As Roças de São Tomé e Príncipe

• Photographer
  Francisco Nogueira

Most of São Tomé and Príncipe development was based on cocoa and coffee production. The built typologies to provide the plantations - roças - are a unique example of cultural and architectural heritage. With the independence from Portugal in 1975, the owners and higher class workers left. These structures are now mainly occupied by the former field workers. In a place where nature can take over any building in a question of months, this informal appropriation of the space has ironically proved somehow vital for the preservation of this heritage paused in time.