Matt Hackett
Roving engineer
Matt Hackett
The island of São Tomé, the larger of the two main islands of the tiny equatorial African country, was in the nineteenth century essentially a network of large cocoa, coffee, and palm plantations. This system of “roçcas,” thirty years on from independence from Portugal and a hundred years on from the peak of the industry, left the island absolutely littered with massive colonial architecture in various states of repair. Driving the main road around the island, I saw town after town had sprouted up around and even in the middle of the burned or simply crumbling architecture of these estates. I also stayed at the two of the estates that have been turned into low-frills hotels. There’s a whole post-colonial studies dissertation to be written on these roçcas, but I did my best to just enjoy watching the rain forest slowly creep up on these once imposing buildings.
