São Tomé Agricola e Industrial

São Tomé - Agricultural and Industrial

Colonial films showing the work of Africans are rare. Here the exploitation system is precisely exposed. Deportees (from Angola) disembark from a boat. After the humiliating inspection of the bodies, it is the signature, on the finger, of the contract. Then are shown the works – cultivation, harvesting, bagging of cocoa -, as well as “education” and recreation. Contratados were forced into forced labour in violent and abusive conditions. This system, which replaced slavery, remained in force in the African colonies until 1961.