launched in 1911 cleared Príncipe of the tsetse fly that spreads sleeping sickness, and by 1914 the island was considered free of the Glossina fly?
Sources
Geography · 1915–1918
An islet bears the name of its surveyor.
Did you know that the Portuguese naval officer Gago Coutinho proved during a 1915–1918 geodesic mission that the equator crosses the islet of Ilhéu das Rolas, which is why it is also called Ilhéu Gago Coutinho?
Sources
Science · 29 May 1919
Einstein was proved right from Príncipe.
Did you know that Arthur Eddington photographed the total solar eclipse of 29 May 1919 from Príncipe through storm clouds, and the bent starlight he measured helped confirm Einstein's general relativity?
Sources
Society · 1952
A resettlement plan sparked deadly rumours.
Did you know that in 1952 the colonial administration proposed settling fifteen thousand Cape Verdeans on São Tomé, fuelling rumours that forros' land would be seized, which helped spark the Batepá massacre?
Sources
Heritage · 3 February 1953
An invented communist plot led to massacre.
Did you know that the Batepá massacre began after governor Carlos Gorgulho, who had banned palm wine sales and tripled the poll tax, blamed forro protests on an imaginary communist plot in February 1953?
Sources
Culture · 1956
A Charlemagne drama lasting eight hours.
Did you know that Tchiloli, São Tomé's open-air drama based on the tale of Emperor Charlemagne and the Marquis of Mantua, can last seven or eight hours, and the Formiguinha da Boa Morte troupe has staged it since 1956?
Sources
Records · 1968–1970
The biggest civilian airlift flew from São Tomé.
Did you know that São Tomé was the main base for the Biafran airlift, the largest civilian airlift ever, with 10 to 12 night flights a day leaving the island for Biafra's Uli airstrip in late 1968?
Sources
Heritage · November 1974
Independence was negotiated in Algeria.
Did you know that the agreement for São Tomé and Príncipe's independence was not signed on the islands or in Lisbon but in Algiers, where Portuguese representatives met the exiled MLSTP in November 1974?
Sources
Firsts · 12 July 1975
China was recognised on day one.
Did you know that São Tomé and Príncipe recognised the People's Republic of China on its very first day of independence, 12 July 1975, a relationship it later broke and restored?
Sources
Society · 1975
The first president studied in East Germany.
Did you know that the country's first president, Manuel Pinto da Costa, was educated in East Germany and speaks fluent German, and that he returned to the presidency from 2011 to 2016?
Sources
Economy · 30 September 1977
The dobra is named after the doubloon.
Did you know that the dobra, introduced in 1977 to replace the Portuguese escudo at par, takes its name from the Portuguese word for 'doubloon'?
Sources
Economy · 1975–1987
Cocoa output fell by 60 percent.
Did you know that after independence nationalised the roças, São Tomé and Príncipe's cocoa output fell from 10,000 tonnes to 3,900 tonnes a year between 1975 and 1987?
Sources
Firsts · 1990
An early African pioneer of multiparty democracy.
Did you know that São Tomé and Príncipe was one of the first African one-party states to embrace democratic reform, legalising opposition parties in 1990 and holding peaceful, free elections in 1991?
Sources
Sport · February 1991
Japanese climbers first topped Cão Grande.
Did you know that the 663-metre spire of Pico Cão Grande defeated a Portuguese team in 1975 and was first climbed only in February 1991, by Japanese climbers Yosuke Takahashi, Kenichi Moriyama and Naotoshi Agata?
Sources
Science · 1992
São Tomé beams American radio across Africa.
Did you know that since a 1992 agreement, the Voice of America has operated a relay station at Pinheira on São Tomé that broadcasts US government radio to much of Africa?
Sources
Heritage · 15 August 1995
Two junior officers staged the first coup.
Did you know that the country's first military coup, launched on 15 August 1995 by two second lieutenants over army pay and conditions, ended with power handed back to the civilian government after Angolan mediation?
Sources
Geography · 29 April 1995
An island of 8,400 has its own president.
Did you know that Príncipe, home to only about 8,400 people, has governed itself as an Autonomous Region since 29 April 1995, with its own regional president?
Sources
Society · 6 May 1997
It switched China policy twice.
Did you know that São Tomé and Príncipe switched diplomatic recognition to Taiwan in 1997, then dropped Taipei on 21 December 2016 after reportedly seeking about US$200 million in aid, restoring ties with Beijing five days later?
Sources
Heritage · 16 July 2003
A coup that lasted exactly a week.
Did you know that soldiers seized power while President Fradique de Menezes was on a trip to Nigeria in July 2003, helped by veterans of South Africa's 'Buffalo' Battalion, but the junta handed power back after just one week?
Sources
Heritage · 2004
Kofi Annan honoured a rebel slave king.
Did you know that UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan erected a statue of the rebel slave leader Rei Amador in São Tomé in 2004, the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle against Slavery?
Sources
Economy · 1 January 2010
The dobra is tied to the euro.
Did you know that since 1 January 2010 the dobra has been pegged to the euro, originally at 24,500 dobras to one euro, under a deal with Portugal modelled on Cape Verde's?
Sources
Nature · 2012
The first whole-country biosphere reserve.
Did you know that UNESCO declared the whole of Príncipe and its islets a biosphere reserve in 2012, and in 2025 extended it to São Tomé, making it the first country designated a biosphere reserve in its entirety?
Sources
Economy · 1 January 2018
Three zeros vanished from the dobra.
Did you know that on 1 January 2018 São Tomé and Príncipe knocked three zeros off its currency, swapping 1,000 old dobras for one new dobra and issuing banknotes decorated with butterflies?
Sources
Economy · 2019
Eddington's eclipse estate now makes chocolate.
Did you know that in 2019 a chocolate factory was built on Roça Sundy, once Príncipe's second-largest cocoa plantation and the very estate where Eddington photographed the 1919 eclipse?
Sources
Myth or fact · 2020
Plastic banknotes failed in the tropics.
Did you know that São Tomé and Príncipe's new polymer 5 and 10 dobra notes, introduced in 2018, were swapped back to paper in 2020 because plastic proved unsuitable for the islands' tropical climate?
Sources
Records · January 2025
Three prime ministers in one week.
Did you know that São Tomé and Príncipe had three prime ministers in a single week in January 2025, as Patrice Trovoada was dismissed, Ilza Amado Vaz resigned and Américo Ramos was appointed on 12 January?
Sources
Records · 19 July 2026
Re-elected by his former opponents' votes.
Did you know that President Carlos Vila Nova won re-election on 19 July 2026 with 55.88 percent as an independent backed by his former rivals the MLSTP–PSD, against his old party's candidate, on a record-low 41 percent turnout?
Sources
Geography ·
An islet split between two hemispheres.
Did you know that the equator runs across Ilhéu das Rolas, a tiny islet off the southern tip of São Tomé whose 76 residents at the 2012 census lived with one half of their island in each hemisphere?
Sources
Records ·
Africa's second-smallest country.
Did you know that São Tomé and Príncipe is Africa's second-smallest and second-least-populous sovereign state after the Seychelles, with about 201,800 people in 2018, only some 8,420 of them on Príncipe?
Sources
Geography ·
A small island with a 2,000-metre peak.
Did you know that São Tomé Island is only about 50 kilometres long yet rises to 2,024 metres at Pico de São Tomé, more than twice the height of Príncipe's highest peak?
Sources
Records ·
The world's smallest ibis says Walalalala.
Did you know that São Tomé's critically endangered dwarf ibis is the world's smallest ibis, nests 8 to 16 metres up in forest trees and gives a roosting call described as a stressed 'Walalalala'?
Sources
Nature ·
Turtles nest on the islands' beaches.
Did you know that São Tomé and Príncipe's beaches are an important nesting site for marine turtles, including the critically endangered hawksbill turtle, whose shell was long prized as tortoiseshell?
Sources
Language ·
Many learn the creole as young adults.
Did you know that roughly 93 percent of the vocabulary of Forro, São Tomé's main creole, comes from Portuguese, yet speakers often grow up speaking Portuguese and only learn Forro in their early twenties?
Sources
Language ·
Only about 200 native Lung'Ie speakers remain.
Did you know that Principense, or Lung'Ie, the creole of Príncipe, is now moribund, with Ethnologue estimating only about 200 native speakers, mostly elderly people, as younger islanders switch to Portuguese?
Sources
Language ·
A creole born of a shipwreck legend.
Did you know that Angolar, spoken by fishing communities in southern São Tomé, is a Portuguese creole with a heavy Kimbundu substrate, traditionally traced to survivors of an Angolan slave ship wrecked off the coast?
Sources
Culture ·
Calulu is the stew for honoured guests.
Did you know that in São Tomé and Príncipe calulu, a slow-cooked stew of fish or meat with okra and palm oil, is shared at festivals near churches and considered a delicacy fit to offer a stranger?
Sources
Heritage ·
The flag and arms celebrate cocoa.
Did you know that cocoa is built into São Tomé and Príncipe's national symbols, with the yellow of the flag said to represent cocoa and the shield of the coat of arms shaped like a cocoa pod?
Sources
Culture ·
Island rhythms with ballroom roots.
Did you know that São Tomé is known for the ússua and socopé dance rhythms while Príncipe has its own dêxa beat, styles that may have grown out of Portuguese ballroom dancing?
Sources
Society ·
One of Africa's most literate nations.
Did you know that, according to the CIA World Factbook, 92.8 percent of São Toméans aged 15 and over were literate in 2018, one of the highest rates in sub-Saharan Africa?
Sources
Language ·
Nearly everyone speaks Portuguese.
Did you know that about 98 percent of São Toméans speak Portuguese, and the country is a founding member of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries?
Sources
Society ·
Tongas are children of contract workers.
Did you know that the Angolares, Forros, Tongas and Serviçais are distinct groups in São Tomé and Príncipe, where Tongas are the island-born children of contract labourers brought from Angola, Mozambique and Cape Verde?
Sources
