The Serviçais - Plantations contract workers - Exploited Labor
The Serviçais: Contract Labor and the Human Foundation of Plantation Economy
Behind every grand roça mansion, every carefully maintained terreiro, every ton of cocoa shipped from São Tomé and Príncipe lay a system of human exploitation that shaped—and scarred—the islands' history. The serviçais (contract laborers) were the workforce that made plantation prosperity possible, yet their story reveals how little changed when slavery officially ended in 1876. For these workers recruited from Angola, Mozambique, and Cape Verde, "freedom" proved merely a legal fiction obscuring continued bondage under different terminology.
For visitors exploring the islands' plantation heritage today, understanding the serviçais system is essential—not as historical footnote but as the human reality underlying every architectural achievement, every economic statistic, every colonial success story. The beautiful terreiros where cocoa dried, the impressive hospitals showcasing plantation "modernity," the extensive railway networks—all were built on forced labor barely distinguishable from slavery itself.
The Crisis After Slavery Abolition: Finding Replacement Workers
When Portugal officially abolished slavery in 1876, São Tomé and Príncipe's plantation owners faced immediate crisis. The freed slaves (forros)—people who had endured generations of bondage—refused to remain on plantations. Why would they? The roças represented everything they sought to escape: brutal labor, constant surveillance, separation from family, and lives reduced to serving others' enrichment.
Yet the islands' economy depended on intensive plantation labor. The introduction of coffee and especially cocoa cultivation in the 19th century created enormous labor demands. Without enslaved workers, who would harvest crops, process cocoa, maintain infrastructure, and perform the thousand daily tasks required by large-scale plantation agriculture?
The Portuguese colonial administration's solution: replace chattel slavery with contract labor—the serviçais system. Workers would be "recruited" (a euphemism concealing darker realities) from other Portuguese African colonies under contracts supposedly guaranteeing wages, conditions, and eventual return home. On paper, this represented free labor replacing enslaved labor. In practice, it was slavery with paperwork.
Origins: Three Sources of Exploited Labor
The serviçais came from three primary Portuguese colonies, each with distinct recruitment patterns and experiences:
1. Angola: The Primary Source
Angola provided the largest number of contract laborers, serving as the first and most important source for São Tomé and Príncipe's plantations.
The Crisis of 1875-1876 – When freed slaves abandoned the roças following abolition, recruitment shifted substantially to Angola beginning in 1879. The islands faced labor collapse; Angola offered vast populations Portuguese authorities could pressure, deceive, or force into "voluntary" contracts.
Recruitment Methods – The process involved systematic illegality: kidnapping, debt slavery, and continuation of the internal African slave trade under new names. Recruiters operated in regions beyond direct Portuguese colonial control, seizing people from diverse ethnic groups and shipping them through Angolan ports. Anyone exported through Angola became generically labeled "Angolas" regardless of actual origin.
Deception and Coercion – Contracts were concluded fraudulently. African contract workers who could neither read nor write nor speak fluent Portuguese had no understanding of terms they "agreed" to. Recruiters never explained that workers would be separated from families, held incommunicado, shipped to distant islands, and likely never return home. The "contract" was legal fiction providing colonial authorities plausible deniability.
Scale – Between 1876 and 1900 alone, 55,865 contract workers were shipped from Angola to São Tomé and Príncipe. This included women and children recruited for agricultural and domestic service—entire families trapped in the system.
Identity and Terminology – Workers shipped through Angolan ports were called contratados, but this administrative label obscured their actual status: forced laborers under conditions barely distinguishable from slavery. Contracts that plantation owners routinely ignored became mechanisms for perpetual bondage.
2. Cape Verde: Technical Knowledge and Desperation
Recruitment from Cape Verde began in 1903, responding to different circumstances than Angolan recruitment.
Desperation Migration – For many Cape Verdeans, emigration to São Tomé and Príncipe represented desperate escape from drought-stricken islands where colonial authorities provided inadequate famine relief. Colonial administrators saw labor export as solution to Cape Verde's crisis while simultaneously addressing plantation labor needs—solving two colonial problems with one exploitative system.
Technical Expertise – Cape Verdeans were typically the last serviçais to arrive but became recognized as principal carriers of technical knowledge related to cocoa cultivation. Their expertise in agricultural techniques, processing methods, and plantation management made them valuable beyond simple manual labor.
Different Contract Terms – Unlike Angolans whose contracts were routinely extended indefinitely (effectively preventing return), Cape Verdeans arrived under shorter-term contracts with repatriation options. Some exercised these options; others chose to remain in São Tomé and Príncipe, creating lasting Cape Verdean communities.
Political Recognition – The painful experiences of Cape Verdean citizens in the roças gained political attention after independence, particularly through Cape Verdean Prime Minister José Maria Neves's 2004 visit to several roças—an action interpreted as acknowledgment of his compatriots' suffering.
Contemporary Legacy – On Príncipe today, certain communities show strong Cape Verdean heritage. The Airport community, for example, is 90% Cape Verdean descent, with the remainder Forros (descendants of early freed settlers).
3. Mozambique: Half a Century of Recruitment
Workers from Mozambique were recruited from 1908, with contract labor continuing for approximately half a century (1908-1961).
Contradictory Policies – Colonial policy regarding Mozambican labor proved contradictory and heavily influenced by international criticism of Portuguese forced labor systems. When international pressure intensified, recruitment decreased; when attention shifted elsewhere, it resumed.
Tax Coercion – Another form of forced labor operated within Mozambique itself: colonial authorities imposed high taxes that colonized populations could only pay through labor on cotton fields—creating captive workforces through fiscal policy rather than explicit coercion.
The Mozambican recruitment lasted longer than any other source, demonstrating how deeply embedded forced labor became in Portugal's colonial economic model.
Living and Working Conditions: Slavery by Another Name
Despite official abolition of forced labor, the practice of forced paid labor continued under euphemistic terminology. The serviçais came to São Tomé and Príncipe after slavery's formal end, but their conditions replicated what enslaved people had endured.
The Sanzalas: Architecture of Control
Workers lived in structures called sanzalas—barracks reflecting the condition imposed on inhabitants during the roça development cycle.
Minimal Standards – Sanzalas exhibited "enormous functional, material, and constructive simplicity," serving merely as dormitories with little more than 14 m² per unit. These weren't homes but human storage facilities.
Surveillance Architecture – In the most severe cases, sanzalas were positioned around the terreiro, their arrangement determined by the need to control workers. Every movement could be monitored from central positions. Privacy didn't exist; surveillance was architectural principle.
No Land Rights – Contract workers had no right to possess land. They couldn't grow their own food, establish independent households, or create economic autonomy. Complete dependence on the plantation ensured control.
The Regime: Exhaustion and Isolation
The serviçais system created conditions of comprehensive exploitation:
Exhausting Labor – Workers remained subject to extremely demanding regimes under close surveillance. Plantation administrators held enormous authority with minimal government oversight. Contracts guaranteed certain rights and obligations, but owners routinely ignored these with impunity.
Rare Repatriation – Despite contractual promises, workers rarely returned to their homelands. Contracts were extended indefinitely, repatriation costs were imposed on destitute workers, or administrative barriers prevented departure. The "temporary" contract became permanent exile.
Poverty Wages – Contract workers received extremely low wages, often paid in scrip redeemable only at plantation stores where inflated prices ensured perpetual debt. The wage system functioned as control mechanism rather than fair compensation.
Cheap Intensive Labor – The colonial government's explicit goal was ensuring cheap, intensive labor for roça development. Worker welfare, family integrity, cultural preservation, or human dignity never factored into policy calculations.
International Scandal: The Cadbury Boycott
The serviçais system generated such egregious abuses that it sparked international controversy in the early 20th century.
The Accusations
International attention focused on accusations that Angolan contract workers were being subjected to forced labor and unsatisfactory working conditions—that the contract system was slavery under another name.
William Cadbury's Investigation
In 1908, William Cadbury of the famous British chocolate manufacturing family visited São Tomé to investigate labor conditions. His observations confirmed the worst allegations.
The 1909 Boycott – In 1909, German and British chocolate manufacturers—notably Cadbury—decided to boycott São Tomé cocoa to protest the brutal recruitment of serviçais and their harsh living and working conditions. This represented significant economic pressure, as British companies were major cocoa purchasers.
Documentation – Cadbury documented his findings in his 1910 report, Os Serviçaes de S. Thomé (The Contract Workers of São Tomé), providing detailed evidence of the system's abuses.
The Portuguese Response: Propaganda Infrastructure
Rather than fundamentally reforming the labor system, Portuguese authorities responded with propaganda:
Hospital Construction – The hospitals built at roças like Água Izé served primarily as showcase facilities. They were constructed to show the British that workers had adequate conditions and weren't slaves, thereby allowing continued access to the lucrative British cocoa market.
This explains why roça hospitals often exhibited architectural sophistication disproportionate to their medical function—they were propaganda tools designed to deflect international criticism while the underlying exploitation continued.
The strategy partially succeeded: the boycott eventually ended, and São Tomé cocoa resumed flowing to European markets while working conditions remained fundamentally unchanged.
Social Legacy: The Tonga Identity
The massive importation of contract labor permanently altered São Tomé and Príncipe's demography and culture.
Who Are the Tongas?
Children of serviçais born on the islands became known as Tongas—a distinct identity within São Tomean creole society. The word "Tonga" refers specifically to the community descended from contract workers.
Language – Tongas speak a Portuguese-based creole with African influences, distinct from the creole spoken by Forros (descendants of early freed slaves and settlers).
Social Status – The roça system differentiated and segmented São Tomean society along lines of origin. Serviçais and their Tonga descendants were considered outsiders compared to the relatively privileged Forros. They had practically no rights—not even citizenship in many cases.
Racial and Social Segmentation
The plantation system institutionalized social hierarchy:
- Forros – Descendants of early freed settlers, holding relatively privileged status with land rights and citizenship
- Tongas – Descendants of contract workers, marginalized with minimal rights
- Angolares – Descendants of escaped slaves or shipwreck survivors, occupying distinct coastal communities
While these divisions never evolved into completely separate ethnic identities, they created lasting social stratifications that persist today.
Cultural Contributions
Despite their marginalization, serviçais brought rich cultural expressions that gradually integrated into São Tomean culture:
Music and Dance – Cultural forms like puíta (dance/music) originally brought by Angolan workers were eventually assimilated by the local population, becoming recognized as São Tomean expressions.
Ritual Practices – Religious and spiritual practices like djambi ritual entered the broader cultural repertoire.
The roças served as sites of cultural convergence where diverse African traditions met, mixed, and created new syncretic forms.
Post-Independence: Structural Decline and Continued Marginalization
When São Tomé and Príncipe gained independence in 1975, the plantation system collapsed:
Mass Emigration – Many Portuguese plantation owners and administrators departed. Approximately 15,000 Cape Verdeans also left, taking technical expertise with them. This exodus contributed to structural decline in cocoa production.
Agrarian Reform – The 1991 agrarian reform theoretically provided land use rights (though not ownership) to former contract workers and serviçais. However, many descendants report feeling forgotten and neglected—promised rights never fully materialized.
Persistent Marginalization – Tonga communities often remain at the margins of São Tomean society. The psychological legacy of exploitation persists: "Slavery and subordination have centuries of existence on Príncipe, and subservience and dependence on aid is still felt in the way of thinking, inhabiting the roça in the absence of the patron."
Why Understanding the Serviçais Matters for Visitors
Every architectural marvel in São Tomé and Príncipe's plantation heritage—every elegant main house, every impressive terreiro, every sophisticated hospital—was built on serviçais labor. Understanding this system transforms how we view these sites:
Not Monuments to Progress – But evidence of systematic exploitation
Not Technical Achievement – But human cost in flesh and suffering
Not Colonial Success – But intergenerational trauma still affecting descendants
Responsible heritage tourism requires acknowledging whose labor created the landscapes we admire, whose suffering funded the architecture we photograph, whose descendants still live in communities shaped by plantation hierarchies established generations ago.
The serviçais deserve more than historical footnotes. They are the human foundation upon which São Tomé and Príncipe's entire colonial economy was constructed—and their descendants are the living inheritors of that complex, painful legacy.