Roças of Sao Tome and Principe inscribed on UNESCO World Heritage List

Unesco’s annual general assembly, currently taking place in the South Korean city of Busan, has recognised as a World Heritage Site the series of six plantations [Monte Café, Agua Izé, Diogo Vaz, Sao Joao, Sundy, and Belo Monte] located on the islands of the African nation. Together, they represent a planned colonial plantation system dedicated primarily to coffee and cocoa production, combining agricultural land, industrial infrastructure, residential areas, and social facilities within highly structured spatial layouts. These sites, the UN organisation emphasised, illustrate the operation of a large-scale colonial agro-industrial system, based on forced migration and labour, from the late 19th century through the mid-20th century, to sustain global commodity production after the abolition of slavery.

New inscription on the@UNESCO#WorldHeritageList: The Roças of Sao Tome and Principe: Colonial Agricultural System and Forced Migration,#SaoTomeAndPrincipe🇸🇹. ➡️https://t.co/iO4B0Cjg9u#48WHCpic.twitter.com/xsJDgq3RDs FILE – Former stables at Roça Sundy. [File photo: Sébastien Moriset/CRAterre] FILE – The interior of an industrial warehouse at the Agua Izé plantation, where cocoa beans were dried and sorted.

[File photo: Sébastien Moriset/CRAterre] FILE – A closer look at the former home of the manager of the Belo Monte plantation, now the hotel’s reception area. [File photo: Sébastien Moriset/CRAterre] FILE – The courtyard of the Belo Monte plantation and the former manager’s house, now the hotel’s reception area. [File photo: Sébastien Moriset/CRAterre] FILE – The former Roça Diogo Vaz Hospital has been converted into a school.

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[File photo: Sébastien Moriset/CRAterre] FILE – Coffee dryer. [File photo: Sébastien Moriset/CRAterre]

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