Sao Tome forced-labour plantations get UNESCO status

Six former plantation estates in Sao Tome and Principe, built on slavery and forced labour, have recently been added to UNESCO's World Heritage List, creating a new preservation challenge for the Gulf of Guinea archipelago.

The sites, known as "rocas", were established by Portuguese colonists in the second half of the 19th century to cultivate sugar cane and later cocoa and coffee. UNESCO said they illustrate a large-scale colonial agro-industrial system based on forced migration and labour from the late 19th century to the mid-20th century.

Many of the estates are now abandoned or in poor condition, though some are still inhabited by former workers and their descendants. Conceicao Moreno, a member of the National Assembly whose ancestors were contracted workers from Cape Verde, still lives at the former Sundy plantation on Principe island.

Sao Tome and Principe's culture chief Emir Boa Morte said the buildings preserve the country's collective memory from the colonial era to the present day. He said the country is mobilising people around the sites and that more rocas could be added to the UNESCO list in five to 10 years.

Private investors are also developing some of the old estates for tourism. HBD Hotels, linked to an investment fund founded by South African entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth, owns two former rocas on Principe and has turned the old plantation owner's mansion at Sundy into a five-star hotel.

Sao Tome and Principe has launched a 10-year plan to restore the buildings and find new uses for them. Boa Morte said new investment would not erase the history of the plantations.