Ponta Praião

Ponta Praião lies on the coast of São Tomé, a volcanic island in the Gulf of Guinea. Portuguese settlement brought sugar plantations and mills to the island, worked by enslaved Africans taken from the mainland. Some escaped into the forested interior and formed communities beyond the plantations. From 1528, fugitives associated with the leader Mocambo fought a prolonged struggle against Portuguese settlements, making the mountains behind the coast a place of refuge and resistance.