Between Colonial and Revolutionary Heritage: Contemporary Political Urban Landscape of São Tomé

Abstract

This article tackles the subject of political urban landscape of São Tomé, the capital city of São Tomé and Príncipe. Its aim is to characterise the urban landscape of this city, which has not been previously extensively explored in international literature, in terms of political and historical aspects. As demonstrated by the results of the conducted field research, the contemporary landscape of São Tomé is a system of intertwined components, related to various eras in the islands’ history. On one hand, there are still many traces of Portuguese colonial heritage; on the other hand, there are also plenty of symbolic elements associated with the period of Marxist dictatorship of 1975–1991.