Sao Tome and Principe (São Tomé e Príncipe) is an African island nation located in the Gulf of Guinea in the eastern Atlantic, west of Gabon. The islands have a small, diverse population. Residents include Creoles, descendants of Portuguese colonists and African slaves, Cape Verdean and Mozambican contract laborers working on the island’s coffee and cocoa plantations, and Angolans.
Sao Tomean music includes indigenous rhythms as well as influences from Cape Verde, Angola, Portugal, Guinea Bissau and Congo. Essential artists include Pedro Lima, África Negra, Sangazuza, Os Úntuès, Sum Alvarinho, Conjunto Equador, Tiny das Neves, Conjunto Mindelo, and Agrupamento da Ilha.
In the 2020s, Bongo Joe Records released a series of albums featuring artists from São Tomé and Principe including “Léve Léve: São Tomé & Principe sounds 70s-80s”; the reissue of Pedro Lima’s “Maguidala” and África Negra‘s “Antologia Pt.1”.
