Santana

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This video shows excerpts from two different plantations. One is still used to harvest cocoa in order to produce chocolate. The other, is located closer into the island’s interior. You have to hike along the mountainside through dense forest to reach the platform that supports a now crumbling building.

 Santana islocated on the eastern part of Sรฃo Tome and is the fourth largest city after Sรฃo Tomรฉ, Trinidade and Neves with a population of 6,969 for the town. It serves as the capital of the Cantagalo district. In Santana, we interviewed local fishermen on the nature of their spirituality. Some practice a mixture of Animism (originating from mainland Africa from areas such as Mosambique and Angola) with Catholocism instituted by the Portuguese. Additionally, local women come to help pull in the boats. They carry large baskets on their heads to hold the fish, snails, squid, and shark that is caught at sea. In the slideshow, you can see Carmen skillfully gutting a shark while children play in the sand. While in Santana, we did small drawings and paintings of the people and the landscape. Additionally, we created found object pieces and sand sculptures with the children.