Batepá massacre - February 3, 1953

On this day in 1953, Portuguese landowners and colonial officials killed hundreds of forros in São Tomé. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This Day in History Class is a production of I
Heart Radio. Hey y'all, I'm Eaves and welcome to this
Day in History Class, where we uncover a new layer
of history every day. Today is February. The day was

(00:24):
February three, nineteen fifty three. Portuguese landowners and colonial officials
killed hundreds of Creole workers in South Tomay in an
event that became known as the Batpa Massacre. The Portuguese
arrived at the islands of salth Tomay in Principal sometime
around fourteen seventy. Alvaro Comina got a land grant from

(00:47):
the Portuguese crown and established a successful community on salth
Tomay in four As they attempted to colonize the islands,
they brought in many convicts, Jewish people who had been
expelled from Portugal, children who have been separated from their parents,
as well as enslaved Africans. Those enslaved Africans were forced

(01:07):
to work the land, turning the fertile volcanic soil into
sugar plantations. By the mid sixteenth century, sal Tomay had
become a major exporter of sugar, but sugar cultivation soon
declined on the island. Due to competition, and an enslaved
man named Amador brought together thousands of enslaved people on

(01:28):
the island in fifteen in a revolt that destroyed many plantations,
sugar mills, and houses. As the economy declined and many
plantation owners left the island, sal Tomay became a stop
for ships engaged in the slave trade. By the early
eighteen hundreds, coffee and cacao had displaced sugar as Saltmay's

(01:50):
cash crops. By the beginning of the twentieth century, sal
Toomay had become the world's largest producer of cocao. Portuguese
companies in absentee land lord's own huge plantations called hostas
that occupied all productive farmland. Even though Portugal had officially
abolished slavery in its African colonies by this time, the

(02:11):
practice of forced paid labor continued. This system essentially operated
as slavery. The Portuguese brought in contract laborers from Cape Verde, Angla, Mozambique,
and other parts of the empire against their will and
without repatriating them. Though the laborers were technically free after purchase,

(02:32):
they were bound to contracts that were automatically renewed once
they expired, they could also be sold or inherited. Working
conditions were poor and laborers were abused, and the children
of these laborers were born into the system, but the
system required new labor constantly since birth rates were low
and mortality rates were high. People around the world took

(02:55):
notice of the corruption and abuse that was taking place
on the plantations in style Tomay, and some boycotted products
from the island. After World War One ended, hospitals were
added to the hostas, and cacao production declined. Still, abuse
continued on the plantations that remained, and social unrest persisted.

(03:16):
A language developed on the island that became known as
Foho Creole. Descendants of Portuguese colonists and enslaved Africans became
known as Foe hosts. Fohos refused to do field work,
as they considered it beneath them and only fit for
enslaved people or contract laborers. But as a plantations faced
labor shortages, Foe hosts feared that they would be forced

(03:39):
to do contract labor. In tension between the colonial government
and fo hosts escalated. This culminated in the Botepa massacre
on February three, n three. As FOHO protesters gathered that
day in Botapa, the Portuguese moved to crush what they
deemed a communist rebellion. Militia's Portuguese plants and colonial authorities

(04:01):
tortured and killed hundreds of po hosts. Many photos were
taken to a forced labor camp, and other prominent photosts
and sympathetic planters were sent to Principe. Though it's likely
that hundreds of people died, the exact number of deaths
is unclear. The massacre marks a pivotal moment in the
nationalist movement on sal Toomai and Principe. The event led

(04:25):
to the formation of the Committee for the Liberation of
Saltoma and Principe. In July of nineteen, the islands gained
their independence. I'm Eve Jeffco and hopefully you know a
little more about history today than you did it yesterday.
If you're hungry for more history, you can find us
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(04:48):
C Podcast, and you can email us at this Day
at I heart media dot com. Thanks for going on
this trip through history with us. We'll see you again
tomorrow with another episode. For more podcasts from I heart Radio,

(05:12):
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