Manuel Pinto da Costa

Who is Manuel Pinto da Costa?

Manuel Pinto da Costa is a politician who became the first President of the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe upon its independence from Portugal in 1975. A founding leader of the Movement for the Liberation of São Tomé and Príncipe (MLSTP), the party that led the country's independence struggle, he headed the new state through its early years as a one-party socialist republic, overseeing the nationalization of the colonial-era cocoa plantations (roças) that had long dominated the islands' economy, and steering the country's foreign policy through Cold War-era alignments. He served as President from 1975 to 1991, when the country transitioned to multiparty democracy and he stood down after losing the nation's first democratic presidential election. He later returned to national politics and was elected President again in 2011, serving a second term until 2016. As the country's founding head of state, Pinto da Costa remains one of the central figures in the political history of independent São Tomé and Príncipe.

Sources: Tony Hodges & Malyn Newitt, "São Tomé and Príncipe: From Plantation Colony to Microstate" (1988) · Gerhard Seibert, "Comrades, Clients and Cousins: Colonialism, Socialism and Democratization in São Tomé and Príncipe" (2006) · African Elections Database, São Tomé and Príncipe presidential election records